de Stricker

Talk about a dream job: LinkedIn to open office in Canada, will need staff

Having had a profile on LinkedIn for a very long time, I was recently surprised to find that some MLIS students weren't familiar with the service.  I suggested in the strongest possible terms that they get busy creating their profiles later the same day!

LinkedIn management may not instinctively look to the information profession to fill upcoming positions in the just-announced new office in Canada … but we could encourage it.  Have a look at the Financial Post article at http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2738867 and be sure to check out the links to related stories … great food for thought there.

In the business of connecting people and information and connecting people with people, we information professionals are in a position to offer the LinkedIn team our experience with content management including the applicable categorization and labeling, usability, alerting services, and collaboration tools (to name just a few relevant areas).  We could turn out to be a good source of product development suggestions; one coming quickly to mind is that a template or similar tool would be helpful in assisting profile writers go beyond the standard resume-like model to include descriptions of skills in such a way as to demonstrate their transferability.  In fact, a transferable-skills focus might just be a good angle for the new auto-match feature being tested now http://blog.linkedin.com/2010/03/22/linkedin-profile-match/.

LinkedIn has demonstrated impressive product development over its lifetime.  Wouldn't it be one cool job to help the team continue? 

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!