Sla toronto chapter - courier, summer 1999 (vol. 36 no. 4)

The Courier
Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
In Brief
By Lynn Hoyt and Lynda Bond, Editors
Welcome to the Summer 1999 issue of the Courier. This issue profiles five of ourcolleagues who are using their library skills and experiences to take their careers to theleading edge of information systems and knowledge management. In a Q & A format,they share their thoughts on how their previous library experiences aided them with theirnew positions, what challenges they faced, and what advice they offer for those of uscontemplating a similar change.
We start this issue with a look back and a look ahead. Susanne Baker, our new ChapterPresident, introduces this issue by sharing her hopes and plans for the Chapter for nextyear, followed by Ulla de Stricker's round up of the many ways the Chapter has 'grown'(pun intended!) in the last year.
This issue also heralds congratulations twice over: U of T's Student Group picked up threeawards from the SLA Student Academic Relations Committee, winning for OutstandingLeadership, and receiving runner-up Certificates of Merit in Innovative Programming, andCreative Electronic Services. Also, Brian Moore and Tim Tripp were awarded our Memberof the Year Award, presented by Helen Katz at the Annual General Meeting on May 13th,for their contributions in helping us to succeed in our goal of Building the VirtualAssociation. Congratulations to all of you! Great work! Our roving reporters, Les Czarnota and Tracey Palmer, keep us up-to-date with copyrightand digital media. Les has submitted an extensive report on the copyright meeting held inOttawa recently under the auspices of the CLA. Included in the meeting was a questionand answer session with the two main players from the Canadian government, anoverview of the CARL Statement of Principles for the Management of Copyright in theDigital Environment, and a general discussion on the priorities of each organizationrepresented. Tracey reports on the SLA/ARL distance learning course she attending onlicensing of digital media, a topic near and dear to many of us.
And last, but never least, Gwen Harris' Internet Forum examines information visualization,a means whereby we can comprehend more information more quickly. Packed withusable information and web links, this is a must read particularly for anyone consideringattending the CIPS and CIIMS Joint Knowledge Management Special Interest Groupmeeting coming up on June 23rd, on Visualization and Managing Knowledge.
As always, all comments and suggestions about the Courier content or format arewelcomed by either of us. Hope you enjoy this issue, and many thanks to our contributors.
This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
The Courier is regularly published on the chapter’s web site at http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/ The Courier
Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
A Word From Our President
By Susanne Baker, President, SLA Toronto Chapter. Systems Librarian, Research and
Information Services, Ontario Ministry of Finance
I’m most pleased to be starting my term as your President. I wanted to share with you asmall review of our Annual General Meeting last month and also thoughts on directions forthe coming year.
The Annual General Meeting was held on May 13 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel. Thespeaker was Susan Eng - (see a review of the meeting and excerpts of her comments). Itwas quite well attended. Check out photo 18 to see me hard at work <g>. This event wassponsored by Thomsom Financial Securities Data.
A new type of meeting was unveiled - the casual, informal New Members’ Pub. This wasorganized by Tine Vind and took place on May 20 at P.J.O’Brien’s.stay tuned to the list tocatch the announcement for the next one. I snuck in to meet the new members and had agreat time.
It was my pleasure to announce that the FIS Student Group had won an award from SLAfor their efforts of the year - AGAIN! They were awarded an SARC Certificate of Merit forOutstanding Leadership and also received runner-up Certificates in InnovativeProgramming and Creative Electronic Services.
Our own Chapter award winners were acknowledged. The students who were the tops intheir (special libraries) class were: Tracey Palmer for FIS at University of Toronto, KarenProwse for Western, Carol Bennett for Seneca and Joanne Knox for Sheridan. TheChapter Member of the Year was jointly won by Tim Tripp and Brian Moore - without thesetwo we probably wouldn’t have an email list or a website - scary thought! In the next year, I’d like to see information about the Chapter brought together andcaptured.our own Knowledge Audit, as it were. We are due for a new manual ofprocedures and bylaws. The information that is gathered will be integrated onto thewebsite, so that it will be easier to track and maintain.and you’ll be able to find out thescope of a committee when you’re called to volunteer. <g> SLA Toronto functions in a large, multi-association city. Another goal for the year is to co-ordinate and develop strong relationships with the other groups to our mutual benefit. Thenew President of CASLIS Toronto is Gitta Rice and she’s in the next office to me, so this isa golden opportunity.
This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
I am still searching for a few more people to fill out my ‘little list’ for next year’s executive,so don’t be surprised if you hear from me. I want to assure you that volunteering onwhatever scale is possible for you is needed, useful and appreciated.
The Board is in place: Heather Wilson (President-Elect), Lynda Bond (Director), SandraToze (Secretary), Kolette Taber (Treasurer) and Ulla de Stricker (Past-President) and Ilook forward to working with them to bring you a sparkling and successful year (2000 is our60th anniverary as a Chapter).
Please feel free to contact me with any ideas, thoughts, issues or suggestions you have. Iam YOUR President and want to be available to you. Phone me at 325-1207 (or leave amessage at 926-0909) or email me at [email protected] or walk up to me at a meetingand introduce yourself (if I don’t get to you first).
Gardening, SLA Style
By Ulla de Stricker, Past President
Last year, Beatrice Kerr wrote an article in the Courier entitled "How did my garden grow",looking back over her year as President of our chapter. It just so happens that I am apassionate gardener myself, so I take the liberty of borrowing Beatrice's metaphor.
In gardens and business and life, setting priorities is paramount. Some things must beattended to and others, for that reason, don't receive as much attention. That does notmean the latter are unimportant; it just means we must allocate the resources we have inthe areas where they will do the most good. Some plants are fussed over while others areleft to grow on their own, so to speak.
For my garden, I chose the transition from paper to electronic communications; programs;and membership as key plants to fuss over. I want to thank all those who helped me workon those priorities, and who contributed so generously throughout the year in order that wecould all say in the end, "we did it!" -- and I want to thank all those who saw to it that thenecessary business of the Chapter was looked after to produce ideal growing conditionsfor all plants. A year ago, I confidently stated that my job was largely done now that thecontributors were in place; my confidence was borne out. It has been such a pleasure towitness and occasionally visit with the movers and shakers who delivered our Chapter'swork.
Looking ahead, I offer my sincere thanks to everyone for what you did in the year that wentby (so fast) . and my confidence that another great year is in store for us all with healthybushes, trees, and perennials! This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
The Courier is regularly published on the chapter’s web site at http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/ The Courier
Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
U OF T Wins SARC Certificate of Merit Awards
By Barbara P. Semonche, 1998-1999 SLA Chair
Below is a communication from Barbara P. Semonche, 1998-1999 SLA Chair, Student Academic Relations,announcing our U of T award winners. Great work, people! Congratulations! The SLA Student Group from the University of Toronto has just beenselected as the winner of SARC Certificate of Merit Award in Outstanding Leadership.
Further, your Student Group has also earned two runner-up Certificates of Merit inInnovative Programming, and in Creative Electronic Services.
The Certificates of Merit Awards was presented at President-elect Susan Dimattia'sreception for students in Minneapolis, Monday, June 7th, 1999.
We enthusiastically salute the members of the SLA Student Group from the University ofToronto and its Student Advisor and offer our best wishes for continued success. SARCespecially wants to commend the impressive level of professional support from the TorontoChapter to this Student Group.
Barbara P. Semonche,1998-1999 SLA Chair,Student Academic Relations P.S. A "formal" letter acknowledging your Student Group's honor will be sent to you fromSLA headquarters very soon. We just wanted you to have the good news as soon aspossible. Again, warmest congratulations! Member of the Year Award - Brian Moore and Tim Tripp
Helen Katz's awards presentation speech, given at the Annual General Meeting on
Thursday, May 13th, 1999
By Helen Katz
The Special Libraries Association must exist to provide a positive environment fornetworking, communication, research, skills growth, and other developmental opportunitiesfor these professionals to develop and enhance their competencies, aptitudes andattitudes.
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Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
One of the strategies detailed is to Build the Virtual Association. The association will usetechnology to remove barriers to access to services and programs and will provide themeans for members to communicate, learn, govern, organize and collaborate in a virtualenvironment.
Tonight the Toronto Chapter is honouring two individuals whose efforts have moved uswell along the road to meeting this strategy.
The Chapter has had a website since the fall of 1995. Brian Moore was our webmasterfrom its inception until early spring of this year. Brian worked with Infomart, the site's initialhost, and he then transferred the site to the SLA Headquarter's server in 1998. Brian notonly developed the site, he redesigned it and refreshed it all along. Brian has alsoassisted in training other volunteers to maintain the site.
These efforts have paid great rewards. The Chapter Cabinet Chair and Chapter CabinetChair Elect reviewed chapter websites for the SLA Board. At this past Winter meeting,they identified the Toronto Chapter website as one of the top six chapter websites.
Brian has set a professional standard for the quality of the site and the diligence ofupdating it.
Tim Tripp is serving the Chapter in many ways. If you subscribe to the Chapter'selectronic discussion list, you will have heard of Tim. He is the moderator of our list (whichis hosted by Micromedia). Since taking on this position he has added enhancements suchas identifying the chapter in the subject of the e-mail and providing a trailer message onhow to log off the list.
Tim's efforts have also brought us the electronic, searchable version of the Directory ofSpecial Libraries in the Toronto Area on our website. The Chapter produced 14 printeditions, each requiring many volunteer hours to put together. This new version will becontinually updated and so should be of greater use to our members.
Tim enthusiastically contributes to the Chapter, from his position as moderator of themailing list, to his contributions to the Courier and his work on the Directory.
Both of our award winners are contributing to SLA's current priority of ensuring the ongoingrelevance of SLA to its members in the next century by managing our transition to a virtualassociation, whereby all members will be able to access SLA services globally, equitablyand continuously.
They have given of their time and their efforts to move the Chapter forward. Please joinme in honouring both Brian Moore and Tim Tripp as SLA Toronto Chapter Member of theYear.
This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
The Courier is regularly published on the chapter’s web site at http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/ The Courier
Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
Career Development for the Millenium
By Lynn Hoyt
In this era of constant change, the thought and planning we put into our careerdevelopment as information professionals has become more important than ever. Withthis change can come confusion about which skills to develop, what experience tocultivate, how to market ourselves, and what types of positions to target. Five of ourcolleagues that have taken on unique and challenging roles share their experiences in howthey came to be in their present roles, what challenges they encountered, and what advicethey can give to those of us considering a similar career development.
Sandra Allan, Searle Canada, Unit of Monsanto Canada 1. How would you describe your current role? I am a Director of a department that includes Information Services and othertechnical teams.
2. Describe the circumstances which led you to this role? I entered the company as an Information Specialist and built a small team of 2, as theManager of the information service. I identified the Sales department as a focus forinformation service, and recognized their need for information and also technical training. Ialso worked on a cross functional team that gave me an opportunity to learn the business.
These exposures and learning lead to a position with increased responsibilities. Databasesearching and all computer experience in the traditional role were key factors as was earlyexperience on the Internet.
3. What 'traditional' library skills do you find most useful in your present role? Traditional skills are transferable. Skills like customer focus, teamwork, problem solving,innovation, continuous learning are valued organization wide. Interviewing skills are usefulin dealing with all interrelationships in business and transferable to any roles that need tounderstand business needs. The basic skills in database design and searching giveme an opening to synergize with other technical roles. The combination of communicationand technical skills are key in developing Intranet solutions. The combination of skills fromthe traditional role are building blocks for a role as a manager of people in analytical andcommunication roles.
