SLA Insider Reflects on the closure of the SLA and its impact on the library community.
I read the news today – oh boy. The Special Libraries Association (SLA), after 116 years of serving the library community on a worldwide basis, will take the route of dissolution.
The dissolution of an association can be the result of many factors. Perhaps the association has fulfilled its originally intended mission. “Our work has come to an end. We have achieved the goals we set out to achieve in our original mission statement 116 years ago”.
Or maybe funding for the activities of the association has dried up. A reduction in membership, no more government grants, or the lack of attracting new members or just getting current members to pay their annual dues may be the cause of diminished funds leading to dissolution.
In some cases, a similar association with greater finances has acquired the target association that can no longer survive on its own. Acquisition by a stronger entity in the same industry is a common occurrence in both businesses and associations.
Another possibility for the dissolution may stem from the discovery of illegal activities causing an investigation by authorities to shut down or even indict key members of the association’s board of directors.
In the End It was About Financials
All of these above are common causes for a non-profit association. But in the case of SLA, the driver wasn’t legal or fulfilling its goal. So, what drove to SLA’s closure? In the end, finances played a key role in SLA’s closure.
In SLA’s case, there may be three financial factors that have led them to this point. At one time, the association made money selling professional books through their website. Although it was a profitable endeavor, that was halted and so that stream of revenue went away.
Secondly, SLA was a great clearinghouse for members to examine new employment opportunities. Many SLA members interacted with one another in search of a new library job. With the growth of the internet, prospective job seekers now use internet resources more than the SLA website to find new employment.
And thirdly, the member base continued to diminish due to many library closings and the retirement of some of its members. Fewer members translate into fewer membership dues.
One of the hopes was that the American Library Association (ALA) would gobble up SLA. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this piece, ALA has not made a serious move to acquire SLA. And quite frankly, I do not know if they have the funds or desire to do so.
There was also talk of a merger between SLA and the Medical Library Association (MLA). A few years ago, SLA and MLA jointly sponsored an annual meeting. Having attended that one, the experiment of joint sponsorship by SLA and MLA could not be called a raging success.
Impact of SLA’s Dissolution
Dissolving an association, especially this one that has been operating for so long, was not an easy decision by their board. I am sure many hours of conversations, emails and midnight phone calls all contributed to the inevitable final decision.
The bottom line is that SLA provided a valuable service to its members. To whom do those members go now for the same services? It is much like the restaurant that you regularly go to in your neighborhood that closed one day as you tried to open the door to go there for dinner.
It is now time to go somewhere else for your dining pleasure. Similarly, it is now time for the remaining SLA members to find a viable source for their professional support.
The Value of SLA
SLA served a valuable purpose in the library community. It served a group that I had the pleasure of working with for over 40 years. They provided a forum where librarians of a certain discipline could exchange ideas with their fellow professionals.
To better explain SLA’s relevance is like the difference between a hose and a bow and arrow. The hose sprays water in many directions, whereas the arrow shot from a bow will land on a precise target. SLA librarians, especially the investment bank people, had specific information requirements and spent a considerable amount of money from their budgets to buy the needed information. Many of those librarians would meet monthly after work to discuss the pros and cons of the vendor offerings that inevitably were presented to all of them. When they met, it was not in a room of hundreds of people, it was a small group of collegial friends examining the marketplace.
Similarly, when I was representing a company in the public sector, we sponsored breakfast at the annual SLA meeting for University and Public Library librarians so they could all get together and discuss issues of common interest to all of them. SLA provided a platform to help their member libraries to be successful. The point is that in our current society where the principle of “one size fits all,” SLA tried to cater to the individual.
Reflecting on Change and Obsolescence
Getting to the point of dissolution is a drastic step. We all face the aspect of our own demise in our everyday personal and business lives. Companies seem to value a younger person’s exuberance over an older persons’ experience when hiring. In my life, I have been successful in reinventing myself several times. What I could easily do 20 years ago, now takes a bit more effort.
Companies, associations, actors, rock stars all inevitably come to a point where they must reexamine themselves and honestly ask themselves if they are being relevant in the current market. If not, they must readjust their goals and objectives. Because if you are conducting your business the same way you did six months ago, you are probably out of step and falling behind the competition.
Maybe SLA thought that they could continue to operate the same way they had always done so in the past. That thinking would be a sure way to find oneself on the road to obsolescence.
The Shift to Computerized Customer Service
The loss of SLA represents a continuing trend by companies and organizations to rely more heavily on computer-generated customer service. The days of staffing a team with experts to support an 800-number helpline seems to be rapidly becoming a relic of the past.
Personal Experiences with SLA
I was given the opportunity by SLA to be a guest speaker at many of their national and local meetings. Moreover, they were incredibly supportive of the book that I wrote and allowed me to speak about it at many of their meetings as well.
Tribute to the NY Chapter
Finally, a remembrance of SLA would not be complete without a shout out to the members of the NY Chapter. We shared many good times, had productive meetings, and ate some incredibly good meals together. You understood the role of the salesperson and made it a pleasure for the librarian and vendor to coexist and learn from one another with an order or two mixed in for good measure.
Thank you!
About the Author
Mike Gruenberg is currently the Managing Partner of Gruenberg Consulting, LLC, a firm he founded in January 2012 after a successful career as a senior sales executive in the information industry. His firm is devoted to providing clients with sales staff analysis, market research, executive coaching, trade show preparedness, product placement and best practices advice for improving negotiation skills for librarians and salespeople. His book, “Buying and Selling Information: A Guide for Information Professionals and Salespeople to Build Mutual Success” has become the definitive book on negotiation skills and is available on AMAZON, Information Today in print and Ebook, AMAZON Kindle, B&N Nook, Kobo, Apple iBooks, OverDrive, 3M Cloud Library, GALE (GVRL), My iLibrary, ebrary, EBSCO, Blio and Chegg.
