Thursday, February 29, 2024

Beginning a new chapter

 A little over 4 years ago I retired from the federal government.  I left a job with the coolest job title I could have imagined - Command Librarian.


I was making plans for something to do in retirement to keep me busy and get me out of the house on occasion and give my husband some space.  I was looking into a retiree position with FEMA.  Before that came to pass, another job presented itself.


For the past 4 years I've been part of the FOIA Search team at the U.S. Department of State.  The job seemed interesting and paid well.  40 days into the job the world shutdown because of Covid.  I was able to work from home and I was really happy under the circumstances.


Time has passed and the job lived up to my expectations and has been really interesting.  I have been blessed to work with some really great people.  We all learned a lot and we have been able to contribute by improving processes and, more important, we helped complete a large number of FOIA requests.


The search team will continue, but in the past month I decided it was time for me to move on - again.


Again I am making plans for what my next chapter will be.  


There are many projects at home that haven't gone away.  I'll make a plan for tackling those.  In addition I'll get back to work on researching family history.


One of my uncles, L. Kent McBee, has already pulled together a lot of the family history for that side of the family.  I entered that and everything I have for my maternal line into Ancestry.com.


Next up I'll go to Library of Congress and see if I can tap into any of the existing family histories that they have in their collection.  A colleague mentioned that the National Archives also has a lot of materials available to the public - census, immigration, and military records and more.


My career as a librarian has been a tremendous blessing.  I still thank my late godmother, Mary B. Nichols, who steered me toward a career in federal service.  It has provided me so much and I am grateful. 


May everyone be so blessed.

Saturday, August 6, 2022

Notes from 2022 SLA Conference

 

Notes from SLA Conference – July 31-August 2, 2022, Charlotte, NC

 

July 30 – attended meeting of Military Libraries Community (MLC) Board meeting.  Currently serving as Secretary for MLC.

 

Seize the Data! Census Bureau Resources for Librarians: presentation by three experts from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The U.S. Census Bureau provides a fresh portrait of America’s people and is a leading source of quality data for your patrons. Key data from the 2020 American Community Survey and Decennial Census are now available through data.census.gov and other tools. Join this session for a live demonstration of the recently improved navigation on data.census.gov to learn how to access data you need for your research. This session also features an overview of the American Community Survey, and a segment on census geography. You will learn the basics of geography hierarchies, relationships, and easy-to-use geography reference tools that enable you to visualize boundary changes over time and find geographies for a particular address.

Learning Objectives:

·        Access data from the decennial census and American Community Survey (ACS) on the recently updated data.census.gov

·        Understand the difference between ACS and the decennial census

·        Visualize the latest geographic boundaries and Census data

·        Retrieve a list of geographies associated with a particular address through the Census Geocoder

 

Leveraging Library Infrastructure in Community-Centered Projects, presentation by Jennifer Garcon, PhD, Librarian for Modern and Contemporary Special Collections, Princeton University

Dr. Garcon discussed the complex position that institutions like Libraries, Archives, and Museums encounter when they engage with community partners. She explored how to engage mindful and intentional design in developing ethical partnerships that avoid, rather than re-enforce, harm and disenfranchisement. Dr. Garcon described a project she conducted with the local African American community in Philadelphia.  She told us how she integrated partnership practices to leverage library infrastructure for community use, foreground inclusion and equity, navigate power disparity between institutions and communities, and embarks on models of community-centered practices and shared governance.

 

READY, Set, Change! Simplify and Accelerate Organizational Change – presentation by April Callis-Birchmeier, CCMP, PMP, CSP, CEO/President of Springboard Consulting

Ms. Callis gave a dynamic presentation on change management using the mnemonic tool R.E.A.D.Y

R – relevant and relatable.  She used an example of Walmart as a one-stop shop to demonstrate the benefits of a multi-access database at a university.

E – engage leaders – get them on board and get them to be part of the messaging.  Get them to motivate and encourage others.

A – advance communication – let people know what’s going on early and update often.  Current studies indicate that people need to hear something 9-16 times before they begin to understand that it applies to them.  Tell stakeholders what we know when we know it!

D – develop and support – Market with intention.  Don’t overwhelm your audience.  Manage expectations.  Use clean graphics.  Target what is in this for the audience.

Y – The Why – don’t forget why you are making the change.

 

To me, the key take away is the reminder to understand and address the concerns of the stakeholders.  The perceived benefits of the change, the perceived loss, and the perceived fears. 

 

Marketing Success Stories – presentation by a panel of librarians on their successful marketing of library services and resources.

Key in this was focusing on what the library is doing for the organization.  The return on investment, the cost-savings, and getting people into the library to learn what the library offers.

Covid presented new challenges, but they persevered with outreach through Zoom training and lunch meetings.

They weren’t reporting naked library stats but reporting in the context of how the resources in the library helped the organization achieve their goals.

 

Finding Data: Teaching Science and Technology Data Information Literacy Skills to Researchers – presentation by Jay Bhatt, Engineering Librarian at Drexel University, and Lynnee Argabright, Research Data Librarian, UNC-Wilmington

This presentation provided tips on finding data for researchers, students, and scholars in science and technology disciplines. The session showed how to develop a methodology for teaching students and researchers how to find and evaluate appropriate data sets.

 

Disinformation and the Literacy Landscape – a presentation by Nicole A. Cooke, PhD, Augusta Baker Endowed Associate Professor, University of South Carolina

Dr. Cooke gave an outstanding presentation on Disinformation, Misinformation and Malinformation, and explained the similarities and differences.

We are now living in an age of “fake news,” which is not a new phenomenon, but this latest iteration has highlighted the various dimensions of how people interact (or do not) with information - information consumption is so much more than people's immediate cognitive processing.

Dr. Cooke’s talk addressed our continued and collective battle against misinformation and disinformation, and the related literacy concepts that can influence our interactions with information and help us intellectually thrive in a post-truth society.

 

What's New and Exciting in Privacy Law – presentation by Eugene Giudice, Librarian, Dentons US, LLP, and Brian Focht, Cybersecurity Attorney, Charlotte, NC

Overview of recent developments in Privacy Law and Privacy Rights legislation.

 

Hanging Up Your Shingle: Becoming a Successful Information Consultant – presentation by two independent research consultants on the ins and outs and challenges of going independent.

 

The Resilient Info Pro: Building personal, professional and institutional agility in the face of uncertainty – Mary Ellen Bates, Bates Information Services.

Mary Ellen shared some of the best strategies and approaches to help info pros succeed in today's environment.

Learning Objectives:

·        plan strategically in an uncertain environment

·        build a career that offers continuing growth and new opportunities

·        support strategic decision-makers in a highly dynamic environment

The talk came out of three blog posts on https://www.copyright.com/blog

In her talk, Mary Ellen drew from Kim Dority of Dority Associates and author of Rethinking Info Careers

Adaptive competence:

·        Ability to adapt to new circumstances.

·        Ability to recognize new threats and opportunities.

·        Ability to pivot from a threat and toward an opportunity

Learning on demand:

Own your professional development.  No one else will care as much about your professional development as you will (should).

Mantra – I know how to learn new things!

What new skill would the library world value now?  How can I get it?  Continuing education, micro-degree, library carpentry…

Volunteer to learn to new skills – Mary Ellen gave the example of volunteering to create webinars for a professional association so she could learn how to create better webinars.

Info pros have always been info leaders. 

Mentally prepare for unexpected pivots. 

Our essential skill is being information adept.

Practice response scenarios:

Think about possible changes coming up.  Build mental agility.

How might I respond if that happens?  How might I position myself now to prepare for that scenario?

 

Professional Equity:

Conduct an annual professional equity assessment.

·        What I know:

o   What have I learned?

o   What do I need to learn?

·        Who do I know?

o   How have I built a community of colleagues?

·        Who knows what about me?

o   How have I built my reputation?

Who is mentoring you?  Every therapist has a therapist!

Should be someone who does things unlike what I do.  Should be someone at a different stage in their career.

 

Ongoing Legal Issues for the LGBTQ Community – a panel of attorneys gave an overview of recent changes in law, both court decisions and legislation.

 

The Role of Information Professionals in Crafting a Gender Inclusive Future, presentation by Travis Wagner, PhD, University of Maryland

 

Dr. Wagner described the push towards gender inclusion and how it requires a continued confrontation with what normative presumptions we possess about gender in our daily lives.

It is an issue whose change requires a paradigm shift at the social level.

 

They explored how information professionals can serve as advocates and allies in working towards gender equity. They provided guidance on what it means to think inclusively about gender by reflecting on the ever-expanding and intersecting forms of gender identity under the umbrella of queer and trans.

Dr. Wagner started from an assumption of understanding gender-diverse identities and included relevant definitions and concepts for those requiring such information.

They explored how various special librarians can engage in work that not only decenters cisnormative presumptions but highlights and elevates trans and non-binary voices.

Various facets of the work of information professionals, which can be adjusted to be more inclusive of gender diversity. These facets include

·        metadata practices

·        organizational policy

·        institutional communication concerning gender diversity

 

Dr. Wagner gave tangible ways to champion the work of queer and trans activists and highlighted what skills an information professional can bring to the already occurring work of LGBTQIA+ activism.

 

Time to update!

 Greetings one and all,

This past week I attended the SLA Conference in Charlotte, NC and had a wonderful time renewing friendships and refreshing some of my librarian muscles.

Now that I'm back home I have taken a look at my blog and realize it is very dusty!  A lot has happened since my last post in 2016!

To begin with - I retired from the federal government and the Army Corps of Engineers in 2019.  I had a wonderful send off from my friends and colleagues.

I learned a lot from working with the cadre of librarians at the Corps.  They are some smart people!

Like so many good federal employees, after retirement I was recruited as a contractor.  Since early 2020 I have been working on the FOIA search team for an agency in Washington, DC.  It has been really interesting work.

The librarian at the agency had the brilliant idea to bring in librarians and make use of our excellent searching skills to help the agency clear a backlog of FOIA requests.  It has been going well.

COVID-19 was a setback for all of us.  I was working from home 100% of the time for a while, but after a few months I made a return to the office a few days each week.  I am still masked when I'm on the Metro, but otherwise it isn't a big deal.  The agency has a flexible schedule and we're not in the the office 100% of the time with full staff.  So we're not on top of each other.

The SLA Conference was good - not a huge crowd - I think between 300-400 people.  Not as many vendors as other years, but it's our first event in-person since Cleveland in 2019.

It was a good renewal for the Military Libraries Community and the Gay/Lesbian/Bi-Sexual/Trans Librarian Community as well.

And Charlotte is a nice city - the Mint Museum has a beautiful collection!



Friday, March 11, 2016

KM and Engineers:




Here are my slides and my notes from a presentation I gave at Computers in Libraries this week in Washington, DC at the Washington, Hilton, Wednesday, March 9, 2016 at 10:00 AM.


 
Good morning.  My name is David McBee and I am the Command Librarian for the   First some background on my role with the USACE Library Program.  My program consists of 18 district libraries out of a total of 43 districts, the Alexandria, Virginia library that also supports HQ, 3 Engineering Research & Development Center libraries, and the Army Geospatial Center (AGC) library.

Our libraries support the Engineers and scientists who do the work of the Corps.  We build and maintain dams and levees that harness electricity and help make our waterways navigable.  We support our warfighter on military bases and in deployed areas.   We dredge our ports and rivers to support commerce.  We work to restore and protect our environment and work to reduce the risks from natural disasters and help to recover from floods, storms and hurricanes.

I work in Corporate Information and I report to our Chief Information Officer (CIO).  When I came to the Corps three years ago I began to promote our USACE Libraries and their role in knowledge management to support the work of our engineers and scientists.



Image of the Admont Library in Admont, Austria


Admittedly the way we support KM has changed - but only in the ways we communicate and the information products we deliver.

I'm going to start this by looking at the Army KM effort, then review what the Corps of Engineers is doing at Headquarters and pushing out to the field.  Then I will talk about what our engineers are already doing and how we need to support that effort.  Lastly, I'll talk about ways the Library Program supports KM.

The image is of the Admont Library, Admont, Austria, 18 Libraries Every Book Lover Should Visit in Their Liftetime, Asta Thrastardottir (Business Insider, January 1, 2015)





KM is important to the Army.  Because of the regular rotation of military it is important to be able to communicate and share knowledge so commanders have current information.  Over time this effort led to the creation of the Army KM Proponent, assigned to the US Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  Their mission is to deliver KM capabilities and capacities to meet Army and Joint requirements for the successful planning, integration, and execution of knowledge management throughout the total force.

The Army KM Proponent offers a certification training for their soldiers as well as civilians.  I was able to take this training in September 2014.


I have written about the Army KM training in before - see If I had a Hammer.



From the Army KM Certification program - KM is the process of enabling knowledge flow to enhance shared understanding, learning, and decision making.



Army views KM as the bridge that aligns the people, processes and tools within an organization.  I like this image because it looks like a pair of glasses and I think of KM as allowing us to see our organization more clearly.


 The 53rd Chief of Engineers, LTG Thomas P. Bostick has set out some objectives for KM at our agency.

  1. KM Has to be part of our day-to-day business
  2. We need to assess the critical information/knowledge needs in each district?  What do we need right now?
  3. Our team needs to have a common view of KM.  We need to be on the same sheet of paper.  Enable us to share our knowledge and sharing a common view.
  4. Align our KM efforts with Mission Support Centers’ priorities and strategic objectives.
  5. KM enables our business functions.  An over-the-shoulder advisor/assistant.  You can reach to the KM in the organization in order to achieve our goals
  6. Align our people and processes in this common view within the organization – horizontally and vertically – within USACE and with partner organizations.
  7. Achieve level 3 by 2017 – establish common practices across the Corps.

 

  American Productivity & Quality Center

 
KM Strategic Plan, approved, will be updated to reflect progress



These are APQC Best Practices for KM – that serve as a model for developing a KM plan.


 
And KM is going like gangbusters at USACE!  The Strategic Plan is being updated to reflect the progress we are making.  We have partnered with Army and they regularly ask us for help.

The USACE Campaign Plan includes this Action 1) A culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing where knowledge and technology are accessible without barriers, and 2) Critical Enabling Technologies are accessible and ready to use.

We are on target to achieve that KM Level 3 Maturity thanks to the grassroots effort of our KMRs.

Part of the work at the higher level is to pull together the individual efforts in the districts and connect them.

There are multiple data repositories in each of our districts.  We are working to make them accessible across the agency.  We have some tools that are helping us to do that.




So far we are not adding any extra meta-data though Google is quick to point out that meta-data enhances their search capabilities.

 
MediaWiki is still developing and it is becoming a place to organize project-related resources.





We are working with the CKO on ways our librarians can be incorporated in the KM effort.


In developing the KM Program at the Corps of Engineers, our leadership has formed partnerships with other Army agencies including Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM), Army Medical Command (MedCom), Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as private sector KM practitioners – APQC, KM World, FLUOR and others.



  That’s what is happening at HQ.  But what have the engineers been doing all along>

As Dave Snowden said in his SLA Keynote talk on March 8, engineers talk to each other.  They have coffee and talk about the projects they are working on.

The Corps of Engineers is organized into 10 Divisions with a total of 44 Districts.  For the continental US – the boundaries are based on watersheds.

We have about 9000 Engineers throughout the agency are located in every office.  There are diverse disciplines within the field of engineering and there may be only one or two of some disciplines at a given location.  So how do you network with other engineers?



What tools are they using?  Because USACE Engineers are so scattered – they make good use of Communities of Practice (CoPs).

Sharepoint is the current in place for connecting people and sharing repositories.  The CoPs run on Sharepoint.



CoPs for the Engineers include Civil Works Planning & Policy, Dam and Levee Safety, Engineering & Construction, Environmental, Hydrology & Hydraulics, Hydropower, and they participate in several others as they work with support units in the agency.



Tools used by our Engineers – After Action Reviews –AARs, are usually discussions that capture lessons learned.  The discussions are collected in a report format.

One of the goals for KM at the Corps is to find ways to integrate these systems to make the knowledge flow between engineers working on projects, project managers, and review auditors.





Tools used by our Engineers – After Action Reviews –AARs, are usually discussions that capture lessons learned.  The discussions are collected in a report format.

One of the goals for KM at the Corps is to find ways to integrate these systems to make the knowledge flow between engineers working on projects, project managers, and review auditors.



The USACE Catalog provides access to our WorldCat holdings - find what titles our USACE Libraries have.


The USACE Digital Library is a growing repository of digital documents including the Chief of Engineers Reports dating back to around 1870.  (Not all years have been digitized yet.)



USACE Engineers are encouraged to achieve Professional Engineer certification from the American Society of Civil Engineers.  The Library program has supported USACE Engineers by providing access to Webinars to prepare them for the exam.  This program was started by one of our librarians and it really shows how the Library Program is supporting our staff.

 
As I said at the beginning, our librarians support KM at the Corps.  I have been promoting our skill set to commanders and other leaders anytime I can.  I have been working with our CKO and the KM team to promote our librarians as KM Reps and suggesting they hire Librarians to serve as their KM Officers.


There is a growing corpus of readings and resources for KM practitioners.  Here is a list of some titles to get you started and keep you going.  Also look for KM speakers at SLA, ALA, KMWorld and other conferences.

A couple years ago I attended a presentation given by Ulla de Stricker and others at SLA.  She made several good comments. My full notes from her talk is posted elsewhere - KM in the Trenches.

First of all, KM is happening at your organization whether there’s an plan or not.

Second, to be successful you need buy-in at the top level.  If the boss/director doesn’t like the phrase “Knowledge Management”, don’t call it that.

Third, to help convince the boss, find out what keeps the boss awake at night and find a way to respond to the concern.

Fourth, find the knowledge gaps and see how you (and your library) can fill those gaps.

Finally, once leaders understand what KM is – the recognize the importance of it.  Many bosses just assume that KM is happening.  It often is – in pockets.  But you need to be part of a comprehensive plan.



We are told that it takes a village to raise a child – it certainly takes  a community of librarians to support an agency as diverse and widespread as the Corps of Engineers.