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25th Anniversary 1978-2003

Vol. 25, No.3/Spring 2003

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Notes from the Chair

By Michael Jesse

By the time you read this it will be almost conference time. You are probably packing your bags and . . . what's that? You're not going to the conference? You say your boss didn't want to spend the money?? Well, let me talk to him right now. That's right, just rip out this page and put it on your boss' desk. . . .

Dear Editor:

I'm sure that an important person like yourself did not reach this level of managerial authority without the ability to see the value of an investment. I'm here to talk to you about Betty, your librarian. Let me first remind you that unlike your reporters, who only know how to spend money, Betty here brings you royalty revenue from archive sales, plus she sell reprints, manages copyright clearance, handles way more calls from the public than you do, and she still has time to make you look good when the publisher asks you for information. And look at all the money you've saved by making the library carry that dark vacancy for the past six months.

So now's the time for you to give a little back to Betty by sending her to the SLA News Division conference. It only costs a few hundred dollars, plus travel costs. You already spend plenty of money on travel for those sports reporters, and Betty probably won't submit any of those questionable "restaurant tabs" from the Lulu Lounge.

This is by no means just a junket. Our chair-elect and conference planner, Linda Henderson, has packed quite a lot into five days. Here's the conference agenda:

The entire first day is devoted to a two-part continuing education course. The first half of the day will be on archiving Web content. Trust me, those youngsters in the online news department have no idea how to do this, so if your Web content is going to get archived Betty will probably be the one to do it. Then the afternoon will be on public records from government sources. That's worth the trip all by itself, and it's just the first day!

On the second day there are programs on the latest Internet research techniques, the latest trends in archiving, and then a vendor roundtable with representatives from Lexis-Nexis, Dialog and Proquest. Given how much money you spend on these services every year, you should be glad Betty has this opportunity to put these vendor reps on the hot seat and ask them the tough questions.

Day three starts with a session on how to embrace change. Betty's department has seen more change than any other area of the newspaper these past 10 years and you have not so much as shown her that stupid "Who Stole My Cheese" video. (If you needed help finding your cheese, or anything else for that matter, you should have asked a librarian in the first place).

Another thing Betty has gotten stuck with is training everyone. And lucky for your newspaper, there is a session on training. This will help Betty a great deal since she trains people on the library system, on Nexis or Factiva and the Internet. She would have trained you, too, if you had ever shown up for the class. Public records are such a big deal these days that, in addition to the CE course on government sources, we also have a program entirely devoted to public records available on commercial sources.

On the last day of the conference we have a session on global news research, and then a program on repurposing archival assets, as in revenue. It takes money to make money, so you should send Betty to this program so she can hear other librarians' ideas on how to bring in revenue from the archives.

Finally, and if you've been keeping track this is NINE programs in addition to the all-day CE course, we close with a presentation by Marydee Ojala and Gary Price. Ojala is editor of Online magazine and Price is basically the most plugged-in Internet guru in the business. So how many times do I have to say "this program alone is worth the trip"??

And while she's in New York, Betty will have the opportunity to tour Newsday, ABC News and the New York Times, plus we've got this cool boat tour up the Hudson. And she'll hardly have to spend anything on food and drink because our vendors supply some pretty substantial finger food at the hospitality suite, and as for drinks . . . well, maybe we shouldn't get into that part.

Anyway, the point is that this conference is probably more densely packed with worthwhile information than the last three conferences anybody on your staff has attended, including you. And Betty deserves it because she brings you revenue and has the potential of bringing in even more revenue. And besides you don't pay her enough.

So what do you say? Can I put you down for one conference registration in Betty's name? Um, sir? . . . are you there? Hmmm.

Hey Betty! Come get this article off of your boss's desk! Well, I'm sorry, Betty, but I guess we won't see you in New York after all. I tried to convince your boss, but I overestimated his attention span because he only made it to the third paragraph and then covered me up with his unopened mail. And just look at this coffee ring he left on me!


Last Updated: 05/04/03
Ron Larson
rlarson@madison.com