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By Barbara Semonche, UNC-CH
October 15, 1998
Houston, Texas
Greetings and salutations for the North Carolina Chapter of SLA. My
Chapter recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Next year, the News
Division, of which I am a member along with a number of your Texas Chapter
members, will launch its Diamond Jubilee. From Mike Zimmerman I learned
that your Texas Chapter will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 1999,
just as SLA embarks on its 90th year. It seems that generations of
information pros all over have cause to celebrate on the eve of the
millenium. Congratulations and continued success to you all.
Texas is one of my favorite places to visit. Certainly there have been
memorable occasions in this grand state. In our profession, for example,
the 1993 SLA winter conference in Dallas; the June 1991 annual conference
in San Antonio; and an earlier trip of mine to El Paso to consult with the
local newspaper. North Carolina has some close ties with Texas. For
years our University's planetarium provided celestial naviagation
training for astronauts. Further, Dr. Bill Thornton, the first physician
in space, is a North Caorlina native. Undoubtedly there are other
examples; certainly there will be more in the future.
I've come to know an appreciate some of your outstanding leaders in Texas.
Mike Zimmerman has been most helpful in getting me on target with your
program this month. Just recently I met former Texas Chapter president
Margaret Carroll in North Carolina as she was shepherding a new librarian
for the Charlotte, NC based IBM firm. And I want to remind you that the
SLA Student Group from the Univ. of Texas-Austin was recognized recently
with the 1998 SLA Certificate of Merit Award for Outstanding
Leadership. Bravo!
Your Chapter has had SLA Board members, conference planners, and Fellows
among its distinguished members. Standouts come to mind such as Lou
Parris, Herb White, Kathy Foley, Sherry Adams, Judy Sall, Margaret Neu,
Judy Metcalf, and a host of hothers. Your Chapter has a stunning web page
and an interactive listserv. And if all those fine people were not enough,
your state can claim a very high profile librarian, the first lady of
Texas, Laura Bush. Frankly, I'd say that the Texas Chapter has a lot to be
proud of, except that with leaders such as yours, actions speak louder and
more eloquently than my words.
The Texas Chapter has a reputation for innovative programs. Certainly this
one on the future of the information profession is no exception. The
approach of the millennium has prompted many of us to take a closer look
at what the future holds. It's exciting and more than a bit overwhelming.
I find myself asking: "Will we (info pros, knowledge managers, database
designers, archive architects, online engineers and librarians) be ready,
willing and able to make the changes, understand the issues, and
anticipate the trends? What's new? What lies ahead? What's worthwhile?
And, who knows?
Then, just as quickly I start wondering: "How did I get here? Where were
my professional orgins? Who were my influences? Did I change or did the
circumstances? Did I use a guide? Find a coach? Have a mentor? And, what
roadmap did I have to navigate this uncharted territory?
For the moment, I abandon my two destop computers, my think Pad, my email,
listservs, intranets, web access, full-text databases, online catalogs; I
discard my preoccupation about downsizing and delayering, restructuring
and
repurposing, and head outdoors . . . away from the virtual world and
toward the natural one. I will return, of course, but for now I need to
feel my way through this changing world and future shock, as well as think
it through.
The Year 2000 undoubtedly will offer both good news and bad news. Not
everyone is going to find success and rewards in the years ahead. Some of
us the information profession will have to make radical changes in
redefining our work and ourselves.
All of which may be responsibile for a sense of unease, of not knowing
exactly which way to turn. Hence, the debut of what I call, in this race
toward the millennium
THE JANUS PERSPECTIVE!
I begin looking forward and backward almost simultaneously. Of course,
anniversaries, big and little ones, job changes, economic shifts, send us
all searching for reasons, opportunities, vision statements, retrospective
views, pathfinders. It's "The Past in Progress." Or it's "Back to the
Future."
Actually I'm not alone here. The media have been doing this kind of thing
for centuries. Reporters and editors keep "tickler" files as aids to
recall the last big event," the first or the fifth or the 50th
anniversaries of everything from technological inventions, political
scandals, labor disputes, civil wars to natural disasters. For news
organizations, whose primary business is, after, "news," there seems to be
a lot of effort spent recapping, repackaging historical events. Time lines
and chronologies routinely appear in print and on web pages and,
frequently, it is librarians who prepare them. Often this kind of review
is referred to as "context."
