From the Archives ... Guy E. Marion

With SLA celebrating its centennial in 2009, the Southern California Chapter will periodically feature historical material from its rich archives.

From Special Libraries, July - August 1952:

Guy E. Marion was honored by the staff of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce on his retirement after twenty-eight years as librarian, statistician and manager of the Research Department.

Under Mr. Marion's guidance, the general public as well as the staff of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce was provided with historical, financial, technical and commercial information.

Existence of the U.S Census Bureau tract plan giving complete informational breakdowns on Los Angeles' small neighborhoods is credited to him. He is responsible also for inaugurating "green statistical sheets," a feature of the chamber of commerce service now known throughout the world.

Mr. Marion is a charter member of the Association. He served as SLA Secretary, 1910-1916, and as SLA President, 1918-1919. In 1923 the Southern California Chapter elected him its President.

President’s Letter, April 2009

Although it is already April, this is my first letter to the membership as President of SLA Southern California. My term actually started in January and the SoCal chapter 2008/2009 Executive and Advisory Board transition meeting was held on Jan. 24th (the minutes are posted under "Meeting Documents" on the SLA-SCC website). Then January 26th I had surgery and until the end of March, much of the work I've been doing for the chapter has been from behind the scenes while I was recovering. During my recovery, President-Elect, Belinda Beardt and Past President, David Cappoli, as well as other SoCal board members took on Chapter business. I am so grateful for having such a wonderful group of professionals take on the challenges of the SoCal Chapter during my absence. Belinda is not one to shy away from getting work accomplished; David is our chapter's steadfast Rock of Gibraltar communicator; and the entire SoCal Board’s mindful decision making.

Prior to the transition meeting, Belinda Beardt and I attended the SLA Leadership Summit in Savannah where we learned about recent efforts being undertaken by SLA leaders and staff -- here the focus was on the SLA 100 Year Centennial being celebrated at the June 2009 Annual Conference in DC. We also learned about our positions as SLA Chapter President and President-Elect and had the opportunity to network with other chapter and division leadership. During the summit, one of the speakers advised that a new chapter leader should take on one or two goals to accomplish during the year -- what I think is most important for the SoCal chapter and what I hope to "grow" during the year is an increase in the number of SoCal members attending programs and communicating on the SoCal discussion list and blog.

We're living in challenging times and the media is telling us that it took some time for us to get into this mess and it's going to take time to get us out. My hope as the 2009 SLA SoCal Chapter President is to increase the number of members participating in chapter events and to get new faces in our chapter leadership positions on the SoCal Executive and Advisory Boards. This is a huge challenge because most of us are already being stretched to our limit -- or close to it. I think it's time for us to get creative and find ways to connect with each other, establish meaningful goals and make contributions to the continued success of our profession. I believe the way we can increase member participation and growing our chapter leadership is by improving communication and supporting attendance at events which is where I plan to focus my energies on this year.

On this note, please visit the SoCal Chapter web site regularly and see the amazing list of programs being offered to our chapter. Also, look at the SoCal Chapter Blog and the newly posted SoCal Chapter 2008 Membership Survey Results. Your feedback is greatly appreciated so please, communicate with your SoCal Chapter leaders.

Sincerely,
Teresa Bailey

teresa.r.bailey@jpl.nasa.gov

President's Letter, December 2008

Thanks

At the end of December I complete my year as President of the Southern California Chapter and I want to thank so many of the individuals who have supported the chapter and its initiatives during 2008.

First, I must thank Teresa Bailey who is the 2009 president of the Chapter. Teresa worked tirelessly to bring together a very rich year of programming. From the joint holiday dinner with LACASIS, to a program on SLA membership benefits at the Culinary Institute, to a screening of "The Hollywood Librarian" at LAPL, Teresa had a wonderfully diverse array of programs for the Southern California Chapter members this year. It is wonderful that the Chapter will have Teresa at its helm because she clearly sees challenges ahead and understands that the best way to meet these challenges is by engaging our membership.

In addition to Teresa, my thanks go out to the rest of the Executive Board:

• Bill Lee, who, in addition to his astute management of the Chapter’s finances as the Treasurer, also oversees the Chapter’s discussion list, and has used his CSI talents to uncover problems unknown to even SLA HQ
• Ann Coppin, our Member-At-Large, who has stayed on top on membership issues contacting new Chapter members, and contributing to our recent membership survey
• Susan Hendrickson, our Secretary, who is meticulous in her coverage of Board meetings and discussions, especially when we discuss and vote on issues via e-mail, which is always challenging to capture for the record
• David Midyette, who oversaw Publications and launched the chapter’s blog, and was the liaison with the San Jose State University School of Library & information Science
• Alan Shcroeder, the Chapter’s Past president, who oversaw the Chapter Practices, and will soon be managing the 2009 nominations and elections
  

The 2008 Executive Board met six times in 2008, but also had many more discussions and votes via e-mail, including a flurry of activity in the last few weeks of December.

My thanks also go to the Advisory Board for their work in 2008:

• Archives – Joyce Hardy, for continuing to maintain the Chapter’s archives and mine them for material that the Executive Board requires
• Awards – Ann Shea, for handling the Chapter’s awards and supporting the Chapter’s nominees for SLA awards
• Calendar – Larry Zamora, for keeping our web calendar of events up-to-date
• Ethics Ambassador & Nominations / Elections – Sue Brewsaugh, for being our representative to SLA’s Ethics initiative, and for overseeing this year’s elections
• Job Board – Amy Wegener, for keeping our job listings current
• Mentoring Committee – Maria Brahme, for moving forward with our Mentoring program and linking mentees with professionals
• Newsletter / Blog – Eric Bryan, for managing the Chapter’s newest communication device, its blog
• Scholarship – Peter Johnson, for not only overseeing the Karen Sternheim Memorial Scholarship competition, but for also clarifying the competition’s rules, and for being the main point of contact for the Chapter’s Centennial Stipends
• Scholarship Fundraiser – Brad Rogers, for hosting a successful fundraiser at the San Antonio Winery
• Web Administration – Stacy Barker, for keeping our web site up-to-date
  

Special thanks goes out to everyone who hosted a Chapter program, area lunch, or happy hour. Additionally, I want to thank Kathleen Smith for her work with the Chapter survey, which we hope will guide programming and provide some insight into filling Chapter leadership positions, and Josh Walters, who helped with our uneasy transition into the blogosphere and provided much-needed web support.

Thanks to you all, and hope to see you at a Chapter program in 2009!

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