As Megan Wiseman tells us, we all  make personal goals where we want to lose weight, workout more and be better people – but what kind of New Year’s Resolutions can we make for our professions? That is the subject of this week’s Elephant Post Question. Enjoy the contributions, and let us know if you have any New Year’s Resolutions that you’ve made!

Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post to see next week’s Elephant Post question… one with “Heroic” stature.

Law Librarian Perspective
Megan Wiseman
Popular New Year’s Resolutions…

I admit that I researched popular resolutions before coming up with my answer.  As a law librarian I had to, of course, vet the source.  Here’s Usa.gov’s list.

So I say we go with the trendy answers this year:

Get a Better Education:  One of the core values of librarianship promoted by the ALA is “”education and lifelong learning”” – we should embrace that.

Get fit:  Weed those collections!

Lose weight:  Technology is changing so fast that perhaps it is time to lose some of the weight and embrace the e-trend in publishing.  (Still waiting for Santa to being me an iPad though, hint hint)  🙂

Take a trip:  Member of a professional organization?  Plan on attending a local meeting even if you’re not able to make it to a national conference.

Volunteer to help others:  When I was fresh out of school and looking for a job, I volunteered at a public library.  One of my best moves yet.  Or, if you’re set for life professionally, perhaps consider bringing in a practicum student – be a mentor.

Manage stress: You’re on your own for this one… but if you’re reading the 3 Geeks Blog, you’re well on your way to recovery…

Happy New Year, all!!

Knowledge Management Perspective
Sean Luman
Year of the cloud??  maybe

Am I a late adopter if I haven’t yet used the cloud to: …create a document? …share pictures? …post a blog??  2011 would have to be the year I leverage Google Apps and/or other web collaboration tools to a greater extent.

Now that I’ve succumbed to peer pressure and bought an iPad, it’d be nice to take that next big step and become completely untethered from any specific physical location to be electronically productive.

Law Librarian Perspective
Sarah Glassmeyer
Welcome To My Early Mid-Life Crisis

Here’s the thing, Gentle Reader…I have no plans or goals for 2011.

I’m now entering my fifth year of professional employment as a librarian. I don’t want to say that the bloom has come off the rose, because I still love my job and my profession. It’s just that after five years of searching and working hard and struggling, I finally landed in a job and location that I love (Valpo, Indiana), have figured out what I’m passionate about professionally (OA and free law and emerging tech) and I’ve pretty much hit all of the professional goals that I wanted to hit (I present and write, served on national committees, have no interest in running for office…)

So now what? Just keep on keeping on? I actually found myself considering having a baby, but fortunately I remembered that I don’t like children before I started looking for a turkey baster.   I guess the one benefit to this profession is that the landscape is ever changing and so something new will come along and I’ll have something to work towards.  Until then, my resolution is to enjoy my day to day.

Law Librarian/Knowledge Management Perspective
Greg Lambert
Focus On Those Willing To Make Generate & Share Ideas

This is the year that I give up on those unwilling to see that we are living in the 21st Century, and that 20th (or even 19th) Century ideas should no longer be blindly followed. I will focus my energy on those in my profession that are able to generate ideas, and are willing to share them with others. There is a hunger for information, knowledge, intelligence, and analysis that Library/KM/CI/BizDev/Information Professionals can satisfy, and if you do not believe that to be true, then I have no time for you this year. If you’re one of those who are willing to generate and share ideas on how to feed that hunger, then I want to be your ally in 2011.

AFA Perspective
Toby Brown
Focus on the Client

My real clients are the lawyers in my firm.  This year I want to increase my focus on serving them.  It’s too easy to view the firm’s clients as a proper focus, when in reality, the client I serve sits down the hall from me.

So – I resolve to spend more of my time and resources in 2011 helping my clients understand AFAs and how they can positively impact their practices and the firm’s future.  This will mean more time in front of them and on the phone with them.  It will mean more and better internal communications about AFAs and building out more complete AFA resources for them to use.

If I want them to succeed, I’ll really need to practice what I preach.

Here’s to a killer 2011!

Legal Marketing Perspective
Sophia Lisa Salazar
Publish or Perish

Publish more.

I write a lot. I mean, I write everyday. But most of it is squirreled away and never shared: essays, short stories, how-to’s, op-eds, poetry.

I am going to try different vehicles outside of blogs and put my big toe in the pool of hard print.

So this year I have decided it is time: either publish or perish!

Knowledge Management Perspective
Ayelette Robinson
Make a Difference… Thoughtfully

KM is just beginning to get noticed by legal practitioners, and we need to keep that momentum going. But we need to do it carefully and thoughtfully. Making changes in systems and processes is meaningless if it’s not for the better, and self-destructive if it’s for the worse. We have the advantage of our reputation almost being a blank slate — attorneys don’t know what we do, so they don’t have much of an impression of us yet.

Designing a good reputation is so much easier than overturning a negative one, so let’s get it right. Let’s think about how they really practice and how they really want to practice, and not about the coolness of the tool; let’s think about how they want to develop their skills, and what they want to have time for in their day, and not about the number of features we can fit in. So let’s make a difference: let’s build new systems, upgrade existing ones, and work with legal practitioners to make their lives easier. But let’s just remember to do it… thoughtfully.

Information Technologist Perspective
Scott Preston
Embracing Social Media

I resolve to connect with more people, make new friends and learn more about leadership.  I resolve to get to know my clients better, spend more time talking about technology and attending more conferences.  I resolve to further open lines of communication within my IT organization as well as outside the Firm.  I resolve to find new ways to reduce the amount of e-mail traffic I create and consume.

I resolve to do all of this by further adopting social media.  Not just adopting it for my own benefit, but figuring out how to leverage this powerful set of tools to the benefit of my Firm.

Next Week’s Elephant Post:

Who Is Your Professional Hero? Tell Us Why.

We’ve all got our heroes…Mom, Dad, a teacher in High School are traditional ones, but how about in your profession? Who are the heroes in your profession that have changed how you look at your profession? Perhaps it isn’t even a person, but maybe some event or act from a group of people that makes you proud to call your self a professional. Share with us your perspective by going to the easy-to-fill-out Google Docs form.

It’s easy, fast and fun… you know you’ve always wanted to contribute to an Elephant Post… so just go and do it!!