Short Answer Essay Topics (select one):

Future Forecasting

• Describe a future vision for corporate information profession.  What are the three core competencies for today’s pharmaceutical/medical information professional in order to be future ready?  What three things should professional associations be doing to promote the need for corporate medical information professionals?
• There has been much discussion on whether the word, “librarian” is a misnomer, given that librarians are doing, and will be performing, functions beyond the ones of the traditional librarian. Describe, contrast, and explain the evolution of the past health/medical library vs. a current real-life pharmaceutical/health/medical library.
• Given the current economic environment, discuss the value of transferable special library skills to positions that do not conform to the current pharmaceutical/medical librarian, i.e., researcher, knowledge manager, digital tools trainer, data scientist, etc.  Provide real job postings and/or real-life situations of transference of library skills to other job titles.

Arguing the Value of Current and Future Librarianship

• Situation:  You have encountered a conversation around the common corporate meeting area that proclaims information on the Internet alone provides all sufficient information on the latest research on Alzheimer’s drug therapy. As an information professional, you have an obligation to defend the competencies of the librarian, along with professional resources.  Develop a convincing, but diplomatic, argument defending the thesis that the Internet alone is not enough, and would garner support for value-added corporate librarian services.
• Thesis:  Information technology such as streaming and downloadable audio, video, and digital book technology, will displace the librarian.  Defend this thesis and develop solutions or approaches for information professionals to work with these resources in order to complement value of emerging technologies.

Technology

• With the vast numbers of online health consumer information, the barrier of waiting for health information from a doctor has reduced; however, access to inaccurate, outdated, and irresponsible health information has increased. Research an instance where a health consumer(s) or a health professional(s) experienced this situation.  Define how an informational professional would be able to intervene, and what kinds of programs and/or resources could be developed to impart credible health information to consumers, or to consumers via health professionals.
• Many corporations are encouraging employee use of hand-held devices to retrieve information.  Discuss how the corporate libraries can help support these mobile devices, and any issues involved.

Business of Health/Medical Libraries

• What is the pathway for entry into the medical information profession? Interview PHT members or summarize sufficient attributes of three or more medical/health librarians.  Make conclusions as to whether there is a typical trend pathway to the typical positions in the corporate medical world.
• Research life science corporations with medical information job postings in the past 2 years.   What are the core competencies wanted for entry level / mid-level / veteran-level positions?  What are the implications for information professionals in each of these three levels?
• Based on a listing of companies with known information professionals (contact rcls@novonordisk.com for the listing), compare and contrast the performance (stock market, percent revenue/profit growth, hiring trends) of these companies and those in the same sector without existing information professionals.

The May 12 NJSLA eBooks Vendor Fair held at the Somerset Hills Hotel in Warren, NJ attracted a varied group of attendees with almost half being first-timers and over a third of the 62 participants were not NJSLA members. Meeting co-organizer Cheryl Erenberg summed up the turnout simply. “Attendance was excellent,” she said.

Erenberg, along with her meeting co-chair Kate Creegan, did not directly seek to market the meeting to non-members but rather they attribute the meeting’s appeal to a blend of factors. Erenberg felt that it was a “combination of a good topic, a good location, lots of vendors, an interactive program and a good price.”  She added, “We think we hit the sweet spot with $20 for a full served dinner.” The Kindle raffle didn’t hurt either, which was won by Joan Mruk of Mount Saint Mary Academy (a private all-girls high school).

But the good food and the raffle (and let’s not forget President-elect Ben Beit-Zuri’s signature charm) were only bonuses for a quality main event. Panelists Elizabeth Sosnowska of UMDMJ, Mei Ling Lo of Rutgers University Libraries, and Mary Mallery were the evening’s home-run hitters. Each gave an engaging presentation, which fuelled a lively Question and Answer session.

And hopefully the event’s success will mean many more $20 catered dinners to come.

SLA sent the following email to members on Sept. 16:

Dear SLA Member:

In order to continue to deliver the
services members expect, the SLA Board of Directors has voted to
increase dues by 15 percent for most members and add a new dues tier
for members with an annual income of US$75,000 or greater, effective 1
January 2010.

In the four years since it last raised
dues, SLA has done much more for members with far less funding,
introducing an array of new member benefits to ensure that information
professionals have the tools they need to remain competitive in today's
marketplace. These include greatly expanded online and in-person
professional development opportunities, free online libraries and
webinars, discounts on conferences, publications and higher education,
and much more. In addition, SLA has vastly extended member networks by
adding access to new communications technologies as they emerge and is
aggressively building the global membership so important in the new
economy.

The cost of delivering these member services each year
is now almost US$600 per member. SLA has worked hard to reduce and
offset that cost by becoming more operationally efficient, obtaining
sponsorships, and building partnerships. Over the past year, SLA staff
have forfeited raises, paid a larger percentage of their medical
benefits, and lost professional development opportunities, and we have
reduced staff by 18 percent, among many other measures. We were also
able to fund one of our most important efforts ever, the Alignment
Research Project, with funds reserved from the sale of our previous
headquarters building.  SLA dues continue to be substantially lower
than those of most comparable organizations, and there is more value in SLA membership than ever before.

Dues rates will be as follows:

We have created a Web page
with questions and answers about the dues increase and more information
about membership finances.  We will add answers to new questions as
they emerge.

Sincerely,

Gloria Zamora, President, and the SLA Board of Directors

Save the date for the Annual Joint Meeting of the New Jersey and Princeton-Trenton Chapters of SLA!

SLA at 100: Changing and Realigning. Featuring a discussion led by Anne Caputo, 2010 SLA President.

Sponsored by IEEE.

Wednesday, October 7, 5:30 – 9 p.m.
IEEE Operations Center
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854-4141

Complete details, including how to register online and costs, coming soon!

Register online or download the flier!