4. When you took on this role, did you find you needed to supplement your skillswith further library or non-library training? Yes. Some of the training I did formally, other training by jumping in. I needed to learn atone level other technical jobs that I was managing and sharpen management skills.
This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
5. What aspects of your role do you most enjoy? I enjoy learning about the business, building the team, seeing others and the organizationsucceed when the team works well.
6. What did you find were the biggest challenges to the switch to your presentrole? The responsibilities that come with an increased managerial role.
7. What advice would you give to others who are comtemplating either a move intothis type of work, or making a similar move to another 'non-traditional' role? Do management training early on. Find an employer where opportunities to cross trainexist. Even in a traditional role, you can evolve new roles if you identify business needs,act into it and partner with other departments so that you share the success. A cross teamsuccess has more visibility and impact than an individual. In selling yourself outside theprofession, learn and use the knowledge and language of the business. Translate yourskills and experience into their language and they will see how you can contribute.
Brenda Brooks, Principal, with Caroline Werle, in Bizware Software Solutions; Principal,Access Information Services in Oakville 1. How would you describe your current role? When asked, I describe myself as a information systems consultant. I specialize in library,records management, document management, and other "text-intensive" informationsystems. Typical projects have included evaluating existing software and databases,developing database and software systems requirements documents, assisting clients toevaluate new software in terms of their requirements before they purchase it, anddatabase implementation projects.
Many of these projects have been for more "traditional" library and records managementclients but developing a database is really just a form of cataloguing and there's more tocataloguing these days than just books. Organizations may be "cataloguing" special librarycollections or they may be cataloguing geological rock samples, corporate policies,drawings, drugs, etc.
2. Describe the circumstances which led you to this role? This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
I have always been interested in the role of computers in information management. In fact,after graduating with a BSc in Chemistry and Mathematics, I decided to become a librarianbecause I believed that computers were about to revolutionize the management ofinformation.
After a few years in more or less "traditional" libraries, I took some time off from the work-force while my children were very young. During that time, I also enrolled in severaluniversity level courses and learned computer programming. When I returned to the work-force on a part-time basis, it was as a consultant.
3. What 'traditional' library skills do you find most useful in your present role? Many of my "librarian" skills have proven to be very useful in my present role. Whenworking with librarians as clients, I understand their needs. I can put myself in their shoesand understand the issues from their point of view. I have also found many librarian skillsuseful with non-librarian clients - the reference interview as a means of identifying theclients' real needs; the reference librarian's information gathering and analysis skills, theprinciples of cataloguing as a guide to how other databases can/should be catalogued, etc.
4. When you took on this role, did you find you needed to supplement your skills withfurther library or non-library training? This role requires life-long learning and the learning curve is steep. I rely very heavily onmy "librarian" skills to help me identify what I need to know, to find information, and toquickly sift through a "sea" of information for the important facts which I need.
I have taken many courses over the years but I have found that there is no substitute forself-directed study and learning. There is too much information out there. It has becomeincreasingly important to target specific topics for learning based on one's professionalneeds. You might say that I am my own research librarian.
5. What aspects of your role do you most enjoy? I most enjoy the problem solving and the opportunity to interact with a broad range ofpeople and a broad spectrum of organizations. I don't think I could ever go back to workingin a traditional role in a traditional library.
6. What did you find were the biggest challenges to the switch to your present role? The biggest challenge for me was to learn to manage my time and to learn to say no toprojects which I don't have time for. I'm still trying to learn this lesson.
7. What advice would you give to others who are comtemplating either a move into thistype of work, or making a similar move to another 'non-traditional' role? This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
The Courier is regularly published on the chapter’s web site at http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/ The Courier
Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
Librarians have a broad understanding of information management issues and strongresearch skills. They should not find it difficult to switch to an "alternate" or "non-traditional"career. The job market is changing so fast today that it is unrealistic for most people toexpect to be able to work in jobs for which they were trained. And it is equally unrealisticfor employers to expect to hire employees who are already trained and knowledgeableabout the new emerging careers. Most of the people in those "hot" new emerging jobs arelearning as they go. And librarians are (or should be) highly skilled researchers andlearners who are ideally suited to this demanding environment.
One option for a librarian who wants to move into a non-traditional role would be to identifya possible job based on his/her interests and then take a couple of courses to confirmthat interest and determine whether he/she has an appitude for the work. But for somejobs, courses are obsolete almost as soon as they are developed. For those jobs, anoption would be to just "jump in" and learn on the job as fast as you can. And then keepon learning.
1. How would you describe your current role? I am responsible for the development and implementation of a Knowledge ManagementProgram for the Toronto Office, in conjunction with our national and international firm. Theobjective of the program is to maximize intellectual and information assets to providebusiness advantage to Deloitte & Touche practitioners and clients.
2. Describe the circumstances which led you to this role? My situation has been a combination of natural progression based on business trends aswell as a series of ‘selling’ sessions with the powers that be. I had enrolled in the recordsmanagement course during library school and have been employed in both library andrecords management disciplines from the time I graduated. I evolved out of the traditionallibrary setting and migrated to the Technology Department as an Information Manager. Myresponsibilities were to manage content and organization of electronic informationthroughout the organization. Also, I reviewed business needs and issues with theavailable technologies in mind, in order to recommend application strategies. I was stillresponsible for the Library and Records Departments, but at least we hired managers foreach unit. As knowledge management became more important in industry, and to ourfirm in particular, I assumed my current role. (Aside: For eight months I worked on our MISproject to the exclusion of all information and knowledge management. In hindsight, Irecognize that this was a career-limiting move as far as information management goes - Iwould not recommend such wholesale concentration away from the discipline. I did,however, learn a lot about change management and project management.
