Friday, May 18, 2007

LIVE from MLA 2007

Hi everyone, I am in Philadelphia and just finished attending the Library Director: Knowledge, Skills, and Career Paths. Yes, one of my career goals to become a director some day, and I have been taking baby steps toward that direction.

The class is taught by Wayne Peay, FMLA, director, Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah-Salt Lake City; Rick Forsman, AHIP, FMLA, project director, Denison Memorial Library and Health Sciences Center, University of Colorado-Denver; James Shedlock, AHIP, director, Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; and Elizabeth Eaton, executive director, Houston Academy of Medicine/Texas Medical Center Library-Houston.

Class description (provided by MLA)
Issues facing academic health sciences library directors—including budgets and planning, fundraising, politics, and organizational strategy—will be discussed. Career paths and strategies for obtaining necessary skills will be emphasized.

It was a wonderful class, I learned so much from the class. I think the most helpful part of the class was the break out session. We were able to pick the brains and ask questions from these library directors and get their thoughts on various topics and issues. My only wish was that they spend a little more time on career paths leading toward library director positions. Life is never straight forward and I think it would have been helpful to see what things in our circuitous career paths that we should do and look for on the way.

No comments: