Crosswalk to SLA Competencies

With the Crosswalk to the SLA Competencies, we hope to bridge systems thinking terminology with the vocabulary used by information professionals. We also hope that reflection on your work and your role in your organization in the light of systems thinking principles will inspire a fresh approach to the way you interact with others in the organization and greater insights into your role in facilitating the flow of information across departmental boundaries, in fostering organizational learning, and in understanding the impact-both pro and con-of services implemented and cancelled.

The Crosswalk is intended to Illustrate connections between systems thinking, personal assessment and the competencies our profession has highlighted as laudable and required for success in the information fields. The SLA competencies serve as grounding for the value of systems thinking concepts in relation to expertise in our profession. ⁽¹⁾

The articles mapped to in the “Related literature and web resources” column of the Crosswalk have been selected from the brief bibliography accompanying this site ⁽²⁾. In the crosswalk, these articles are also linked to the various personal assessment probes ⁽³⁾. The articles and web resources were chosen because they either illustrate or support the value of adopting the behavior(s) suggested by the associated assessment probes. Certainly other pertinent articles exist; however we felt this set provides readers a start in learning more about systems thinking behaviors they have yet to demonstrate in their own professional work. Note that these articles are intended to go beyond the systems thinking work by Peter Senge and his colleagues, but we urge you to refer to his works for additional ideas and support.