This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
The Courier is regularly published on the chapter’s web site at http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/ The Courier
Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
3. What 'traditional' library skills do you find most useful in your present role? Other people in the organization may not fully understand the fact that you have certainspecialized skills and perspectives. You may even downplay or recognize the wealth ofskills and professional characteristics which you have developed as a ‘traditional librarian’.
These probably include: ♦ Interviewing skills (begins with effective reference interview skills) ♦ Knowledge of the business (to which you are affiliated) ♦ Knowledge of information sources, delivery methods, publishers, contracts ♦ Classification, thesaurus and index development and application ♦ Research methods, surveys and statistics ♦ Staff Relations (motivation, communication, understanding strengths, preferences, ♦ Quality, currency, integrity of data (detail, detail) ♦ Planning, budgeting, monitoring, forecasting budgets ♦ Space, people and workflow analysis and planning 4. When you took on this role, did you find you needed to supplement your skills withfurther library or non-library training? It doesn’t hurt to try and understand various technologies implemented or planned for yourorganization and to keep an eye out for industry trends.
5. What aspects of your role do you most enjoy? Getting ‘out’ of the library and integrating more closely with people responsible for allaspects of the business, not just the main group who uses the library. A bit of a change isalways a positive thing for me.
6. What did you find were the biggest challenges to the switch to your present role? ♦ Individual’s wonder why I, a ‘librarian’, would be involved with something other than the This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
♦ Knowledge management isn’t clearly understood or consistently understood.
♦ Trying not to let technology drive our business applications, rather enable it.
♦ The scope of a knowledge management program can be very broad.
♦ Changing the culture to one of ‘sharing’ is not easy. One cannot ‘implement’ a procedure and tell people this is the way to do it.
♦ Working with cross functional teams, every-changing, various levels and perspectives, all [of course] who do not report to you.
7. What advice would you give to others who are comtemplating either a move into thistype of work, or making a similar move to another 'non-traditional' role? I think knowledge management is much more than a fad, it will slowly become the way wedo business and hopefully it won’t even have a specific name. It is an extension and re-working of ‘traditional’ library work , records management, information resourcemanagement and business product development with a large mixture of user input. Evenas a ‘traditional’ librarian, there is a lot of commercially available material to be brought into the knowledge management program – you should be involved with this kind ofinitiative.
Of course it always comes down to your particular situation – your aspirations,organizational culture or other factors. If you are interested in knowledge management,don’t necessarily sit back and wait for someone to identify you as the key person to workon this initiative. Be proactive, build a business case, form alliances with otherDepartments, talk up your skills, go to some KM workshops and then go and talk tomanagement.
Lynne Freeman, Mackenzie Financial Corp.
1. How would you describe your current role? I work as part of the Internet development team in the IT department of MackenzieFinancial Corp. as an "Internet Technical Analyst". I analyze the requirements for newInternet projects, design the web site's structure and navigation and coordinate projects.
My role is to try to bring the user's point of view into the development process.
2. Describe the circumstances which led you to this role? I worked as a librarian for many years, but when I was in library school, I found I had atechnical bent and set myself a goal of working in a technical area. I based my careerchoices on the opportunity to do technical work and somehow managed to convincevarious people to let me try this. For instance, when I was an Information Specialist, I didall of the traditional reference work and also managed the computers for the Information This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
Center. I worked at GEAC as part of the development team for a library application where Igradually moved into a more technical role. From there, I had enough experience to get anIT job that wasn't connected with libraries.
I found my current position by sending my resume to acquaintances who worked at thecompany. They forwarded it to HR who saw that my background was a good fit for aninternal position that wasn't advertised.
I've always concentrated on areas that capitalized on my information background: e-mail,databases, document management and office systems. The Internet was a natural step. Iwas interested in SGML early on and I worked at developing HTML and design skills onmy own.
3. What 'traditional' library skills do you find most useful in your present role? I use my information skills every day and have a growing appreciation for how valuable alibrarian's training and perspective is, especially for Internet work. Librarians are trained toorganize information and act as mediators between end-users and information systems. Itry to bring this background to the design of web sites. I think librarians are uniquelypositioned to fill any role that provides a link between end users and technical systems, beit as a trainer, designer or project coordinator.
I also find my research skills invaluable, not only to find relevant information, but also toevaluate and synthesize information from many different sources. I think that working as areference librarian instilled some persistence and ingenuity in getting to the bottom of anissue and also to look at a subject from more than one perspective.
4. When you took on this role, did you find you needed to supplement your skills withfurther library or non-library training? Being in a technical job, I find I always have to supplement my skills and keep abreast ofcurrent developments. This can be exhausting! I've taken some programming courses andtry to develop expertise in topics such as the inner workings of HTML and JavaScript onmy own.
5. What aspects of your role do you most enjoy? I love to design and have specialized in developing a web site's information architecture,the navigation systems, labeling and organization of content. Graphic design plays a partin this, but it is designing the structure of a web-site that really interests me. I also enjoycoordinating projects, interacting with many different people and juggling differentpriorities.
7. What advice would you give to others who are contemplating either a move intothis type of work, or making a similar move to another 'non-traditional' role? This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
The Courier is regularly published on the chapter’s web site at http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/ The Courier
Special Libraries Association - Toronto Chapter
Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
Most opportunities that have come my way have been through networking and luck.
I've found that those in a hiring position have considered my library degree an assetalthough sometimes because a master's degree sounds impressive, not because theyunderstand the skill set.
I don't feel particularly qualified to give advice, but I would say learn as much as you canabout whatever interests you and let the people you work with or network with know whatyou want to do.
