Warm congratulations to all the many DKM members who worked so hard on KM programs for the conference. What a success! And how good the programs were! I'm just sorry I could not get to them all.

And now we just keep moving forward....

We've heard a lot recently about the knowledge culture, and about our role in developing and sustaining a knowledge culture for our organizations. In the SLA centennial history (SLA at 100: From Putting Knowledge to Work to Building the Knowledge Culture]) I predict that to remain viable, specialist librarians and other information and knowledge professionals (whatever we're called!) will be required to manage the organizational knowledge culture.

It is a critical role for us, and it's all part of our work as knowledge thought leaders for the organizations where we're employed. And it's a role anticipated in many responses to my predictions, both in the book and in my presentations. People are asking: "What's next?" "How do we do it?" "What's required for our organization to function as a knowledge culture?"

Here's how to find the answers to those questions: Join us in the next course in the Click U Certificate Program in KM/Knowledge Services. It's The Knowledge Culture: Leadership and Knowledge Services, and it begins July 13.

If you have not taken one of these courses, this is a good place to begin (or to take as an individual course if you do not wish to enroll in the complete certificate program). In The Knowledge Culture: Leadership and Knowledge Services, you'll focus on your own vision of knowledge management and knowledge services for the organizations where you are employed, positioning yourself for aligning professional vision of the organizational knowledge culture with the employing organization's established business strategy.

As noted, The Knowledge Culture: Leadership and Knowledge Services begins July 13, with three online lectures (which I deliver), a facilitated live discussion (online) with Guest Participant and fellow division member Susan Fifer Canby on Wednesday, July 22, and a wrap-up discussion (online) on Thursday, July 30.

Come join us.

We had hosted a discussion on SLA's name change on the KM wiki. A handful of us decided it might be best to set up its own wiki. Please visit SLA's new SLA Alignment Wiki (http://wiki.sla.org/display/align/) for members to discuss and share ideas. There is already a forums discussion started about SLA's name change. You simply need to sign in with your SLA wiki's username/password to contribute your thoughts to the wiki.

SLA2009 wasn't my first conference, but it WAS my first SLA conference.  I can't think of a better place to be introduced to the experience of SLA than Washington, DC.  It is my third-favorite city after Boston and Omaha.  There is an AURA that permeates the entire area and its surroundings ... but I digress.  My three takeaways from this experience (well, four if you count the fact that hotels don't like debit cards):

1. Never underestimate the power of revealing more of yourself than you think you should.  I made connections in classes and in the KM Roundtable discussions that will help improve how I serve the faculty and students of the business college here at Creighton.  In fact, I can't wait to have lunch with our Entrepreneurship professors to expound on what I learned!
2. Embedded librarianship - a concept I've been following and espousing (am I using that word correctly?) for a couple of years.  After listening to the presentation from the group at Catholic U., I think I may have come up with some ideas to advance this idea more concretely and maybe even get some co-located office space in the business college.
3. I absolutely LOVED the session on Critical Thinking.  It's something my husband and I (both in education) continuously admonish our children (and our students) to do... but usually it's from the standpoint of common sense.  "Use the sense God gave a goose" pretty much sums up our attitude.  But after listening to Rebecca Jones and company, I realized that we are only touching the tip of the iceberg  -  in essence, keeping the status quo. 

So, if I can reframe my questions and assumptions about how KM/KS is necessary and should be used in academe, maybe I'll be better able to impact my "sphere of influence." (Hat tip to Dale and Guy!)

As the title of this post suggests, I came away from the conference with much more than three items/ideas/a-ha's.  Synthesizing them all and adding all those business cards to my LinkedIn profile will be my great delight over the next year.

Cheerio!  --ctc

I have been attending SLA's annual conference off and on for the last 10 and have enjoyed numerous opportunities to speak during numerous sessions as well as facilitate continuing education programs. Engaged networks, flexible formats and opportunities for growth were my three key takeaways from this year's conference:

1. Engaged networks: It was wonderful to watch the growth in conference attendees as well as in our virtual communication channels like Twitter. I loved the ease of connecting face-2-face with friends, colleagues, and many KM division members and sharing how we are and/or could be making a difference in and outside our workplaces.
2. Flexible formats: We have learned over and over again how one-size does not fit all. I thirst for ideas, information, and ultimately knowledge...i.e., ways to internalize what I learn to evolve who I am and what I can offer to others. I enjoyed the ability to attend, facilitate, and co-speak at a variety programs including continuing education programs, unconference sessions, KM-sponsored programs highlighting the research and best practices of KM professional, and more!
3. Opportunities for growth: After listening to and learning from our KM division members, I would like to direct my energies to creating opportunities for involvement and engagement within our KM division. We are a young division and it's time to move forward on strengthening our ties and commitment to growing our KM resources and educating each other on KM techniques and best practices. Our board/advisory board will review survey responses and will post opportunities on our listserv and wiki, so members can play a more active role this upcoming year.

