Librarian of Fortune

SLA's Alignment Project

I've been following the progress of the Special Libraries Association's "Alignment Project", in which SLA is taking an in-depth and strategic look at how both the association and its members are perceived, what their key value is, and how to communicate that value. What's making it difficult for members to grok is that the project is looking at two different questions:

* what is the key value SLA provides to its members, and what its role should be
and
* what is the key value that SLA members provide to their organization, and what their role should be

The proposal to change the name of SLA is driven from this project, but that's not all the project is about. There are some great insights in there for any info pro. Following are some of my key take-aways so far:

Huge discrepancies exist between what the C-suite values and what value we think we provide. Fascinating – 42% of info pros said their most valuable info role is “conducting research on users’ behalf”, vs. only 19% of users who considered that as the most valuable role. 28% of info pros said “managing a physical library”, vs. just 8% of users. Ditto for evaluating and purchasing content sources, staffing a reference desk, and document delivery -- a lot of us info pros believe that these are our most important contributions, but that's not what our funders value.

And what did users value more highly than we info pros did? Providing CI information, managing internal content, research staff working on project teams, managing a portal or intranet, integrating content into work processes -- all the really value-adding activities we do. These are all "librarian" responsibilities, properly considered, but they sure aren't what most people (including our bosses and the C-suite) think a librarian does.

Interestingly, across the board, the users identify and value the more strategic aspects of our service. We consistently value activities that are required but are not added value.

That's a lot of the value to me of the alignment project so far. It highlights the disconnect between what we think we contribute and what the C-suite values, and it shows the need for us to continue to focus more on adding value rather than on the administrative and search aspects of our profession. That's big stuff, and I'm glad that we have some tangible evidence of the messages we need to bring (and the actions we have to take) to be seen as the strategic assets we are.

My SLA candidate speeches

As much public speaking as I do, I don't often see myself speaking. So it is with a bit of trepidation that I'm pointing to two video clips I did during the SLA conference.

This one is my "who am I and why am I running for Division Cabinet Chair-Elect" speech
and this is a shorter one talking about adding value.

(Here's more about where I stand on The Issues.)

The Kameny Papers

At the 2009 annual conference of the Special Libraries Association in Washington DC, the GLBT caucus brought in Charles Francis, a Washingtonian who is a friend of Frank Kameny, a founder of the modern gay movement for civil equality. Francis, apparently single-handedly, arranged to have Kameny's amazing collection of historical material and artifacts appraised, arranged for donors to pay Kameny for the collection (Kameny spent most of his adult life advocating for gay rights... not a lucrative career), and getting the material accepted by the Library of Congress. This project, the Kameny Papers is an amazing effort, even more so because it was spearheaded by one man who knew Kameny.

When the Library of Contress said they'd be interested in this amazing collection of historical material and artifacts from the early gay rights movement of the 1950s, they wrote to Francis:

Accurate history requires primary material created contemporaneously with the events under question. [...] Abstraction is often the enemy of historical understanding.  A comprehensive understanding of history requires that historians, and those who read history, see how government policies and public attitudes affected real individuals and how individuals reacted, adjusted, and grappled with their position. 

Check out the web site to see some of the correspondence Kameny had with various government agencies.

 

See you at SLA 2009 Conference

Join me at the SLA Conference, June 13-17

Publish or Perish: the who, what, when, where, why and how of e-newsletter publishing - Ticketed Event #300
Saturday, Jun 13, 2009
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: Convention Center 209A

Information centers and libraries face the never-ending need to communicate their value within the organization. One of the most effective ways of establishing a strong reputation with their various constituencies is to publish e-newsletters. This lively half-day workshop gives participants all the skills they need to produce internal electronic newsletters — how to use them as powerful marketing tools, templates for creating attractive and professional e-newsletters, and best practices from the info pro perspective.
This workshop assumes that you aren’t already a newsletter expert, a writer or a marketing whiz. We will cover topics such as:
-What's the Point? Building brand awareness, promoting internal information resources.
-What Will It Look Like?
-What Will Be In the E-Newsletter?
-What Other Issues Should I Consider?
-How Do I Promote My E-Newsletter?

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Building Your CI Skills, Part 1: Using the Opaque and "New" Web for Competitive Intelligence Research - Ticketed Event #415
Sunday, Jun 14, 2009
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Convention Center 207B

Strategies and Tools for CI Research on the Web: This lively course will provide fresh approaches, strategies and methodologies to conducting in-depth competitive intelligence research on the web. This session provides tools for searching the invisible and deep web, areas that are not accessible through search engines. It also examines how to "look sideways" to glean new information from sources that do not, on their face, appear to be resources for CI research, including blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, and other Web 2.0 content.

Through discussion and exercises, attendees will creatively perform and apply in-depth competitive intelligence research using these sources, and analyze and synthesize this information into accurate answers and actionable information. This session can be taken as a stand-alone course, or it can be taken in conjunction with Building Your CI Skills, part 2.

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Building Your CI Skills, Part 2: What Do I Do After I Log Off? - Ticketed Event #530
Sunday, Jun 14, 2009
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: Convention Center 207B

Adding Value As A CI Practitioner: the ability to truly create added value and to make that value evident to our clients is something that is learned; it is not intuitive nor is it necessarily a part of many information professionals’ skill set. This workshop will equip SLA members to strengthen their role within their organization, enhance the position and perceived value of the information center as a source of competitive knowledge, and develop their CI skills in order to better meet their organization’s information needs. This session may be taken as a standalone course, or may be taken in conjunction with Building Your CI Skills, part 1.

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Painless (No, really!) Negotiating -
Monday, Jun 15, 2009
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Location: Convention Center 147B

Many more things are negotiable than we may think; in fact, much of life involves negotiation, and the effects of not negotiating can be cumulative. This presentation helps you identify who is "the boss of you," develop your ability to reframe challenging situations, and build tools to enhance your negotiation skills and approach every situation as negotiable.

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Annual Reports: Reading and Interpreting Company Financials -
Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Location: Convention Center 143C

More than just statistics, companies' annual reports and financial statements can be a wealth of information for the business researcher and the CI analyst. Mary Ellen Bates will provide you with the tools to understand financial reports and provide your clients with analysis in addition to just the facts.

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SPOTLIGHT SESSION -- Creating Groupies: How to Add Value, Make Yourself Irreplaceable & Beat the Pants Off Google -
Wednesday, Jun 17, 2009
8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Location: Convention Center 145A

It's no longer enough to efficiently and cost-effectively find the most reliable information available; we also have to ensure that our organization understands the skills we bring to the table. This Spotlight Session looks at practical ways that we can add value to our research products, develop the services that our clients can't find elsewhere and can't imagine living without, and demonstrate that relying on Google (or any other search engine) for making critical decisions is folly.

What’s the Future of SCIP and the Competitive Intelligence Profession?

Ellen Naylor wrote a thoughtful blog post, What’s the Future of SCIP and the Competitive Intelligence Profession?. I've been active in AIIP (one of SCIP's perceived competitors) for 20 years, and have watched as SCIP grew very rapidly and then seemed to founder. My impression had always been that SCIP suffered from high membership churn, because (as Ellen points out) most members don't identify as full-time CI professionals and IMO because most CI people are moving through the corporate ranks and not intending to make it a career.

SLA does customization

Cool! Special Libraries Association's web site now has a QuickLinks feature on the front page, where you can set up your own bookmarks for pages within the SLA site. This saves me several clicks for the places I go frequently and, yes, those clicks add up to literally minutes over the course of a year!

My only gripe is that SLA hasn't figured out how to create a direct sla.org URL for its blog, and the QuickLinks require www.sla.org/ at the beginning of each URL. Sure would be nice to have that one click away -- right now, the QuickLink goes to a list of all the SLA blogs.

