Deborah Hunt

Deborah Hunt, part-time Library Technology instructor at DVC for more than 15 years and recently named its Library Technology curriculum coordinator, has been voted president-elect of the global Special Libraries Association (SLA).

The Special Libraries Association was founded in 1909 in the state of New York, and now is the international association representing the interests of more than 9,500 information professionals in more than 80 countries worldwide. 

Hunt has been very active in SLA locally and globally, as well as in other library and information professionals associations. Since joining the SLA in 1986, she has served as a director on the SLA Board of Directors (2008-2010); chaired the creation and recent update of SLA’s online professional development initiative, 23 Things; and served on the Information Ethics Advisory Council (2008-2010). She is currently chair of the Leadership and Management Division’s (LMD) nominating committee, and serves on the Professional Development Advisory Council (2008-present).

In 2008, Hunt received an SLA Presidential Citation for 23 Things, and was awarded the Karen J. Switt Leadership Award from the LMD in 2009.

“Most people have not heard of special libraries,” Hunt said, “but they exist worldwide in almost any sector of industry, organizations and academia, such as Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, and museums, as well as in law, math, and other subject areas in colleges within universities.

“The information professionals who staff [these libraries] often have subject expertise,” she continued, “and support the mission of the organization through in-depth research and analysis. They cut through the glut of information to provide key insights to top management, and so much more, all the while contributing to the well-being and sustainability of the organization. These info pros are not your ‘grandmother’s librarian’.”

In addition to her work with SLA, Hunt is an independent information professional and is the principal of Information Edge
(www.information-edge.com), which specializes in value-added research, knowledge services, enterprise content management, and library creation and automation.

She is an active member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) and served on the board of directors from 2001-2003. For 14 years, Hunt was a senior information specialist at the Exploratorium. Her responsibilities included developing and maintaining the Exploratorium website and instituting collaboration in formal and informal education communities worldwide. She co-chaired a major internal information infrastructure initiative, implementing knowledge management services to improve staff access to internal and external sources of information.

Hunt has worked and consulted in a number of different types of libraries and organizations, including academic, special and medical, and industries such as engineering and design. She earned her MLS degree from UC Berkeley, and is a certified enterprise content management practitioner (ECMp).