President's Letter, June 2008

Seattle, the Emerald City, welcomed more than 5,000 attendees to the SLA Annual Conference, June 15-18, 2008. More than 440 of those attendees came from California and I believe that nearly all of them came to the West Coast Chapters’ Reception at the conference based on the circuitous path that led to the reception’s refreshments. My thanks go out to the Pacific Northwest Chapter for hosting this year’s reception.

The conference for me was a mix of programs, meetings, and visits to the INFO-EXPO (the exhibit halls), where nearly 300 companies and organizations were represented to display their products and discuss their newest initiatives and resources. For me, the exhibits are a good way of thanking the many vendors who provide our students at UCLA with often complimentary access to their resources. The exhibit hall also included an area where SLA chapters and divisions could proudly showcase their own activities and programs, and SLA Southern California was well-represented by an exhibit compiled by Chapter President-elect, Teresa Bailey.
Prior to the official start of the conference, I attended SLA’s Leadership Development Institute with Teresa Bailey where we heard from the association’s leaders about how to best utilize SLA resources to empower our members such as the “23 Things” project to provide an easy training program for members to become familiar with interactive web tools. I strongly suggest signing up for “23 Things” which you can learn at your own pace.

SLA President Stephen Abram launched the conference by honoring the association’s awards recipients and strongly promoting SLA’s new Innovation Laboratory, a new member benefit that allows all of us to learn about Web 2.0 technologies in a risk-free environment. Following Stephen’s talk the opening keynote presentation featured Google’s Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Dr. Vint Cerf interviewed by broadcast journalist Charlie Rose. Rose had Dr. Cerf recount the early beginnings of the Internet since he was pretty much there at its origins, and Dr. Cerf discussed his view of access to the Internet being as ubiquitous as the power grid is for most of us. He also expressed the opinion that the growth of social networking has placed the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, because we are so interconnected with one another and with each other’s network of professional colleagues.

Some of the sessions that I attended while at conference included:

• Leadership: Building on Your Natural Abilities and Strengths, which focused on a new approach to influencing others , from understanding those you want to influence, to creating linkages between them and you, to delivering value through your influence.
• Gaming and Libraries, which looked at “productive play” and how individuals are very much engaged to learn tasks if the process is enjoyable and if they are able to have a sense of accomplishment at the end of their learning exercise.
• A very enjoyable session, moderated by Southern California’s own Cameron Trowbridge, was entitled What’s Cooking? Food Traditions, Culinary History, and the Role of Special Librarians, and included a panelist who discussed Seattle’s Pike Place Market and its place in the city’s history, past and present.
• To Teach So They Can Learn provided a fascinating overview of the key concepts about adult learning and development. Ilda Carreiro King understood how many of us in the information profession often find ourselves in the role of trainer or educator, and she compared they ways in which children and adults learn and how we may have misconceptions about adult learning characteristics.

The closing keynote was given by author and entrepreneur Seth Godin who implored the audience to use marketing and storytelling to change how information professionals are viewed by their employers and in general. He argued that we need to “(E)ither keep pushing against the wind or change what you’re doing and have the wind at your back.” It was a very inspirational talk.

If you were able to attend the annual conference I hope that you came away with some worthwhile knowledge. If you were not able to join us, keep checking the SLA web site for presentations.

Hope to see you at an upcoming chapter program!

Sincerely,

David Cappoli
dcappoli@ucla.edu