With the year coming to a close, now is a good time to look back at what the Consulting Section did in 2008. What is the Consulting Section of LMD?
services such as information brokering, strategy consulting and technical
consulting. This includes consultants within an organization, and those serving
external clients.
We include 155 members from:
- Canada
- Kuwait
- Netherlands Antilles
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United States
In February, we had 152 members, so the number of members has stayed relatively stable, although we've had some turnover. (And if you would like to see a list of current members, you can do a search in the SLA Member Directory for the Consulting Section.)
We are indeed independent information consultants as well as people who work for academic libraries, management consulting firms, law firms, and other types of corporations.
Because we work for so many different types of organizations, it is safe to say that our needs are not all the same. Someone who is working independently is going to have different needs and requirements than someone who is working for a large corporation. Yet we have one thing in common – this Section of LMD.
The Consulting Section hosts one event at the Annual Conference. This year our event was "Building Bridges, Building Partnerships" (notes) with Rebecca Jones and Craig Wingrove. Both Rebecca and Craig work in different sized companies and brought different perspectives to the program.
In 2009, we will move away from an early morning time slot and have our session on June 16, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. The session is entitled "The Consultant's Toolkit:
Discovery in the Round" and will feature 4 – 6 consultants. The session description is:
Experienced consultants share their strategies, tactics and techniques for
getting clients, successfully completing assignments, continuous learning and
more. Hear about their resources, must-have's, must-do's, tips-n-tricks,
and other secrets of successful consultants.
We hope that this change in time of day will allow more people to attend the session. (Why not put it on your calendar now?)
During the year, Rebecca Jones and I (co-chairs of the Section) have discussed the Section and its perceived needs. Jan Sykes, who will be co-chair in 2009 with me, and I will continue that discussion. We know that a few Section members would like a directory of SLA members who are independent consultants. We've heard that the CONSULT Online directory does not give people what they want. Creating a directory is a possibility, but it might also be possible to work with headquarters to make CONSULT Online more effective. But that is likely one of many things that the Section could focus on, so look for Jan and me to be talking with you in 2009 about your wants, needs and requirements for the Consulting Section.
Jan and I also hope that you will reach out to us with information, questions, and ideas. Any and all information that you can give us will be helpful. We're especially interested in knowing what about the Consulting Section is (or could be) important to you. You can reach us via email:
Jill Hurst-Wahl — hurst at hurstassociates.com
Finally, we all know that the economy is in tough shape all over the world. Rebecca, Jan and I hope that the partnerships and friendships that you have made in SLA (and especially in LMD and the Consulting Section) are helping you through this tough time.
May 2009 bring stability and growth!