XIST Supports Ottawa IM Summit

Here is a note sent to us from John Savage, CASLIS Ottawa President and long time XIST associate.

On November 23, 2004, CASLIS-Ottawa convened a meeting of ten information management (IM) association chapters from the National Capital Region representing archives, libraries, records management, web management, and other IM/IT operations in XIST's boardroom. The meeting explored ways these IM associations could partner on programming, communications, and in promoting membership. What was surprising was how everyone was in agreement that the time has come to find ways to collaborate on a broad scale. XIST is pleased to support this CASLIS-Ottawa initiative.

The Ottawa IM Summit Findings:

Although some limited collaboration already exists between local association chapters, more can be done to provide benefit to chapter members and to leverage limited association funds through cooperation. This is especially important at a time when convergence in IM professions is expected to increase (e.g. National Archives Canada merging with the National Library of Canada, records management operations merging with libraries, libraries merging with IM/IT operations). As convergence becomes a reality in our community, our members need to become familiar with trends in other disciplines and the expertise found within other associations.

It was a concern that although there is some collaboration among federal organizations representing IM professionals, these events and resources aren't necessarily accessible to the Ottawa IM community outside of government sphere. It was felt that the tent needs to be expanded to include all IM association members and expand knowledge sharing for the whole community.

Some actions we agreed to discuss with our respective executives before its next meeting in mid-January, include:

1) Promoting a shared communication strategy, where all IM associations' events will be posted together in one place on the Ottawa IM Calendar http://OttawaIM.xist.com. This tool was originally created by XIST Inc. ( http://xist.com ) and John Savage, to serve as a free community listing of local information management events. It should increase information sharing and allow associations to harmonize their programs. Universal endorsement will ensure it benefits IM associations the way it was intended. XIST is proud to contribute its resources to this innovative effort, to share information and to build a unified communications tool that will have a real impact on local professional development.

2) Exploring event/conference co-sponsorship between associations on programs of shared interest. Where a program/conference may have cross-over appeal between archivists, records management, and librarianship, associations should work together to co-develop these. An example of this may be on such topics as classification, interoperability issues, and convergence of our professions. These associations are exploring co-hosting a shared conference for this year.

3) Providing preferential pricing to all members of our associations who attend any programs hosted by our associations. This will provide extra value for our members and good reason to join our associations if they are not already. Non-members and institutional members of our associations would still be required to pay a significantly higher price to attend these events as a way to financially drive them towards considering membership in any of our associations.

4) Promoting the message that membership in IM associations is a mark of professionalism, to provide our members a competitive advantage for job hirings, promotions, project assignments, etc. By making employers aware of the fact that our members may have greater professional development opportunities than non-members, these associations aim to increase the recognition that their members are truly "professional" librarians / IM practitioners.

5) Providing networking opportunities among association memberships. As convergence is becoming more of a trend in our professions, it is useful to know experts from other areas of IM for support, advice, and recruitment opportunities.

With the next meeting slated for mid-January, these association executives have their work cut out for them to bring together their shared expertise into Ottawa's largest consortium of IM professionals.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact:

John Savage
President
CASLIS Ottawa
Cell: (613) 868-0651
Work: (613) 234-9621, ext. 238
john.savage@xist.com

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