Message from the President:

Hello All – As we move into April, I wanted to take a minute to applaud our recent Library Journal 2013 Movers & Shakers.

Congratulations to:

•         Naomi House of INALJ.com
•         Hannah Sommers, National Public Radio

It’s excited to see two of our DC SLA members on the 2013 Movers & Shakers list. It doesn’t surprise me though. Hannah and Naomi regularly inspire me with their professional activity, their energy and diligence, and their vision.  I know I am not alone in this.

One of the great things about DC SLA is that we have the opportunity to have members like Hannah and Naomi in our midst. They are remarkable professionals. Like Hannah and Naomi, each of us strives to develop a path that helps us build and grown our own personal brand of being a remarkable professional. Naomi and Hannah have shown us two impressive ways to build those pathways to remarkable. Now, how can we take what they’ve shared with us through their actions and efforts and use it to enhance and refine our own paths? How do we make our own path clearer, better, stronger?

One of the answers is this:  Take advantage of the most extraordinary professional resources available to you – each other.

We are fortunate to have a large, diverse, and active membership to support each other, learn from each other, and inspire each other. Connect with your colleagues. Participate as a DC SLA volunteer. Attend a Chapter program. Join us at a Chapter event. Plug in virtually through our new webinars or via our social media channels. Find a way to develop and grow professionally through your DC SLA membership. You don’t have to take huge actions to make a difference for yourself or others. I’m a big believe in baby steps to get to your goal.

So however you’re going to do it, this month, think about actions you are going to take as an information professional and a member of the DC SLA Chapter to be remarkable over the next year and what your path to getting there is going to look like. How are you going to learn, how are you going to teach, how are you going to expand your network? How are you going to make a difference both personally and professionally to yourself and in turn, your DC SLA colleagues (and beyond)?

There are some great opportunities to learn and connect coming up in April and early May:

• Writing Series:  How to Write to Develop a Professional Brand with speakers:  Naomi House, Reference Marketing and Acquisitions Librarian Census Bureau Library and Editor/Founder/Publisher of I Need a Library Job; Liba Tomas, Senior Recruiter for NPR, will talk about leveraging writing on LinkedIn to develop your brand; and Amy Fenning, Senior Brand Marketing Manager with LexisNexis, will discuss best practices for your brand when writing on Twitter.  Brown Bag Lunch In Person Viewing - http://dc.sla.org/events/?ee=227 and virtual viewing - http://dc.sla.org/events/?ee=228

• Joint Spring Workshop 2013 – Strategic Communication: Technology, Generations, and Cultures - http://dc.sla.org/events/?ee=220

• Legislative History Research 101 - Sponsored by LexisNexis with Department of the Interior Law Librarian, Maureen Booth. Brown Bag Lunch In Person - http://dc.sla.org/events/?ee=225 and virtual viewing - http://dc.sla.org/events/?ee=226

Enjoy the spring flowers!

Marie Kaddell, M.L.S., M.S., M.B.A.

Senior Information Professional Consultant
marie.kaddell@lexisnexis.com

President, DC/SLA

Past Chair, SLA Division of Government Information

HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY recognized Mr. Lyle Minter for 36 years of  outstanding service with the federal government.

After receiving a BA in History from the University of Virginia and a MLS from the University of Maryland, Lyle began his career as a civilian librarian at two army posts, and then served as a research librarian and reference manager at the Pentagon. He then managed the government publications and serials department for nearly 15 years at the Library of Congress before  taking a position at the Congressional Research Office as a Supervisory Information Research Specialist in foreign affairs.

Connolly remarks that Lyle has been actively engaged in the  professional librarian community as a member of the Special  Libraries Association (SLA), and has received several awards  for service to the library profession. He was elected a Fellow  of SLA in 2004 and received the Gale Cengage Learning Murray Wortzel Award in recognition of Excellence in Social  Science Librarianship in 2011 (see photo in post).

Lyle has held several leadership positions in DC/SLA, and served as President of DC/SLA in 1993-1994.

He enjoys  teaching and mentoring information professionals and his dedication to mentoring librarians and others in the field of librarianship has been a benchmark of his career.

Click here to access the Congressional Record entry: Recognizing Lyle W. Minter and his 36 years of Federal service

Congratulations to DC/SLA member Jane Meyers, President of the Lubuto Library Project and the Lubuto team.

A Lubuto Library Project innovation is among 32 winners of an All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development grant, a joint initiative of USAID, World Vision and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID. The competition to create innovative solutions to improve early grade reading in the developing world elicited more than 450 submissions from more than 75 countries. Lubuto’s winning proposal, “LubutoLiteracy: Zambian teaching and learning materials for the digital age,” is funded by World Vision.

The Lubuto Library Project team joined other winners to showcase their innovation at a DevelopmentXChange session on September 7 at USAID headquarters and uniquely highlighted the role that libraries play as “technology incubators.” LubutoLiteracy is a pioneering program creating high-quality mother-tongue materials to teach children to read on an accessible, low-cost digital platform, and sustainably deploying them at national scale in Zambia in partnership with government and other stakeholders. The interactive materials are developed locally by teachers and youth in line with the national curriculum and leverage the open access learning environment and outreach of Lubuto Libraries to particularly benefit highly vulnerable and out-of-school children. Library staff provide supported access to interactive computer-based lessons in Zambia’s seven major languages that adapt the printed curriculum to incorporate more familiar vocabulary. A significant factor favoring the success of the project is that it builds on the lessons of Lubuto’s unique pilot program in its two libraries in Lusaka.

This grant builds on an earlier project funded by EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) in which 700 mother-tongue reading lessons were created. Earlier this year, SLA members in the Washington, DC area volunteered to add sound files to complete each lesson and other colleagues are developing the Lubuto Collections.org website to facilitate their dissemination. The two-year USAID/World Vision grant will support the evaluation, improvement of the materials and making them widely accessible throughout Zambia on devices such as e-readers and mobile phones.

By David Shumaker, Oringinally posted at http://embeddedlibrarian.com/2012/09/02/good-advice-on-communicating-with-executives/

Continuing the theme from my previous post, I wanted to share a link I got recently from Slideshare, “5 Tips for Presenting to Executives.” It nicely captures some lessons I learned the hard way. I hope these insights will help you if you’re trying to persuade the powers-that-be in your organization to let you explore embedded librarianship.

It’s at  http://blog.slideshare.net/2012/08/14/5-tips-for-presenting-to-executives/ .

Sharon Lenius is a retired Federal Librarian. Her position prior to retirement was as Digital Resources Librarian for the Headquarters, Joint Staff, National Guard Bureau. Other professional employment included Director of the Technical Reference Library of the Reserve Component Automation System, a major acquisition program. Federal library experience occurred early in her career serving with the Army Library Program in Aschaffenburg, Germany. Public library experiences reflect her “gypsy life” as the spouse of an Army Officer — Indianapolis Marion County Public Library, Burlington County (NJ) Public Library, and Fairfax County Public Library (VA).

Currently Sharon is active with the DC Chapter of SLA serving as the Lead Program Planner for the Military Libraries Group, a sub-committee under the Chapter. Elected to serve as Secretary of the Government Information Division, SLA, 2012.her other activities include Resources Committee Co-Chair for the Military Libraries Division, and active contributor to the ENCORE Caucus of SLA. Leisure travel is a primary pastime, with European River Cruises number one on the list
Previously, Sharon served DGI as Secretary and Director (Membership). She was Chair of the Military Libraries Division in 2001.

Sharon holds an undergraduate degree in History from Marian University, Indianapolis, and an MA in Library Science from Indiana University, Bloomington and an MPA from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.