Entering a New Era with ProQuest
As some of you may have heard during this year's
SLA Annual Conference in Seattle during June, Dialog
is now part of ProQuest. We are very excited to enter
into this new era at Dialog, which presents many
opportunities for our customers, our employees
and our business.
For our customers, we look forward to continuing
our tradition of service excellence while enhancing
our product lines to meet your evolving information
needs. In addition, we are delighted to say that
we will continue with our relationship programs including
the Quantum2 leadership development and InfoStar
recognition programs.
We invite you to share your thoughts with us, and
we promise to keep you informed of new developments
as we move forward into this new era at Dialog.
To read more about the transfer of Dialog to ProQuest,
please visit http://www.dialog.com/ or http://www.proquest.com/pressroom/pressrelease/
08/20080701.shtml.
Review of SLA Annual Conference
SLA Conference in Seattle this year was billed
as the “Green” conference which presented
SLA members the opportunity to show their pro-environment
credentials. A magnificent effort was made by many
to cut down on print material by the posting of program
handouts on conference and division websites. The
use of water bottles and coffee mugs was encouraged
to promote recycling and to reduce the amount of
disposable coffee and water cups. It seems clear
that this first effort at taking responsibility for
the environment is one which SLA conference goers
will be happy to continue permanently as one of the
demonstrable ways in which information professionals
respond to change.
As part of Quantum2, two workshops were offered
as Continuing Education courses for the Leadership & Management
and the Legal Divisions. The sessions were Basic
Strategic Planning for the Information Center and Creating
a Brand Identity to Market Information Services respectively.
For Quantum2 members unable to attend conference
this year, these workshops will be offered as condensed
web sessions in the coming months. Please visit the
Quantum2 web sessions page periodically to check
the calendar — http://quantum.dialog.com/training/workshops/.
We also announced two new worthy winners of the
Quantum2 InfoStar Award for the North American region
during conference. To read about these InfoStars,
see the side panel.
As evidenced by the feedback and the many certificates
of appreciation we received, the presence and sponsorship
efforts of the Information Professional Development
team was much appreciated by the various divisions
and chapters that we are so pleased to work with
and we look forward to continuing the long tradition
of Dialog sponsorship under the aegis of ProQuest
at future SLA conferences.
Featured Quantum2 Resource – Professional
Competencies for Scientific & Technical Librarians:
How to Understand and Influence the Information
Industry.
This month's featured article is by Libby
Trudell, VP of Market Development at Dialog, and
is originally published in the issue of Science & Technology
Libraries, Vol 28, Nos 1-2, 2008.
As information professionals, we recognize that
one of the key functions of managing information
services is mediating between information service
providers and the information consumers in the organization.
Doing so effectively requires investing time to evaluate
the range of service providers and options available
as well as continuously assess the changing information
needs of the organization, an underlying thread in
this month's issue of the Quantum2 newsletter.
In her article, Trudell provides an overview of the
structure and of the key players in the information
industry, and offers practical guidance on how to
develop an effective voice.
The practical tips she offers focus on the professional
competencies required by information professionals
to act as “influencers” within the industry,
which include relationship building, needs assessment
and service measurement. She also mentions what she
terms “informed consumerism”. Trudell
advocates that “being an informed consumer
takes time and focus, but the more you know about
the alternatives available to you and your organization,
about the true drivers on use of information in various
clients groups, and the strategic goals of your organization,
the more equipped you will be to select the best
possible service partners and to negotiate with them
effectively”.
To find out more, download the E-print version
of the paper at http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00011409/ or
subscribe to the full publication issue in Science & Technology
Libraries, Vol 28, Nos 1-2, 2008.
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