I've met a lot of wonderful people who have given me chances despite my lack of aComputer Science degree. However, if I had to do it again, I would take more formalcourses and get that degree if possible! Maryanne B. Gedeon, Glaxo Wellcome Inc.
1. How would you describe your current role? As Manager of the Electronic Resource Centre, my role is to manage the implementationof the Livelink knowledge management software throughout the Commercial OperationsDivision. The division consists of about 500 people spread out across Canada. Mycurrent work includes targeting specific functional groups as prospective users, developingLivelink applications for these groups, training, development and implementation ofrecords/document management standards and search/access tools for Livelink, etc. Theposition is only a few months old, so I'm sure it will evolve over time.
2. Describe the circumstances which led you to this role? After a fifteen year information management career that has included librarianship, recordsmanagement, consulting and sales, I had reached a point where it was difficult to findanything new to do in this field. Always looking for a nice learning curve to keep me on mytoes, I began considering the opportunities in knowledge management, since KM is on thecutting edge of the information management field.
Just as I was beginning to explore my KM options, I received a call from Caroline Werle atRIM, telling me about the opportunity at Glaxo Wellcome. The position seemed to offer theright balance of learning with building on my existing expertise. Luckily for me, the peopleat Glaxo agreed and I was hired in December 1998.
3. What 'traditional' library skills do you find most useful in your present role? Having a librarian's understanding of how to organize and access information is key in thisrole. My skills in database searching, thesaurus development and subject indexing will becrucial to the long-term success of Livelink within Glaxo Wellcome. Without that This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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Volume 36, number 4, Summer 1999
expertise, there's a danger that the system will become poorly organized and unwieldy,and people will not want to use it.
4. When you took on this role, did you find you needed to supplement your skills withfurther library or non-library training? The only additional training I've required for this position up to now is on the Livelinksoftware.
5. What aspects of your role do you most enjoy? We've just launched a Livelink application called the "Knowledge Exchange" whichenables knowledge sharing across the division. It's enjoying tremendous success, and I'mnow receiving calls from people all over the organization asking for help in developingknowledge sharing applications. People are seeing what we've done and are catching onto the value and opportunities that KM can provide. That's extremely rewarding.
I also enjoy the fact that, because knowledge management is so new, almost anything wedo is something of an adventure.
6. What did you find were the biggest challenges to the switch to your present role? Because knowledge management builds so nicely on my past experience, the transitionhas been smooth for me. My biggest challenge continues to be adapting to a very differenttype of organization from those I've worked for in the past. Most of my previousexperience was with professional services firms and government. I'm finding thatpharmaceuticals companies operate very differently, so I'm having to learn how to work ina fundamentally different way.
7. What advice would you give to others who are contemplating either a move into thistype of work, or making a similar move to another 'non-traditional' role? The foundation of knowledge management in most organizations is culture change -- themove from a knowledge-hoarding to a knowledge-sharing environment. While a librariantypically has the technical skills required to manage certain aspects of a knowledgemanagement program, these may take a back seat to the demonstrated ability toeffectively "sell" KM to the organization. In a knowledge management position, you'll mostlikely be expected to work closely with a wide variety of people to understand their needsand to develop solutions with them. While you may indeed do this in your day-to-day job,your prospective employer is unlikely to understand this if he or she is not intimatelyfamiliar with library work. S/he needs to be able to envision you working successfully"outside the library". A track record that shows that you have both the broader consultativeand the technical skills will set you apart from the other candidates. If you have theopportunity to do some consulting, either independently or as part of a consulting This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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organization, it's a great way to get this type of experience. Otherwise, try to find ways todemonstrate this "outside the box" capability in your current position.
My other key piece of advice is to network. You've heard it all before, but it's critical thatyou get out there and make sure that the people who know about the jobs know you. Theideal is for people to call you when interesting positions (which are often never advertised)open up. This has happened to me on several occasions, most recently with my currentposition at Glaxo Wellcome. It's a lot more rewarding than pounding the pavement! Our thanks to Sandra, Lilian, Brenda, Maryann and Lynne for sharing their thoughts and experiences with us.
- LH Copyright Users Forum Report
By Les Czarnota, Co-Chair Government Relations Committee, SLA Toronto Chapter
I attended a meeting on copyright held in Ottawa on May 3 under the auspices of CLA.
Here are my notes, rough and wordy as they are, and some general impressions. Althoughmost of the participants are publicly funded (colleges, universities, archivists, museums), anumber of the issues discussed transcended the public/private sector split that theCopyright Act seemed to deem necessary. As you know, under the Copyright Act, those ofus in libraries in the private (for profit) sector aren't defined as libraries, but the member-ship of the Toronto chapter of SLA includes public, government, not-for-profit andinstitutional libraries. It is also with that in mind that attendance at this conference wasjustified.
The attendees included representative from a variety of associations. These were ACCC(Association of Community Colleges of Canada), AUCC (Association of Universities andColleges of Canada), ASTED (Association pour l'avancement des sciences et destechniques de la documentation), Bureau of Canadian Archivists, CALL (CanadianAssociation of Law Libraries), CARL (Canadian Association of Research Libraries), CAUT(Canadian Association of University Teachers), CLA (Canadian Library Association), CMA(Canadian Museums Association), and SLA-Toronto chapter. For ease I will refer to theorganizations in the rest of this report by the acronym.
♦ a question and answer session with the two main players from the Canadian government, Mme. Danielle Bouvet, who is the Director of Intellectual Property atIndustry Canada and Mr. Richard Matthews, the Director of Copyright Policy at theDepartment of Canadian Heritage This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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♦ an overview of the CARL Statement of Principles for the Management of Copyright ♦ general discussion re the priorities of each organization represented ♦ next steps, in other words, where do we go from here?? Copyright - Canadian Government Perspective Mme. Bouvet and Mr. Matthews were asked a series of questions, some preparedbeforehand by Tim Mark of CARL.
