About This Project
Lorri Zipperer has worked with fellow information professionals, Sara Tompson and Rebecca Corliss, on a variety of projects since 1996. Together they developed a continuing education course, Systems Thinking for Librarians (presented at the SLA Annual Conference in Nashville in June 2004), as an outgrowth of their interest in systems thinking concepts and the sense that systems thinking principles could be highly relevant to librarians and information professionals. An Endowment Fund grant was awarded by SLA in late 2004 to Lorri Zipperer and Jan Sykes to study the relationship between systems thinking concepts and the SLA competencies. The DBIO sponsored the grant request.
The Systems Thinking Perspective Project is the result of that work. This website is the cornerstone of the project. We believe it will provide a professional growth opportunity via the self-assessment tool, bibliography on the topic and forum for exchange of ideas.
Project manager, Lorri Zipperer (M.A., Library & Information Science, Northern Illinois University, 1991), is the principal at Zipperer Project Management. For most of her professional career, she has worked as an information professional in the healthcare arena. She is a published author in alternative roles for librarians, patient safety, medical reference, information management and visioning. She currently consults on information and knowledge management, publication and content creation, and patient safety information awareness issues. She has received honors from the medical and library and information science community for her publishing work. Lorri is also active professionally by filling elected and invited positions within the Special Libraries Association and serves on the steering committee for the Chicago Patient Safety Forum. She is a 2004-2005 Patient Safety Leadership Fellow and will explore the impact of bibliographic information and tacit knowledge on the learning organization in health care. Visit www.zpm1.com for more information.
Jan Sykes is President of Information Management Services, Inc. She has over 20 years of experience in the information industry. Prior to establishing Information Management Services, Jan was Senior Director of Client Services Consulting for Knight-Ridder Information, Inc., (formerly Dialog Information Services). Current consulting engagements are focused on conducting information needs assessments in order to link information consumers with products and services that enable them to be more productive in their work. She also helps clients in various types of organizations with information product evaluations, vendor contract negotiations, strategic planning for information resources, and helps publishers assess new market opportunities. She is active in professional organizations, having served as chair of the SLA Nominating Committee (2005), president of SLA-IL (2002) and a member of the KM Chicago board. Visit www.4Info-Management.com for more information.
Rev. July 2007