from Robyn Frank <robynfranksp@verizon.net>
date Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 4:51 PM
subject [sla-leadership] SLA Proposed Academic Division Town Hall Meeting
Dear Division Leaders:
At the Division and Joint Cabinet meetings in Seattle, we announced the formation of a possible new Academic Division. SLA members were given the opportunity to sign a petition (in person at the conference and electronically after the conference), indicating that they would join. There are 182 signers of the petition and a large number of them volunteered to play a leadership role in the new Division. Since the petition has over 100 signatures, we have advised Stacey Greenwell, organizer of the Academic Division, to proceed by sending her documentation to the ByLaws Committee for approval. Our plan is to make a recommendation to the SLA Board of Directors to approve the Academic Division during the December 11 Board Conference Call. Once the Board approves the Academic Division, the new Division can have representation at the January Leadership Summit as well as have a program planner for the 2010 New Orleans conference.
Since the beginning of this effort, there have been many questions and concerns raised about the establishment of a new Academic Division. We want to let you know the steps that we have taken and plan to take to give members an opportunity to express their concerns. When we first heard about this proposal in May, we contacted both the Education and the Business and Finance Divisions because they may have some overlap concerns. Concern was expressed regarding the need to establish another division and the impact that might have on membership in the B&F and Education Divisions as well as other subject divisions. Some members of the Education Division thought that their division covered the academic setting since they included library education.
We asked the Education Division to revisit their scope note to see if they wanted to change it. The current scope note clearly states that the Education Division is about the subject of Education, including library education. The outcome of the Education Division Board deliberations was to slightly revise their scope note to include iSchools as well as library education.
We also talked with the Business and Finance Division regarding their College and University Business Libraries Section (CUBLS). Concern was expressed over whether an Academic Division might want to include the CUBLS. It was suggested that an alternative approach might be for each subject division to establish an academic section. These sections could then collaborate to create resources and programming of interest across the specialties.
Besides our direct communication with B&F and Education Divisions, we are aware that there have been other discussions regarding this issue. Members have been expressing both pros and cons. Here is a sampling of some of the pros and cons that we have heard.
Pros:
1. Would allow academic members to belong to just one professional association - SLA - to get the programming they might have received at ACRL. The cost of joining another division in SLA is much lower than the cost of belonging to an additional association and the added travel cost of attending two conferences.
2. Marketing opportunity for SLA to add more academic members.
3. Strengthens members ability to get funding from their organizations to attend SLA.
4. Allows for more general academic programming that would not take away from other subject-oriented divisions.
5. Enhances conference programming by having more opportunities for collaboration and co-sponsorship.
Cons:
1. Do we really need another division? Concern over division membership loyalty.
2. Concern that we would use the ACRL model, including its bureaucracy.
3. Increased meeting conflicts at annual conference. There are already too many programming conflicts.
4. Concern that academic librarians would leave the subject divisions and that the "cross fertilization" of people working in a variety of environments would lessen. This is one of the strengths of SLA.
5. Competition for limited vendor sponsorship funds.
In an effort to give members an opportunity to more formally express their concerns - both pro and con - over forming an Academic Division, we have scheduled a "Town Meeting" - live discussion on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 2:00-3:00 pm (EST). We will have Stacey Greenwell, Lesley Farmer, Terri Brooks, and others available to answer questions. Based on the input from the town hall meeting, we will decide to either move this forward with a recommendation to the Board, OR, possibly have an electronic vote (late November) of the Division Cabinet. The results of these steps will determine whether we move forward in December to recommend to the Board the establishment of an Academic Division.
We hope that you will put the date of the Town Meeting on your calendar and that you will participate in the live forum. Details will be forthcoming on how to call in to the discussion.
Robyn Frank
Division Cabinet Chair
Tom Rink
Division Cabinet Chair-Elect
Robyn C. Frank
Robyn Frank Strategic Partners
8349 Reservoir Road
Fulton, MD 20759
301.490.5898
301.807.8124 (cell)