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November 17, 2007
SLA's CLICK University
Juanita Richardson, 2008 Chair of the SLA Leadership & Management Division gave a session at the Toronto hosted Libraries Without Borders II – the 4th Northeast Regional Law Libraries Meeting (NE2007). It was called “Education Without Borders: Distance Education for Librarians." She posted parts of her talk and I thougt it could use wider distribution. SLA has done so much innovation to build a year long professional development series online in addition to the conferences and chapter/division events ov erhte past few years.
SLA had been invited to speak because it is recognized for having a leading edge project to provide distance education to librarians: Click University. I have to agree since I have followed this project since its inception. It is amazing and one of the least understood value added services for SLA members. It was launched at the SLA conference in Toronto in 2005 and has grown a lot since then.
CLICK U has achieved its initial commitment to members: “You will be able to do everything from finding an article in the library all the way to taking an advanced degree.” With CLICK U, you will be bound to find something you want in the format you want. There are 7 different content areas based upon different learning styles and different paces:
- SLA virtual seminars (ie. Click U Live) (As expected, Gary Price's Research Toolbox was a huge hit);
- CE sessions (from SLAconference – recorded and delivered as webinars);
- Course libraries (all based on self-paced learning – with the “course of the month” offered free);
- Courses from adjunct faculty, like the copyright courses from Lesley Ellen Harris;
- SLA certificates program with the much-vaunted Competitive Intelligence certificate program;
- Full Degrees and certificates offered in partnership with Drexel, Syracuse and the University of Toronto Professional Learning Centre.
- Leadership & Management books and articles online from eBrary;
Three SLA member value things that don't seem to reach people's consciousness:
1. You can find the CLICK U Live sessions on the SLA website. December's is an excellent two-parter on Taxonomies delivered by international expert Jay Ven Eman.
2. Some of the courses and podcasts are free and some are low fee. The monthly free one is always highlighted on the CLICK U homepage. The current course of the month is "Writing for Publication."
3. People seem unaware that the certificate programs offered by SLA are internationally accredited. The Special Libraries Association has been authorized by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) to award the IACET Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits to SLA members who complete courses through Click U, the first and only online learning system for post-graduate information professionals. See more here (your HR / training folks will know IACET).
Here are the next three IACET CEU Certificates Program Courses
CIC01. Introduction to Competitive Intelligence
7 January 2008
KMKS01. Introduction to Knowledge Management & Knowledge Services
14 January 2008
CCM100. Introduction to Copyright Management: Principles & Issues
21 January 2008
4. Did I say eBrary Leadership and Managememt Library is free to members? OMG - this is so cool.
The eBrary database covers a wide range of topics to enable professionals to make important business decisions. From information on how to become a more effective leader to examining best practices from the world's most successful CEOs this database is applicable throughout an employee's career path. Key subject areas include: leadership, entrepreneurship, strategic planning, management, organizational behavior, personnel management, project management and risk management.
This library alone is worth the cost of membership.
So who’s ready to join SLA now? Try linking here to do so (grin).
Expect more valuable services announced in 2008, in addition to those we already offer.
Stephen
(Full Disclosure: I'll be President of SLA starting in 2008! I'd love to have you with us.)
Posted by stephen at November 17, 2007 4:55 PM