Last night I moderated an SLA Toronto meeting focused on information technology trends with a a great panel: Stephen Abram from Sirsi, Maria Phipps from ME Phipps & Associates, Michael Aprieto from OCLC Canada, Vicki Whitmell, Legislative Library of Ontario, and Greg Ponesse from Factiva.

Lots of interesting discussions ensued. Challenges for info pros were articulated:
* we can’t be all things to all people (in my opinion we can’t say this often enough — we want to please everyone but in the process please none)
* we have to reach our audiences, including the “digital natives” of today (segmenting our market, yup!)
* with the infoglut around us, getting the right information to people to make decisions is critical
* we have to learn to collaborate and work together more with others — we can’t do it all especially if we want to be more than reactive to our environments
* we have to find a way to go up against the “google god” — the belief system that google is “the” place for good info, it’s all we need

Although the group talked a lot about new and emerging technology, the focus was really on people and using technology as a tool to enable what we do — building relatioships with partners and clients, specializing, knowing our environment, and developing leadership and influencing skills. Some good advice heard at the meeting: “Be adventurous in finding solutions”, “Decide what’s good enough for clients, not the best”, “Make IT your buddies”, “It’s not remote users, it’s remote librarians so get out there in their space.”