It was just this sort of thing that prompted Bill Chase (a former news
librarian for the Flint (Michigan) Journal to publish his
"tickler" file over 40 years ago. It became Chase's Calendar of Annual
Events. The 1998 edition is available in CD-ROM.
Which brings me, in some convoluted fashion back to the future . . . to my
state of North Carolina, known for its timber, textiles, tobacco and high
tech. Curiously, I'm not going to talk about high tech, nor am I going to
discuss tobacco or textiles. That leaves timber. Or, to be more specific,
one particular tree -- known as Davie Poplar in the heart of the
UNC-Chapel Hill campus.
It came to pass in October of 1993 that UNC celebrated its bicentennial.
It was a full-blown gala with the President and his retinue and security,
the governor of North Carolina and state legislators, chancellors from
major universities in colorful academic regalia, high school marching
bands, illustrious alumnae from all over the world, coming together to
toast and cheer the university's earliest beginnings and perhaps,
recapture the robust energy that gave rise to UNC, the nation's first
public institution of higher learning.
Frankly, it was all just a bit over the top.
There was one event that somehow touch deeply all who witnessed it,
somehow definitively forging a unique link between 1793 and 1993.
Two hundred years ago Richardson Davie and two other citizens camped under
a tall poplar. So impressed with the view, Davie recommended that this
land be set aside for the education of North Carolina's youth. Very
far-sighted at the time.
And so it happened. It certainly wasn't easy. That tree became known as
Davie Poplar and survives today, even after Hurricane Fran in 1996
uprooted too many other giant trees on the campus.
Now what, you may reasonably ask, does a big, old tree have to do with the
future? Well, now, therein lies the story. And for me it is the best
example of "THE JANUS PERSPECTIVE."
When it came time to contribute ideas about just how to commemorate the
University's bicentennial, a faculty member suggested collecting seeds
from Davie Poplar and thus propagate new trees, one for each of our 100
counties. Well, that seemed like a nice idea, but did not quite capture
the essence of what our University stood for.
It wasn't until another faculty member, who suggested that we should think
about the impact of this celebration on the coming century, that the
concept seemed to coalesce.
We speculated further.
What if we could determine who might be among the state's entering
freshman class of 2000? Ten year olds in 1993 would be about the right age
to enter UNC in the millennium. Then, what if we could select some of
these Carolina ten year olds to come to the campus, collect their young
Davie Poplars, return to their schools, plant the trees, care for them,
watching them grow as they themselves do. And then, who in our University
system would be the best person, the most recognized individual to ten
year olds, who would present the saplings to young children? There was
really only one name on the list. It was Tar Heel basketball coach Dean
Smith. He knows more than a little about nurturing young, talented
students to greatness.
So the day came. Two ten year olds, a boy and a girl, from each of our 100
counties gathered on the green quad in folding chairs under the venerable
Davie Poplar. Bright banners from each of the counties framed the area,
serving as backdrops for the 100 four-feet tall junior poplars. Over 1,000
people were watching as Coach Smith entered and proceeded to present
certificates and trees to each pair of kids. Light bulbs flashed as the
ten year olds stepped up and claimed their future.
What's the significance of this story? I guess I'm still wondering about
that myself, but as I watched that day, I became convinced that not all
connections have to be wired and certainly all networks don't have to be
virtual to work minor miracles. There is a time for human interaction with
the past and the future. And once in a while, the link can be a ten year
old kid.
So my message to all of you, as you consider the future and your options,
is to be on the lookout for the younger generation. Keep your gaze on the
horizon, but look over your shoulder once in a while and remember where
you've been. You won't lose your way.
And as you progress, you'll discover your own JANUS PERSPECTIVE, which is
really little more than developing the three senses,
- A sense of direction: where you're going and how you'll get there
- A sense of balance: the judgment to understand not only how to do the
right things, but how to do things right
- A sense of humor: learning how to take one's work serious, but not
one's self.
Thank you for listening. I look forward to meeting each of you and
learning about your perspectives.
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