SLA 2014 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO

Organizational effectiveness begins with an enterprise-wide knowledge culture, incorporating a knowledge strategy that matches the company’s business strategy. The development and implementation of corporate knowledge strategy is the responsibility of the knowledge services director or other recognized knowledge professionals. This course provides guidelines for developing the vision, mission, and values statements for aligning knowledge management (KM) and knowledge services with organizational priorities. In the course, participants learn to identify critical steps–including change management and change implementation–for launching or enhancing service delivery for the benefit of the larger organization. Topics covered include knowledge strategy basics, organizational structure and the environment for KM/knowledge services, visioning vs. planning, determining strategic direction, change management/change implementation, and infrastructure and planning for future needs.

Program Take-Aways

1. Participants will be able to establish terms of reference for developing enterprise-wide knowledge strategy.


2. Participants will recognize the role and value of surveying the service sphere and understand the impact of financial information on planning.


3. Participants will be prepared to relate the life cycle of the strategic plan to the specialized library function in the organization.

This course will prepare you to establish an enterprise-wide copyright education program. Topics will include educating senior-level staff, librarians, and employees about copyright management; awareness of print and digital copyright issues; avoiding unauthorized uses of content by end users; ensuring access to copyright information in your organization; explaining difficult legal concepts in plain language; developing tools for copyright education; and the development of a copyright policy.

Program Take-Aways

1. Participants will learn how to develop a copyright policy.


2. Participants will be able to foster copyright awareness in their organizations.


3. Participants will learn how to provide copyright information to their colleagues.

Whether we are in business for ourselves or working for a larger organization, most of us in the information profession have been in the role of consultant (providing knowledge or expertise to others) and client (receiving knowledge or services from someone else).  The session focuses on enabling attendees to make the most of such partnership opportunities, including negotiating for services, understanding the roles of the consultant and the client, establishing consultant access to and sharing of information, agreeing on deliverables and time lines, addressing "bumps along the road," and enabling partnership beyond the project. Ilene Strongin-Garry, a former client, will complement the session by speaking about the consulting experience from the client perspective.

In an age of DIY search tools and information overload, it's no longer a matter of how much information you find - it's what you do with it. Our clients crave answers and insights – not more information – and research professionals need to find new ways to deliver results in order to stay relevant. Displaying research results in charts, diagrams, data maps, and other visual formats adds impact and brings clarity where words often fail. In this session, Marcy Phelps shares some low-cost techniques for packaging and delivering information that's useful to clients, while increasing your value. Learn how to choose the right information graphic, simple tools for creating graphics, and tips for communicating your message more effectively - and no coding required. Bring your laptops and create some templates that you can use right away!

Program Take-Aways 

1. Participants will identify three reasons why presenting information in visual formats adds value to deliverables.




2. Participants will learn how to compare the different types of graphics and their appropriate uses.




3. Participants will learn how to select the right graphic based on client needs, type of information, and results of analysis.




4. Participants will create templates for three types of graphics. 

Learn how to manage the use of copyright-protected materials. Topics include the meaning of copyright management, avoiding copyright infringement lawsuits, copyright risk management, obtaining copyright permissions for print and digital works, the role of copyright collectives (such as the Copyright Clearance Center), negotiating and interpreting digital license agreements, unlocatable copyright owners, and what to do if your organization is accused of copyright infringement.

Program Take-Aways

1. Participants will learn how to negotiate and interpret licensing agreements.


2. Participants will learn how to obtain copyright permissions for print and digital works.


3. Participants will learn how to avoid copyright infringement lawsuits.

This course links knowledge management (KM) theory to knowledge services (KS), the management methodology that brings together information management, KM, and strategic learning. Throughout the larger organization, the goal of knowledge services--characterized as the practical side of KM--is to strengthen research and enterprise-wide knowledge asset management, thus enabling contextual decision making and accelerated innovation. Participants learn techniques for implementing knowledge services--that is, for "putting KM to work"--and, in so doing, learn to support the organization as a knowledge culture. Topics include KM/KS history and an exploration of the KM/KS framework (people, process and technology). Participants will develop an action plan to take back to their organization.

Program Take-Aways

1. Participants will be able to describe knowledge services and their role in effective strategy development and implementation.


2. Participants will be able to apply and demonstrate the role of KM and knowledge services to management and knowledge workers.


3. Participants will understand the value of linking organizational KM efforts with strategic learning.

Experience a fast moving and powerful introduction to both the theoretical and practical aspects of building taxonomies. A well-built taxonomy is part of the foundation of the information architecture underlying web sites, corporate Intranets, search, and access to content in databases. This course introduces participants to the basic methodologies and techniques for taxonomy development, as well as providing an overview of taxonomy standards and their application in search, web sites, publishing, retail and e-commerce, records management and other organizational needs. After defining controlled vocabularies and identifying the core standards, participants will explore key concepts of taxonomies, thesauri, indexing, classification and filtering. Discussion will include the basics of a taxonomy records and fundamental term relationships. Attendees will put concepts into practice through multiple exercises, including creating a simple taxonomy. Related software tools will also be discussed.

Program Take-Aways 

1. Understand the full range of options and applications of taxonomies




2. Understand the basic building blocks of taxonomies and how to create the taxonomy itself. 




3. Understanding of the power or implementation of the taxonomy 




4. Awareness of the underlying architecture and accompanying standards for taxonomies




5. Awareness of case studies and implementations of taxonomies in real world cases. 

Taxonomies are here to stay, so it’s time for taxonomists to move past the basics and gain a deeper understanding of the role that taxonomies play in organizations, especially in productivity applications like content management, web site navigation, and search. This all-day course begins with the basics of taxonomy integration, and moves on to analyze specific case studies that show how you can enrich and improve your Web site, enhance your metadata, and boost your search engine’s relevance. You'll come away with an understanding about how you can be a successful member of a software development team and have a set of Best Practices that you can apply immediately.

Program Take-Aways 

1. How to define use cases 


2. An understanding of how to design taxonomies for integration


3. How taxonomists can work effectively in a software development environment


4. Approaches for solving common taxonomy integration problems


5. Approaches for testing an integrated taxonom 

This course will present at roadmap for CI success from two different perspectives. The course will be taught in a workshop format, with group excersices, open discussion and practical case studies. Geared to the novice, as well as the advanced practitioner, the course will take a fundamentals approach to CI, looking first at what the discipline is and is not, how librarians/info pros can transition in doing CI, how to source primary and secondary search, as well as a discussion around analytical tools and fitness.

Program Take-Aways

1. Attendees will get real examples from the presenters of things that work and don’t, as well as how to establish leadership and a “voice” within their respective organizations.