de Stricker

Liberating Buried Information: Access is Not Enough, and Indexing is Expensive

Many years ago, brilliant innovators at Statistics Canada, Carleton University, and the Social Science Federation of Canada conceived the notion of "liberating" otherwise locked-up data files to deliver them to universities across Canada for the use of researchers.  Project DLI, Data Liberation Initiative (www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/dli-idd-eng.htm), ranks in my view as among the most successful schemes to put information collected for one purpose to work in support of other purposes. 

 

Letting the files out was step one, but the challenge was finding exactly where data on specific topics resided.  Searching was just like looking for a needle in a haystack until a standard - called Data Documentation Initiative or DDI - permitted indexing at the variable level and used XML structures combined with powerful search functionality to find buried data treasures and display them in context - see http://search1.odesi.ca/ as an example.  The investment in the indexing was required before the full value of the access could be realized.

 

DLI and DDI came to mind recently during a discussion about the challenges associated with finding buried text information - information contained for example in printed or imaged reports but not detectable by a search engine or catalog search function because the catalog records or metadata for the reports aren't sufficiently detailed.  The question was raised, "could we go back and include in the catalog record the table of contents of a report and abstracts of chapters?"  In other words, could we "liberate" the details held in the body of each report?  The answer:  Certainly we could - if we could afford it.  In-depth indexing of information objects to provide intellectually value-added precision and granularity in searching is very expensive because it requires time consuming work by professionals familiar with the subject matters at hand. 

 

Digitization of print materials provides a major boost to information discoverability, but we are all familiar with the avalanche syndrome - what's the use of retrieving a huge list of documents containing a search term any old place in the text?  The one paragraph we need right now to solve a particular problem is in there … but it is beyond our practical reach.  It's ironic that without indexing, printed and electronic objects present similar retrieval challenges when it comes to unearthing the nugget buried on page 78.

 

The case for investing in indexing to assure future retrievability is obvious in concept.  Funding the activity is another story.  The takeaway for today's information object creators is simple:  Whenever we consign an object to a repository no matter how informal, let's be mindful not just of attaching metadata where possible but also of incorporating in prominent places such vocabulary as might assist future searchers when they are attempting to dig it up.

 

Working for a Vendor: Look Into It

At the Ontario Library Association Superconference just concluded, I once again had the opportunity to gaze out over a large exhibit hall full of vendors devoting a great deal of effort and expense to give customers and potential customers the opportunity to speak directly with representatives.  Seeing so many information industry companies in one place always reminds me to encourage those seeking employment to include in their searches entities in the publishing, software, library systems, and related areas.  True, being a vendor representative is a subspecialty in our profession - and not one for which formal education prepares new professionals explicitly.  Some students actually say "oh no, I could never be in sales".  My answer is always "ah, but it's not sales, it's customer service!".

 

A few colleagues who have recently "gone over to the other side" have contrasted library work with what they felt was a more daunting exposure as vendor representatives.  They were right on the money in identifying a key feature of the front line job experience of vendor representatives:  Unable to promise any kind of product or service enhancement and unable to provide technical detail explaining, say, a functionality glitch, they are in the hot seat in two ways:  They are expected by their employers to portray products and services in a positive light with consummate professionalism; and they are expected to react to any criticism with consummate poise. 

 

Fortunately, customers tend to be understanding when they feel they are hearing the full story.  One thing customers value especially highly is the ability of a vendor representative to make executive decisions - granting a free trial of an online service, for example.  It is my hope that vendors look for ways to give their new representatives as much leeway as possible here - after all, it's a win win when the (potential) customer is pleased and when the representative experiences the satisfaction of making it happen.

 

If you are looking for work and feel uneasy about a vendor role, let me assure you:  Customer facing positions in the information industry are perfect for information professionals.  Your value proposition for getting hired is that potential customers react well to dealing with a fellow professional.  Your value to the employer over time is the "consultative selling" you are able to execute as you assist customers select the best options, implement them, promote a new product to end users, and so on.

 

A designated seating area where vendors and job seekers may meet for informal discussions could be a good addition to any exhibit hall.  Just my 2 cents!

 

More on Information Credentials and Continuing Education

In response to the February 10 post, Wendy Reynolds provided the following comment: 

 

Fascinating post, Ulla. I wonder if some of these jobs come after a few years of experience in the workplace. How much can one degree program include, and still provide an meaningful educational experience? If the program goes in too many directions, there's a risk that the marketplace won't know what to do with the grads. Communication is going to be a really important piece of this. I'll be watching with interest.