The first question dealt with the current regulations and when they would be in force. Theregulations were 'prepublished' in the Canada Gazette in January 1999. Some commentswere made, mostly about the book importation issues. Mme. Bouvet and Mr. Matthews arein the process of analyzing the comments and preparing an analysis andrecommendations, which would be sent to their respective ministers - John Manley(Industry Canada) and Sheila Copps (Canadian Heritage). If there are no changes, theseregulations could be in force as soon as June 1999. If there are substantive changes, theregulations would be prepublished again in the Canada Gazette, with possibility of being inforce by September. Some discussion was held about splitting the regulations into thosewith no changes those with more work needed.
The second question dealt with Bill C-32. No one expected the delays in getting theregulations done but Sheila Copps had suggested that it could take up to three years. Thiswas said in September of 1997.
The third query looked at the Canadian government's mandate re copyright Issues in adigital environment. Some work has been done, but much more (".a lot." as Mme.
Bouvet stated) is necessary. The basis for looking at the digital environment includes thetwo WIPO papers, ISP liability, and distance education (or as one of the Forum membersstated, learning in a digital environment).
The government intends to present another paper that would be ".more definitive, moreprecise." and with ".very concrete options." (quoted by Mme. Bouvet) to be used as astarting point for discussion. This paper might be released in September (a popular monthit seems), although I gather that this was supposed to come out in March or April originallyand has been delayed. This paper would present the government's view, unlike the WIPOdiscussion papers, which were not written or endorsed by the Canadian government.
Mme. Bouvet also mentioned that the US (with its Digital Millennium Act) and Australia areexploring the issues surrounding the digital environment. Surprisingly, no mention wasmade of databases or copyright term legislation. When asked specifically about those twoissues, Mme. Bouvet and Mr. Richards said that these issues were unlikely to be looked atin this paper as they felt there was no necessity to move fast on that. How otherjurisdictions (in particular the US and Australia) responded on those topics might provide This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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the basis for the Canadian response. Mme. Bouvet spoke about a "balanced approach"that would not discriminate between printed and digital information.
The fourth question dealt with international commitments. The 1997 signing of the WIPOtreaties constituted an agreement to begin discussions re the content but no decision hasbeen made yet to ratify or implement the treaties. Only 35 submissions were received inresponse to the WIPO discussion papers. Mme Bouvet speculated that as an independentpaper, interested parties may not have Wanted to respond because these papers were notendorsed or prepared by the Canadian government and weren't perceived as definitivepapers that could include implementative or ratification factors. In contrast, the September1999 paper would present the Canadian government's perspective and would be endorsedby Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage departments.
Another question dealt with the possibility of an economic impact/cost benefit analysis ofBill C-32. From the government's perspective this would be very difficult, as portions ofBILL C-32 are not in force, the flow of royalties to international sources is unknown, andthe copyright collectives operate at arm's length from the government. All of these factorsmake it very difficult to even estimate an impact.
Several participants voiced their concerns about the changing focus and mandate oflibraries (academic in particular) in the digital environment and the lack of direction and/orregulations from the government. The urgency of the matter was impressed upon thegovernment representatives. I'm not sure the Government is able (or willing) to speed upthe process.
That was the end of the session with Mme. Bouvet and Mr. Matthews. It was useful to hearthe government perspective, although there were several things that shot off alarm bellsfor the participants. For example, the fact that databases are off the table for thediscussion paper is surprising. The lack of urgency that some of the participants felt aboutthe government's role to date, and Mme. Bouvet's statements that the users have to bemore proactivevoicing their views seems to suggest that the users aren't being heard.
Discussion amongst the participants on this topic ranged from being extremely proactiveby regularly bombarding the government with notes from each group to being morejudicious in the use of lobbying. One participant who has had previous dealings with Mme.
Bouvet commented on how Mme. Bouvet's role is supposedly the "user" while Mr.
Matthews has the "creator" role due to their positions. Mme. Bouvet's statement aboutbalancing the users and creators in copyright seems to suggest that the users may loseout, because she will be looking more for balance while Mr. Matthews would be looking outfor the creator side. It was suggested that our role may be to reestablish the balance byvoicing the user side strongly.
CARL's Statement of Principles for the Management of Copyright in the DigitalEnvironment is available on the CARL Web page under the issue button and then This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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choosing Copyright. This is an excellent statement of some fundamental issues withincopyright in Canada. I encourage all of you to grab a look at it. I also would suggest thatthe Toronto chapter (and other Canadian SLA chapters) endorse this document. Briefly,the principles are as follows: 1.Maintain the balance in copyright law 2.Maintain an equitable and viable economic framework 3.Maintain the technological neutrality of the Act 4.Keep facts in the public domain 5.Ensure a robust public domain 6.Ensure royalty-free access to government information 7.Ensure respect for fundamental rights 8.Ensure an appropriate role for copyright collectives 9.Enforcement measures must be carefully crafted CARL felt it important to get ahead of Phase 3, thus the principles. This document hasalready been endorsed by some 120 organizations across Canada. I strongly suggest thatSLA - Toronto chapter endorse these principles. These are fundamental issues thattranscend the publicly-funded or private-sector nature of the membership of the Torontochapter.
Each participant was asked to identify a key issue (or issues) and it became clear thatthere was a lot of common ground. The SLA Toronto chapter priorities as per thesubmission of September 15 1998, was in maintaining a balance in copyright law byextending fair dealing and legal exceptions in the Act to digital materials. This wasmentioned by several other representatives.
Other issues of note included public domain, government information, clarification of fairdealing, distance learning, licensing complementing exceptions, and ISP liability. Theseissues were recorded for later use.
