Meeting Notes - Tuesday March 24th

Today we talked about:
- Martha Foote's (past SLA Toronto president) day-to-day worked, based on information she provided me with.
In more detail: she is the general manager of the board of directors for LibraryCo. She is the only librarian, but interacts on a regular basis with librarians, stockholders and many others. When asked about what she likes about her daily work, she said that it's varied and interesting, always changing. However, she noted that what she doesn't like is that she has to do all the clerical, administrative and professional work herself - she has no one assisting her. She feels that this takes away from her ability to do more professional work. When asked what problems she felt faced special librarians, she said that often emplyers will cut money from the library because it's "all on the internet", and feel that the money can easily be spent elsewhere. As a result, she believes that companies are effectively dumbing down their information content.

- We also talked more generally about a medical librarian and corporate librarian. Both seem to have struggles with budget cuts, or working alone. The medical librarian primarily does literature searches for clients.

- We then talked about some issues facing special libraries, like proving your worth to your employer by knowing your numbers and your actual value. This can come in handy if someone drops by your library and says "are you a drain on this company?" To which a special librarian who knows their numbers could say, "No, in fact we help save the company money through increased productivity, quality of information etc. Here are the numbers about how much money I save you every day".

- Brent talked about his experiences in a government library for co-op, and how it relates to special libraries

- Candance gave us some information on her co-op in a non-traditional librarian role (in a corporate setting)

- We also talked some politics that surrounds why certain people might want to work for a corporation, or might not. Related to this, we discussed pay rates for different kinds of special librarians, noting that the seemingly very low rates might be affected by librarians working for the not-for-profit sector.

If I missed anything that anyone else would like to add, please feel free to add!

Erin

Tuesday March 24th

Let me know here if you want to meet at 12pm or 4:30 on Tuesday. If there is a demand for both, we will have two sessions.

You may also suggest another date.

Erin

CASLIS

In addition to the SLA, there is also the Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services. http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CASLIS

^ Check them out as well!


Erin

Joining the SLA

Since we're all about special libraries, I just wanted to bring everyone's attention that the student membership in the SLA is $30. It's a good idea to take advantage of that special price now, and you can have access to all the documents and information via their website.

Check it out!
http://www.sla.org/content/membership/joinsla/index.cfm

Erin

Meeting

There are two options for a special libraries meeting on a Tuesday afternoon, both time slots with no classes scheduled.

12 - 1ish
4:30ish.

Any thoughts? Any preferences?

-- Erin

Special Libraries Weeeee

Hello world,
The point of the special libraries group of students at UWO is to just talk special libraries. We exist because there isn't enough special libraries content in our program, and we want to change that for ourselves. So, we're going to talk about special libraries, we're going to discuss the issues, the benefits, the experiences we have had, and ask questions!

We will be meeting as a group at some point in the future, and I think we'll try (provided no one protests) to recording the meetings and posting them here so that our fellow group members who are away on co-op can still hear everything we did!

To my fellow group members, I now encourage you to post a blog! Comment, share and above all - ask questions. Let's see if we can't get them answered, or find someone who can.

Some ground rules/information:
- Everyone in the group will have access to make blog posts.
- Comments will be turned to anonymous so that we can comment without having to have another blog to sign in with
- Sign your blog posts and comments so we know who wrote it!
- You MAY NOT edit another person's blog post - EVER!
- What you write must be respectful (that means of everyone, this is not the place to mock anyone, drag UWO through the mud, or fight - we're not interested; if it's offensive, I might have to delete it and I really don't want that to happen)
- This is OUR blog, not mine - so please participate!
- It has to be related in some way to special libraries - that's the point!
- Tag, it helps to keep things organized


-- Erin