Susan Fifer Canby, after retiring in 2010, was honored as Vice President, emeritus, at National Geographic Society in Washington, DC.
She has applied more than 34 years of information management experience to shape and direct the Society’s libraries and information services, supporting the editorial and business staff and partners of the National Geographic Society with a staff of librarians, archivists, systems and records managers, and indexers.
She managed both the Society’s internal University, called National Geographic Learning Systems, and the enterprise intranet, NGS Insider. She was instrumental to the organization, by breaking ground in the areas of digital access and learning. Her contributions have paved the way for a successful future for the National Geographic Society.
Susan served on the SLA Board as Chapter Cabinet Chair from 2008 to 2010, ably representing 54 chapters in more than 80 countries. She is a past president of the DC Chapter of SLA, the DC Library Association, CAPCON Board, and former member of the OCLC Member’s Council. She has also been Professional Development Chair and a member of the Professional Development Advisory Council for the DC Chapter. She is currently Convener of the SLA Encore Caucus—the Association’s caucus for retired members of SLA.
She was recognized by SLA in 2001 as the Innovator of the Year, became a University of Maryland Alumna of the Year in 2004, and received the SLA Factiva Leadership Award in 2005. Her library was recognized by SLA as a “Center of Excellence” in the area of management. She was a Knight Fellow for the Salzburg Seminar, Libraries for the 21st Century (2004) and a Freeman Fellow for East West Relations (2005). She is a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. She and her husband are active members of their community, Sandy Spring, MD. For her consistent and longstanding leadership of the profession, SLA, and other library and information services organizations, SLA is honored to induct Susan into its Hall of Fame.