Twitter is a blog

I just posted a newsletter article on my take on Twitter. Twitter = blog host. Following someone = subscribing to their RSS feed. My Twitter page = my blog. Not a perfect analogy, but at least it moves past both "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn what you had for breakfast" and "If you aren't twittering, you're tragically un-hip."

Google's new search experiments

The official Google blog just announced Google's More Search Options feature that I blogged about back in March. Interestingly, it's no longer working reliably for me.

But it also rolled out Preferred Sites, where you can specify specific URLs that you want ranked more highly. Search results from those sites are flagged so you notice them.

SLA candidate comments

Over at the Special Libraries Association blog, the board candidates are being asked questions about the info profession. The first question asked us for the two most significant issues facing SLA and the information profession. Mine are:

 

1. Our ability to adapt rapidly to changing environments.

The pace of innovation seems to be following Moore’s Law and accelerating at an exponential rate. What were best practices five years ago no longer address the complex information retrieval and management issues info pros face. SLA has done an amazing job of developing new and innovative ways to provide continuing education and professional development to members. I will continue to explore new ways that our professional skills can best be leveraged within our organizations, and to work to get those skills honed through SLA professional development avenues.

 

When I think of the enormous changes our profession experienced with the emergence of the web, and then the explosion of new ways of creating information and networks on the collaborative web, I can’t help but wonder what the next game-changer will be. I will work to have SLA lead by example in continuing to provide early warning of the next revolutionary changes in the infosphere.

 

2. Our ability to surface who we are and what we do.

One of Arthur C. Clarke’s laws of prediction was Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Our challenge is that any sufficiently advanced info pro is equally indistinguishable from magic, and that means that our organizations often aren’t able to understand what goes on behind the scenes. Information happens, and most people don’t stop to wonder how.

 

We have to see ourselves from the outside, and find ways to articulate the value we do provide. The SLA Alignment Project is an exciting initiative to learn how best to discuss the “value, benefit and impact provided to [our] organizations.” I will work to look at the value, benefit and impact SLA provides to our members, so that we as an organization can lead by example as we recruit new members who value what we offer.

 

Mary Ellen Bates

Candidate for Division Cabinet Chair-elect

"This hurts me more than it hurts you"

I do a fair amount of strategic coaching with fellow info-entrepreneurs as well as corporate and specialized librarians, and one issue that frequently comes up is having to pull back from providing the level of information services that we want to provide. How so?

Early in my library career, the library budget was cut significantly. Our reaction was to cut back on staff, reduce the funding of professional development, and otherwise cannibalize our operation. Then I watched as Congress cut the Department of Interior's budget, which resulted in a severe reduction in the funds for the National Park Service, which is under Interior. How did the NPS react? By making Congress hurt. They very publicly closed the Washington Monument, with a sign directing unhappy tourists to the other end of the Mall, where members of Congress had their offices. It usually took no more than a few days of being flooded by unhappy constituents for Congress to rethink its spending priorities and restore the NPS budget.

I learned from that, and the next time the library budget was cut, the first thing I eliminated was the popular daily news digest. I announced to all the readers why it was being "suspended", and asked for their comments on whether this service should be re-funded. Sure enough, it didn't take long before I had the budget restored. It's not a pretty process, but neither is eating into the behind-the-scenes budget and not allowing library clients to see the impact of the lost funding. Instead, bringing all the library's stakeholders into the discussion ensured that the people who held the purse strings knew that we had a posse.

I just put this principle of "share the pain" into action again, but it was hard. I extensively edit a client's newsletter which she sends out to her key contacts. She recently had to cut my budget significantly and we agreed that I would do only a small amount of high-level editing instead of my full editing services. I still find myself tempted to just tweak the wording a little bit to make it clearer, or dig into the web sites of a company she is profiling, or just clean up this chart a little... Then I remind myself that, if she can't see a significant drop in the amount of editorial support I give, she will never bump me up to my original fee. So I sit on my hands as I read, now, and just keep reminding myself that the only way she will decide that my editorial skills are worth the added expense is to be without them.