News from January, 2008

Let me start my first column by saying thank you to all the members and participants who made our first year such a grand success.  In terms of member growth and initial products we have quite impressive results.  We owe a big shout out to our Past-Chair, Karen Kreizman Reczek, for her driving influence and tireless efforts.  It is now our joint responsibility to keep this momentum going.  To inspire us, here are some highlights of what has been accomplished.

Our web/wiki site is on the bleeding edge, thanks to Karen Huffman's explorations of SLA's technology.  The site is still in the early development stage, but great progress has been made in many areas, including the best practices section which includes Luke Rosenberg's best resources page: KM Resources, and a KM software page which is strong on PKM tools, but needs help with organizational tools. Why not take a look at our Tree Structure and contribute content to pages such as the [Favorites] page. Other significant developments have occurred through our committees, and I would like to highlight the great work of our Vendor Relations, Strategic Planning, and Membership groups.

Based upon the early strategic planning survey we conducted, we are emphasizing the following areas: the development of an expertise database for networking, the development of professional  development and continuing education materials (such as an upcoming Click U presentation, the mounting of Annual Conference presentations on our web site for non-attendees, the creation of new Annual Conference sessions for Seattle, and the Best Practices material mentioned above).  Due to our tremendous first year growth, we will also be performing a second strategic planning survey in the near future.

Not satisfied to focus entirely on internal considerations, I intend to explore collaborations with other KM-related groups this year. My first outreach will be by schmoozing at the IFLA KM Section conference events in Montreal in August. Please join me in proactive outreach to other related groups. 

We are off to the Winter Meeting shortly, and I will update this column after I re-settle in my new position and location in late February.  

So, in summary, thanks to all who contribute, jump in to help build our knowledge base, and remember ... it's you that adds power to this initiative.

  David