Another year older, and better: now entering its fifth year, Click University is expanding its free offerings and adding new programs and services.

April marked the fourth anniversary of the establishment of Click University, SLA's online learning community. The name "Click" stands for Continuous Learning to Improve Career Knowledge, and over its first four years, Click U has not only helped many information professionals improve--it has improved itself as well. In this article, I want to tell you what's new at Click U this year and give you some hints of things to come.

New at the U

If you haven't visited Click U in 2009, you'll find that it's now "free and easy." Let's talk about the easy part first: Click U is now completely integrated with the SLA site. This means that when you visit the SLA site and sign in with your member ID, you're also signing in to Click U. You don't have to sign in separately to each.

Now let's talk about the free part. There are two primary sections of Click U, the Members Only section and the Premium section. The Members Only section is free--the cost of everything in this section is included in your membership, including offerings that used to be available only for a fee. Here's what you get:

* Click U Webinars. This includes the bimonthly live Webinars (formerly $129) and all scheduled and special Webinars, including Gary Price's Research Toolbox and the quarterly panel discussions of our copyright experts. You also get free access to the more than 70 recorded Webinars from the past three years (formerly $89), conveniently organized by topic into four libraries.

* Online libraries. We have now incorporated the Leadership and Management Library into a new and expanded Business Administration Library, which is available in addition to the Knowledge Management Library. In these two libraries you'll find more than 800 e-books with extremely timely and pertinent information.

* execuBooks. These crisp executive book summaries present the core concepts of the best in business literature in 15 minutes of easy reading. With a new title every week, execuBooks enable you to efficiently acquire the knowledge you need to succeed.

* Innovation Lab. After only six months on the SLA Web site, the Innovation Lab has come of age and is now a permanent part of Click U. This resource, initiated and championed by 2008 SLA President Stephen Abram, has been redesigned and updated for 2009.

* Leadership training. Myriad resources are available to help volunteer leaders in chapters and divisions develop and enhance their skills.

* The Career Center. This area contains tools to enhance your career success and help you become indispensable to your clients and organization, as well as job boards that allow you to post your resume and browse available openings.

The Premium section of Click U contains our fee-based offerings, which include the certificate programs and the Annual Conference continuing education courses.

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* Certificate programs. Our certificate programs are offered in three areas: competitive intelligence, copyright management and knowledge management. These three programs allow SLA members to enhance their professional development and expertise.

* Annual Conference continuing education courses. Certificate programs, certificate courses and conference continuing education sessions are open to SLA members and (new for 2009) also to non-members, but only SLA members are eligible to earn IACET CEUs.

A third important section of the Click U site is the Click U Consortium, your doorway to programs and opportunities offered by our university partners. Take advantage of the significant discounts and other advantages that these institutions are offering exclusively to SLA members. The following partners have been added for 2009:

* San Jose State University. Join a cohort of fellow SLA members and earn an online "Executive MLIS" with a focus on business skills and executive-level training.

* Kent State University. Take advantage of the 10 percent tuition discount available for online master's degree programs.

Coming Soon

In the coming months, watch for a Click U campus in Second Life, an online reference collection, and self-paced professional improvement courses. We're also looking to add new partners to the Click U Consortium and to begin developing certificate programs based on a revised version of the Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century.

What isn't changing at Click U (and never will) is our commitment to providing you with the educational resources to reach and stay at the top of your profession. In the June 2005 issue of Information Outlook, Janice LaChance explained that one of the primary reasons for launching Click U was to make learning opportunities for SLA members more accessible. We remain committed to that goal and to continuing to expand and improve the programs and services we provide.

JOHN LOWERY is director of professional development for SLA and has spent more than 25 years in education and training development. Before joining SLA, he developed training programs for various government agencies, ran his own consulting company, and was director of education and training for two large software companies.

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