There was some discussion re what would follow this meeting. Bob Best of AUCCpresented a mini-seminar on group dynamics that spanned a continuum from no jointaction to a formalized coalition. In between, the "options" were information sharing, poolingof resources, and selected joint interventions supplementing individual efforts. The groupas a whole felt we were in neither extreme and probably in the pooling of sources/selectedjoint interventions stage. As such, several next steps were identified: 1. All participants will be added to the Copyright listserv from CAUT. This will be used as the forum for communication and information sharing.
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2. Endorsement of the CARL principles (the more the merrier). I pledged that the Toronto chapter Government Relations Committee would meet and discuss theseprinciples. I would also pass this information to the other two Canadian SLA chaptersand SLA in Washington (John Crosby, possibly).
3. A thank you letter to Mme. Bouvet and Mr. Matthews for their time and responses to 4. Begin work on the substantive issues identified as priorities by the participants.
Generally, I found the meeting quite useful and productive. It is good to see groups suchas this one coming together (although most had an academic bent, and are publiclyfunded) and seeing the common interests. SLA Toronto has a role in groups like thisbecause of the academic, government, public library and non-profit institutional memberswithin the Chapter.
De-mystifying the Licensing of Electronic Resources
By Tracey Palmer
On March 4, 1999, through a stroke of good luck, I was fortunate enough to be able toattend a distance learning videoconference, presented by the Special Libraries Associationand the Association of Research Libraries, which was sponsored by Lexis-Nexis. Thisinformative program introduced eighteen Toronto location participants to the dynamic andchanging world of licensing electronic products.
The panel of speakers consisted of three extremely knowledgeable women. Among them,they have an extensive wealth of experience on this topic. Pamela Clark has over fifteenyears experience in the information industry and is currently with the AmericanInternational Group, managing worldwide information services' contracts and giving adviceon the use of external data in the business environment. Trisha L. Davis is an AssistantProfessor and Head of the Serials and Electronic Products Department at The Ohio StateUniversity (OSU) Libraries. Since 1997, she has served as the Visiting Program Officer forLicensing of Electronic Products at the Association of Research Libraries.
The panelists initially provided an overview of licensing, an excellent segment thatprovided information in several areas. They firstly defined copyright as "the right to copyan original work of authorship." Works included in this definition are: literary works,musical works, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic,and sculptural works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, sound recordings andarchitectural works.
The panelists next answered the question "what rights are actually protected bycopyright?" Copyright owners have the following exclusive rights: This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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I was interested in learning what a license actually is and it was defined as "permissionfrom the copyright owner to use all or a portion of a copyrighted work for a particularpurpose during a specific period of time. There are four different types of licenses: ♦ exclusive vs. non-exclusive licenses.
One of the most useful pieces of information that I received from the videoconference wasthe list of tips on understanding licensing agreements. Some of the tips include: ♦ read the license and all attached exhibits, ♦ make sure that you understand all relevant terms and can provide a specific definition ♦ if you don't understand a clause, ask questions until you do, ♦ insist that the language be written in plain English language, rather than using fancy ♦ insist that any language that does not apply be deleted from the contract, ♦ check what rules exist for termination or cancellation of the contract, ♦ clarify the rights retained on any material previously licensed after termination, ♦ be on the look out for clauses that impose burdens on a library to monitor or restrict ♦ make sure that any "promises" are written into the agreement, ♦ understand the difference between "choice of law" and "choice of jurisdiction," ♦ libraries may be entitled to certain accommodations that for-profit commercial ♦ if you are still mystified, seek help.
Overall, the videoconference was both interesting and informative. The content wasentwined with a practical exercise that enabled participants to review and critique an actualcontract in its initial stages. For those of you who missed the videoconference and wouldlike to know more about the licensing of electronic resources than has been presented inthis article, please visit the SLA website or ARL's website for more videoconferencematerial. At these websites you will find a glossary of licensing terms, a checklist forunderstanding licensing agreements, a bibliography of resources and answers to all thequestions that were not answered live on the air on March 4th. SLA will be presenting its This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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second videoconference in its series of licensing programs on the topic of "EffectiveNegotiating of Electronic Resources" on October 14, 1999. Mark your calendars now, asthis topic is hot and current in today's world of information. We as librarians need to be onthe current edge of a dynamic environment that affects us everyday.
Information Visualization: A picture really is better
By Gwen Harris
Will there come a time when we can view numbers and text as shapes and colours andunderstand information space as we do physical space? Some years ago (April 1996), James Fallows wrote an article in the Atlantic Monthly titledComputers: Navigating the Galaxies in which he imagined “surfing the contours ofinformation space" "As you look at your computer screen, you seem to be flying at low altitude above a flatmidwestern plain marked with billboards announcing different topics - sports, news . Ifyou descend to get a closer look, you can see the names of subtopics behind eachbillboard, and then the articles you're looking for." This hasn’t happened yet, but it will. Information visualization – seeing informationrepresented in pictures or shapes – “increases our bandwidth of access”. We comprehendmore information faster. James Wise of Integral Visuals sees information visualization asthe emerging science. Wise spoke at the Infonortics conference, Search Engines andBeyond in April 1999, about a naturalistic approach to visualization. Imagine documents asstars in the sky, consider sedimentary layers, look for topographies – all of these have thenaturalistic view.
Two applications that stand out as candidates for information visualization are the subjectdirectory – displaying the hierarchy of topics, and document text analysis – highlighting theclusters of documents on a topic and their relevance to the query.
Some trials have faltered. Pointcom, once known for its Top 5% collection of web sites,tried 3D representation of its subject directory. The software was early VRML and veryslow but you could pick out the big blocks – Business, Arts – and get into those spaces.