   2009 SLA Annual Conference (view as slideshow)
   	2009 SLA Annual Conference: Complexity of human nature...many faces, many roles		DC-area locals (left to right): Karen, Michele, & Marie		International connections (left to right): John, Neil, & Nerida
   	Unconference session: Change		Unconference session: Conversants		Unconference session: Survivor stories
   	Continuing education course: Getting to the Heart of the Story...		Session: Embedded Librarianship		Session: KM Cafe

OK - Dianna stole my line 'only three!?!' in her post... I have a page and a half of action items/ideas (and that is after consolidating them) from a very invigorating week at the SLA 2009 Meeting in DC.  Highlights:

1) It has been years since I attended an SLA Annual Conference and my #1 overarching takeaway is I shouldn't wait so long until the next one.  I met a number of kindred spirits who face similar challenges and learned much in a very short time.  I was also really, really impressed with the quality of the events and sessions.  I mean - Colin Powell AND the most engaging awards ceremony I have ever witnessed - and that was only Sunday evening.

2) KM Division - yes!  Unique and useful techniques in CE Session 'The Heart of the Story:  Qualitative Evaluation of Library Services using Narrative Techniques' (Anecdote Circles and Story Spines) and the method used 'Unconference' sessions.  Not only very interactive and relevant during the conference as a participant but tools I am just itching to try now that I am back home.  No more 'death by Powerpoint', there ARE better ways to meaningful discussion and knowledge sharing and development.  Knowledge management is about human connections; tools only exist to facilitate those connections.  What you can capture in text is only a small part of what you know.

3) A specific from 'Knowledge Management without Borders' - Peter Hobby - 'Need to Share' vs. 'Need to Know'.  This encapsulates a key paradigm in knowledge management.  Too far in either direction and you lose value - there is no clear black and white border.  Those of us in roles as knowledge sharing facilitators must understand all the ramifications of this.  I liked Karen Huffman's analogy of the 'dog borders' and what motivates some dogs to find ways through solid fences, semi-permeable hedges and the electric invisible fences.  Food for productive thought for all of managing these KM Borders.

4)  I CAN'T just stop at THREE!  The power of social networking tools.  I have worked with the KM Division Board for several months virtually - voices on the phone (or Skype) and email.  Nerida Hart and Karen Huffman are my friends on Facebook and by the time I walked in the room at the convention center on Saturday I had seen photos and read commentary about their dogs, their children, their daily life and I felt I knew them in a way that inspired a deeper level of trust for working together, sharing what we know and building a shared vision.  And isn't that what KM is all about?

Three key ideas from Conference 2009:

Wow, only three? I thought this was a fabulous conference - and the Twitter feed (#SLA2009) enabled me to take in so much more of what was going on in the other sessions, knowledge of resources & key points and such that I got a real strong appreciation for the power of the hashtag! As someone posted on the feed: We seem to have found a new paradigm for conference communication! (By the way, that wasn't  one of my key points, but perhaps it should have been!)

1. Michael Edson's vision of new media implementation as pathway to a "commons" for sharing knowledge...his description of the dance we're all doing between "control and autonomy" rings so true as we find ways of empowering our networks and engaging stakeholders with emerging tools, while at the same time allaying internal fears of proprietary knowledge leakage and legal repercussions. He provided a lot of thought around this, and I am extremely impressed with the fact that the Smithsonian's social media strategy is being developed and shared in an open wiki (http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Strategy+-+-+Pulling+it+All+Together)\! I particularly liked his quote that "unnecessary restriction of content is a barrier to innovation." I plan to enlist that one in my own fight for the cause of transparency and the empowerment of networks!

2. Need for a re-energized name for SLA that speaks untuitively to our stakeholders about the work that we do. It's not that we aren't librarians, it's that our stakeholders hang on to a stereotypical view of what a librarian is, and that perception is working against us in keeping our rightful place at the center of the ever-expanding world of knowledge-sharing. Each time I attend the SLA conference and inhale the efforts of our wonderful and talented colleagues from across the country and the globe, I am so impressed with our breadth of experience and our collective energy for learning new things and passing them on to one another. We need to embrace the research that is being shared with us by HQ and align our name, whatever that may be, with whatever our stakeholders need to hear to pull out the chair and seat us at their table!

3. How fun is it to be with other information junkies? I mean, seriously, from CE workshop with Mary Ellen Bates to 60 Sites in 60 Seconds and a rundown on Mashups, we get our own findings validated and gaps filled in at the same time and meet up with kindred spirits who think our thirst for this stuff is normal - does it get any better than this?

Then there was the unbelievably gorgeous dinner at the Library of Congress in the Great Hall....stunning in every respect, and honestly something I doubt I'll ever get another chance to do again! Thanks to SLA for setting that up and seeing it through down to each detail. I'm exhausted, my feet are swollen, I'm still looking for a permanent job, but wow, I had a great conference and I think SLA is a great association!

Cheers to all,

Dianna

@dwiggins