In collegial discussions about trends having affected our careers, one phenomenon tends to rise to the top: Disintermediation. The doing away with the research intermediary transformed our profession irrevocably and entirely altered the way in which we serve, and communicate about our services to, our clients. It took some time, but in the end we collectively decided "the intermediation train had left the station" and got on with myriad ways of assisting our clients in doing their own research.
To no one's surprise, the "everyone for himself" research model generated a lot of dissatisfaction, in turn feeding a busy industry of public search providers and vendors of enterprise search solutions. Users looking for information have a lot of options but often express dismay at the bewildering variety of those options and the impossibility of determining which ones are preferable.
Now, a different term offers the intriguing possibility of the train returning: Curation. Typically associated with archives or museums, the term refers to the act of collecting and arranging for others' viewing a number of objects - a wiki manager curates the content in it or a content manager is the curator of intranet information. If the curator in question happens to be an expert whose judgment can be trusted in terms of what information to collect and arrange - and in some cases with respect to any commentary provided - those making use of the curated collection have a high level of confidence they are spared all the useless clutter and are offered "just the good stuff". When I hear "the best place to get X type information is Y source, right?" I know the inquirer is looking for such confidence.
In a twist on traditional indexing and abstracting services whose goal was and is comprehensive coverage of a defined body of scientific or professional or news sources, some bloggers and organizations focusing on a particular subject matter have established themselves over time as authoritative sources of guidance. In effect, they become "first port of call" because they consistently provide good quality results for users. As one example, a recent Beyond Search blog post describing a targeted new blog entitled Backnotch (http://backnotch.com/) states "online has moved from vertical search to vertical 'finding' services" (see http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2011/04/27/vertical-blog-a-new-spin-in-online/). Aha, is intermediation back?
In the past, we held the intermediary role when our clients came to us, described the research need at hand, and went about their business knowing we would, in the time agreed, deliver (at least a solid first pass at) useful information. Now, we can occupy a new version of the role when we take it upon ourselves to curate - select and comment on - information for clients with special interests. The key differentiator between old style current awareness ("here is today's harvest of content mentioning topic X") and curation ("here is what I believe warrants your time today regarding topic X and why") is … yes, judgment and knowledge. Some information professionals have shied away from applying it, believing clients are the ones to choose for themselves; however - in my humble opinion - today's realities deny clients the luxury of reviewing large amounts of information. As business partners with our clients, we owe them the service of curation - intermediation with expertise. Sure, that will open the age old generalist-vs-subject-matter-specialist conversation … but isn't that a good thing as we keep working to refine our roles and enhance our professional value?
