If you have had difficulty filling professional and management positions in your library or if you are concerned about the estimated 50% of library professionals and workers retiring in the next five to ten years, this is an important conference for you to attend. A group of highly qualified and innovative speakers will help you to prepare for the future, recruit and retain qualified people, initiate programs to develop needed skills and competencies and understand the differing needs and career expectations of younger workers.

The conference, entitled "Facing the Challenges of an Aging Workforce: Succession Planning Strategies for Libraries and Information Management Organizations," is hosted by Vicki Whitmell of Whitmell & Associates. It will be held in Ottawa, Ontario on April 25 and and 26, 2003 at the National Library of Canada. This conference builds on the momentum generated and ideas and concerns raised at a similar conference held in Toronto in November 2002.

The two-day conference will focus on how organizations can best understand the issues, identify needed skills and competencies, set appropriate short and long term strategies, assist employees to meet their individual needs and ensure that a properly trained and adequate number of workers will be available in the future. There will be an attempt to put the statistics into perspective and to determine what can be done on an individual, organizational and professional basis to make sure that information organizations continue to attract and retain the best employees.

An impressive group of speakers from inside and outside of the library community will present at the conference. They include: Joanne Gard Marshall (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Stephen Abram (Micromedia Proquest), William Curran (Concordia University), Deborah Defoe (Kingston Frontenac Public Library), Renee Bazile-Jones (unparalled inc.), Pierre Morin (Formation Inc.), Deloitte and Touche (HR Specialists), Julia Goodman (Council of Federal Libraries), Ethel Auster (University of Toronto), Donna Chan (University of Western Ontario), Laura Knapp (LexisNexis Canada), Vicki Whitmell (Whitmell & Associates).

Who Should Attend
Those within public, academic or special library settings, archives, records management organizations, chief librarians, governing boards, employers, supervisors, personnel managers, educators, or anyone interested in or concerned about the need to educate and train, hire, supervise, or compete for qualified staff, and meet the needs of an aging workforce or a new generation of professionals.

Benefits of the Conference
After attending the conference, it is expected that participants will be able to :

• identify best practices on how to reduce the impact on individual organizations as Boomers age and seek differing work and retirement solutions.
• determine the needs of a new generation of professionals who often have a different set of expectations and realities for their careers.
• understand and use competency profiles to develop and evaluate staff.
• learn how to identify, train and promote those currently in their organizations.
• discuss how the information profession as a whole can work together to encourage more students to enter library education and training programs.
• learn how the best organizations are setting processes and planning into place.
• understand how to promote and encourage a diversified workplace.
• be able to take new ideas, possibilities and solutions into their organizations.

For more information contact: Vicki Whitmell, BA, MLS, Whitmell & Associates, whitmell@whitmell.com. Telephone 705-384-7709 or 416-523-8331 (cellular). Fax 705-384-1942.