AltaVista used to have a refine function by which you could get a graphical view of thecore terms that occurred in a document set and see the strength of relationships betweenthem. Alas, Altavista discontinued Refine in April 1999 and offered no explanation.
Today, visualization aids are more likely to be incorporated into a product for the Intranetthan a service on the Internet. Fortunately, we can at least get an idea of the new toolsfrom demos on the Web. The following are examples of products that you can view today.
All but one are commercially available and have demos. To run them, however, may This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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require that you have version 4.0 or above of Communicator or IE, with Java enabled andthat your firewall does not block Java applets. At least 56 kbps would also be good.
Semio Corporation: Building Web and Intranet Directorieshttp://www.semio.com Semio Builder software analyzes bodies of text (referred to as corpora) to identify the mainconcepts. It displays these in a concept map where each concept is a node with links toother nodes; there are sub-nodes at deeper levels. A demo of SemioMap Discovery isavailable at the Web site with several sample selections from the catalog. I recommend theStarr Report because of the complex relationships it illustrates – data ones, that is.
Semio also has a taxonomy product which will create browse-able directories from theanalysis.
Themescape from Cartia.comhttp://www.cartia.com Themescape is also text visualization software. Using relational topic mapping (RTM)technology, Themescape reads large collections of documents and organizes the contentby topic as a topographical map. There are hills and valleys and contours. Peaks indicatea concentration of documents. Other visuals in the landscape are labels, points, flags(some terrains will look like an 18 hole golf course); to navigate, you zoom in and out. Thedemos at the site are excellent.
NewsMaps, (http://www.newsmaps.com), uses ThemeScape to present the news. Eachday NewsMaps analyzes news stories and displays the main topics as maps with links tothe topics and the actual stories. Newsmaps likens the maps to a visual Table of Contents.
The Web site has several you can use today covering the Kosovo Crisis, US and Globalnews, Business news, and Technology news. The collection is current, searchable andfree. This is easily the most impressive product to come to the Web in some time.
Inxight (pronounced insight) is a Xerox New Enterprise business initiative. It aims to “makeinformation make sense” and it certainly accomplishes this through its natural languageprocessing and visual aids. Most notable is the use of the hyperbolic tree to navigatesubject directories or any collection of related files such as a web site. There are severalfascinating applications of the hyperbolic tree in demo form at their web site. (Or godirectly ).
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See the Louvre, the Library of Congress, Yahoo, Netcenter, the British Monarchy – andmany more.
The Wedge from Australia National Universityhttp://wedge.anu.edu.au/ With the Wedge you walk into the theatre and the information swarms around you in 3Dimages. Mind, you need special glasses to get the stereoscopic vision. This is a researchproject at ANU Supercomputer Facility. It may be a while before it comes to a theatre nearyou.
Dr Link from Manning and Napier Information Serviceshttp://www.drlink.com DR-Link (Document Retreival using Linguistic Knowledge) has an extensive onlinecollection of journals in full-text. Its distinguishing features are full natural languageprocessing and the use of graphs and charts. Search results to a text query can beviewed as graphs where the authors, subjects, and organizations named in the documentset are ranked. Another option shows frequency of documents by date as a graph. Notonly is it much easier to determine where to look first, but the graph imparts moreinformation about the topic - when it was most in the news, who was most mentioned inconnection with that topic.
Daily Diffs from InGeniushttp://www.dailydiffs.com/ DailyDiffs records the changes at Web sites. The display shows the parts of the pagewhere text has changed over the period, day by day. DailyDiffs monitors about 4000 pagesat its Web site. These are grouped by topic. To see the history, work your way down thesubject tree until you reach the DailyDiffs page listing the pages they are tracking. Overallthe display is quite nicely done but it is the Short History that really impresses with itspictorial representation of page changes.
James Wise reported that 65 universities have research projects related to document andtext visualization involving departments for computer science, library science, humanities,psychology, and geography. One day that research will surge to market in new commercialapplications. Watch for it.
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1. Emerson, Toni. (April 1999) “What Comes After Knowledge Management? Wearable Computers, Smart Rooms and Virtual Humans” Information Outlook. pp 13-14http://www.sla.org/pubs/serial/io/1999/apr99/research.shtmlHas more on 3D and virtual reality as interfaces.
2. Fallows, James. (April 1996) “Navigating the Galaxies”, The Atlantic Monthly http://www3.theatlantic.com/issues/96apr/computer/computer.htmOpening line: “The great problem of the information age is that there’s too muchinformation.” A wonderful article.
3. Hawkins, Donald T. (May/June 1999) Information Visualization Product Developments.
Online Magazine, pp 96-98Covers Dr-Link, Map-It, AltaVista Refine, and Daily Diffs and recommends a new bookon the topic.
4. Hawkins, Donald T. (Jan/Feb 1999) Information Visualization: Don’t Tell Me, Show Me, Online Magazine, pp 88-90Describes the advantages to information visualization and how it might be applied forinformation retrieval.
5. Stenmark, Dick. (1998?) “To Search is Great, to Find is Greater: s Study of Visualization Tools for the Web”http://w3.informatik.gu.se/~dixi/publ/mdi.htmReviews the search problem and describes several visual aids for viewing results.
6. Infonortics: Search Engines and Beyond – 1999 Conference http://www.infonortics.com/searchengines/boston99.html Sessions with comment about information visualization: 1. Ramana Rao (Inxight, Palo Alto, CA) 7 ± 2 Insights on achieving Effective Information 2. Steve Arnold : Review: The leading edge in search and retrieval software (presentation 3. James A. Wise : (Integral Visuals, Richland, WA) Information visualization in the new millennium: Emerging science or passing fashion? (presentation NOT available) This Acrobat® PDF version of The Courier is made available for SLA Toronto Chapter members who donot have access to the web, or want an easily printable document for reading away from their computer.
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