News from Jul 09, 2009

On July 9, the Transportation Librarians Roundtable was a debrief from the SLA 2009 Annual Conference and first Joint TKN annual meeting. After summary reports from the Transportation Division, NTL and regional TKN chairs, attendees discussed three questions about the conference. Here's where 30 or so people got started -- anything else to add?

What were the two most important things we learned at SLA?

1. GTRIC---round of introductions in which we were asked our career path leading us to transportation. (Bob Cullen)
2. The importance of social networking tools available to us in transportation - the fact that they are interesting and available to some, but not all, of us
3. uniqueness of what each of the transportation library and information science groups do for our community (John Cherney)
4. how receptive our non-librarian colleagues were to us at the Transportation Librarians Division hosted at TRB. We need to take opportunities to strengthen relationships to those outside our community (Rita Evans)
   

What were the best sessions we attended at SLA?

1. Computing in the Cloud (Sheila Hatchell) - UKY Libraries IT department presenter spoke about how IT departments need to catch up with the trend to use social networking and web 2.0 tools; computing in the cloud is the next step for IT and technology
2. GTRIC (Marie Manthe) - it is for US!
   

What were our top take-aways from SLA?

1. optimistic and positive attitude of attendees and interest in collaboration in light of the economic climate (Rita Evans)
2. renewed feeling of a strong and viable network (Roberto Sarmiento)
3. Economic pressures in the next 2 years will force collaboration...  The other option, extinction? (Ken Winter)
4. SLA changed my attitude towards what collaboration can include (AJ Million) 

Notes from the SLA session Effective Communication Strategies: How to understand and be understood

Pamela Bruner's Effective Communication Strategies session from SLA's 2009 Annual Conference is highly recommended. She describes each of four common Communication Styles:

*Action Person/Driver/Acheiver - task and results oriented, decisive, take charge
*Idea Person/Expresser/Visionary - Innovative, Creative, Passionate, people oriented, see big picture
*People Person/Relator/Likeables - Warm, Helpful, Supportive, feeling
*Process Person/Analytical/Reflective - Detail-oriented, methodical, lots of data, precise

Bruner then outlines specific, proven techniques for communicating with people who manifest a particular type of style. Read a complete summary of the session for suggested language and approaches to make sure your message is heard.