 

With her permission, I shared it with Bruce Stewart, the new Director of the Professional Learning Centre at University of Toronto's Faculty of Information, who in turn permitted me to share his reply:

 

When I think about degree programs, what I see is a stream coherent and comprehensive enough to allow those who complete the Masters level to assume a professional role and to allow those who so wish to carry on into the stronger research focus of the Doctoral stream.

 

Continuing education, therefore, takes up the slack vis-à-vis the changing careers of the degree holders. There are also — particularly in the records management field — many who are transferred in to do clerical/process-oriented jobs who never did hold the professional degree, and these are catered to where the need makes sense. For those with the Masters degree out in the workforce, however, continuing education should keep them up to date in their field and give them paths to move amongst the Information space streams as their roles evolve and grow. A librarian, for instance, might find him/herself driving a project to define the information architecture for an online service in the future: while there are IA experts, some "new background" would be needful, and this is a need we should be able to meet.

 

The mark of a true profession — say, law or medicine — is the requirement from the professional society for continuing education to retain the right to practice. The Information professions do not yet share this characteristic, but it is — as engineers have shown for years — a good touchstone to have. (IT "professionals", despite a half-century of aspirations toward professional recognition, have not shared that commitment, and I suspect that's one of the solid reasons they are not seen to be professionals in the same way as are solicitors or surgeons or even chartered accountants or professional engineers.)

 

In our Faculty's "space", the Information Management and Records Management areas have the least sense of professional definition; Librarians and Museum curators do understand themselves to be professionals, but do not yet have the full public recognition of being "a profession" as the Law Society or College of Physicians does. But, because our "space" for continuing education is as broadly defined as it needs to be to keep pace with the Faculty's research interests and teaching, our catalogue will always (I suspect) feel "more scattered" than Continuing Legal Education or Continuing Medical Education programs do to the outside viewer.

 

I hope the way we revamp our catalogue (online and in print) will help make some of that apparent confusion go away over time.

 

Many thanks to Wendy and Bruce for their input!

Addendum to Feb 10: Wendy Reynolds' November 2009 Post

Wendy Reynolds kindly reminded me of one of her previous posts:  Dealing with the outlook for information professionals' jobs, it's highly relevant to my recent focus - check it out at http://www.slaw.ca/2009/11/01/speaking-out/#comments

The Relevance of Information Credentials: We have Work to Do

My fellow instructors in the Professional Learning Centre at the University of Toronto Faculty of Information and I had the occasion recently to meet with its new Director, Bruce Stewart (www.ischool.utoronto.ca/news-events/news/professional-learning-centre-welcomes-its-new-director).  During our meeting, we touched on the ramifications of the fact that "information credentials" prepare professionals for many jobs and functions going far beyond the traditional ones.  We each could relate personal experience illustrating how expertise in the management of records, documents, information objects such as multimedia clips, intellectual property rights, and other variations of information and knowledge is relevant in workplaces that are likely outside the job search scope for recent MIS graduates and mid-to-late career changers alike - and similarly out of view for managers looking for qualified personnel.  We see a need for efforts to bring together the cadre of employers needing information professionals, but not labeling them as such, and the cadre of information professionals whose skills are easily transferable to a wide range of settings.

 

As an example, some information professionals work as business analysts.  Wouldn't information credentials be relevant in facets of safety and security work as well?  Public policy analysis and development deserves a closer look as a career path for information professionals; information forensics could prove a fascinating line of work, and so on.  However, "we're not there yet".  For starters, typical job descriptions, classifications, and assessments require tuning to accommodate the contributions skilled information professionals are in reality able to bring to the table.

 

Our discussion turned to the need for supplementing technical information related skills with "soft" ones associated with organizational dynamics, interpersonal communication, the art of influencing at the grassroots and senior decision maker levels, managerial and political savvy, and the like.  Something as basic as presenting oneself convincingly to a potential employer outside traditional mainstream work settings was pointed to as an example of a skill area often receiving insufficient attention.

 

Working to assist our course attendees widen their skills and their career scopes, we instructors in effect participate in a permanent campaign to deliver the benefits of information credentials in new domains such as the ones suggested here.  There is much work to be done, and I for one look forward to the ongoing process of doing my part.  Welcome, Bruce!