de Stricker

Sharing What We Know: Our Professional Tradition

At the recent Internet Librarian International conference in London UK (www.internet-librarian.com/2010/) I once again had the privilege of meeting with colleagues from all over the world to find out what they are working on, hear about their latest ideas and innovations, see what the concept of “user friendly systems” can mean, and so on.  In addition, the conference is a superb vehicle for catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.  As always, I appreciate the organizers’ efforts to create a dynamic environment for interacting and building on those social networks of ours.

In particular, the conference afforded me the opportunity to catch up with Jane Macoustra – an international information professional of the first order – and hold her new book Global Research without Leaving Your Desk (Chandos, 2010, ISBN 978-1-843343660 - www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=1795&ChandosTitle=1).   In it, Jane puts her 27 years of worldwide research experience to use for the benefit of readers, showcasing resources even seasoned researchers may not have come across.  Jane’s emphasis on understanding how information is collected and treated in various parts of the world – so as to “consider the source” at an entirely deeper level – is an eye opener, and the richness of practical tips (e.g. how to mine discussion lists and blogs and leverage social media, how to search anonymously) is impressive.  I hand it to Jane for compressing so much valuable information into her guide and for having committed to updating it.

I see collegial sharing as one of the prominent characteristics of information professionals, so Jane’s book illustrates for me the “sharing what we know” attitude I have admired for as long as I have been in the profession (and continue to strive to emulate).  Amassing what we have learned during the course of our careers and distilling it into a practical tool for others is our hallmark and a habit I hope we will never lose. 

Jane’s book will be a useful “case in point” for encouraging those entering the profession to be diligent in keeping in the back of their minds the questions “How could I one day share what I have learned to help speed others on their way?  What are the lessons I could pass along?  How could I save others the time and effort in finding out for themselves?  What would be the best way to offer a heads-up so as to point out potential pitfalls and lead the way to golden gems?"  Granted, younger professionals tell me they have a lot on their plates getting oriented in their first jobs, but I want to encourage them anyway:  You, too, will one day be in Jane's shoes, having an awful lot of high-value material to share!

Wondering What Information Career Specialty to Choose? Or Could You Use Some Help?

Thanks to the efforts of Crystal Sharp, Guest Editor, the October 2010 issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology  http://www.asist.org/Bulletin/Oct-10/Bulletin_OctNov10_Final.pdf features contributions from members of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (aiip.org).  In two sections entitled "Research:  Much more than Search and Retrieval" and "Services: Marketing, New Media, Writing, Consulting and Information Management", each contributor describes the value an IP's services brings to clients in a wide range of fields.  Here are succinct overviews of specialized information types and tools providing a fascinating glimpse into the vast range of activities the "information arena" contains. 

For those wondering what specialty to select in an information career, the collection of essays is a superb sampling.  For those wondering whether an IP might assist in their projects, it is one great place to start exploring.  (Note: Additional contributions will follow in February 2011.)  Help yourself:

Adding Value: The Business of Independent Information Professionals

Looking Back, Looking Forward

PART I - Research: Much More Than Search and Retrieval

The Unexpected Value of Research in Biomedical Business

Patents in the Realm of Independent Information Professionals

The IIP and the Small Business High Tech Client

Government Information: Adding Value as an Expert Guide

The Independent Information professional as Government Contractor

Competitive Intelligence: How Independent Information Professionals Contribute to Organizational Success

Business Research Beyond Borders

Today's Genealogist: Providing Value-Added History

PART II - Services: Marketing, New Media, Writing, Consulting and Information Management

Information Professionals and the Nonprofit Sectors

Enhance Your Marketing Productivity: Hire an IIP

Consulting: Helping Clients Plan, Adapt, Choose...and Much More

Social Media: Essential for Research, Marketing and Branding

From Reference Interview to Project Proposal: Defining Client Needs to Ensure Research Success

The Accidental Knowledge Manager: Another Role for Independent Information Professionals

  

Guest Post by David Hook: Where are the Jobs? Part 2 of 2

Leaving the Library Part 2: From the Inside

By David Hook   david.hook@mdacorporation.com

 

So, you tried the first approach (see Part 1) and you didn’t end up finding exactly what you were looking for.  Do you then bite the bullet, grab your copy of AACR2 and doom yourself to a life of traditional library work?  Or is there something else you can do?

 

There is, of course.  And it is (as the title suggests) to start off in a traditional corporate library job and then move to a different job from within the organization. It can be difficult to do, and there is no guarantee of this happening when you take on a traditional library job, but it is still another potential career path.

 

It helps if you are able to find a job working in a fairly large company where there are plenty of opportunities to move around.  On the other hand, smaller organizations can offer opportunities to move as well, as often job roles and departments aren’t so clearly defined.

 

Moving within an organization is much easier to do in fields where there is no professional designation required in order to practice it (such as business or IT) rather than one where there is (such as law, engineering or medicine) unless you either have that professional designation or are willing to get it.

 

One tip for when you are interviewing for a job: feel free to ask about potential career paths and opportunities to move out of the library, but be sure to do it in a way that doesn’t make it sound as if you only see the job as a stepping stone to get you somewhere else. You definitely want to show that you have ambition and you want to find out about opportunities to move around, but you don’t want to give the interviewer the impression that you might not be interested in doing the job under discussion.

 

Once you are working at your traditional library job and are looking for avenues to branch into something slightly different, the most important thing to remember is this: be good.  Be very good.  In other words, you need to master your job in the library first in order to be considered for another role.  If you are only doing an average job in the library, you are not likely going to be considered as someone who can handle additional responsibilities.

 

You may be fortunate enough to find an opening in your organization that suits your career aspirations, but it is more likely there may not be a clearly defined role for you to assume.  This is where you will need to invent a potential role for yourself that doesn’t currently exist.  This route will obviously be a lot harder and will require some creativity on your part.

 

Have a good look at your own strengths and think about where you might be able to add value to the organization.  Suggest to management where you might be able to fill in those gaps with your skill set.  Get involved with various areas of the organization.  There is a growing trend towards embedded librarianship these days; ask to be included on teams and in department meetings.  You may start out providing the research needs for the group, but as you get more and more involved with the team you can start taking on bigger roles. 

 

Going this route will require a great deal of patience, but as long as you can demonstrate that you can offer more value to the organization when given larger responsibilities someone should recognize that you are more valuable managing information-based projects, say, than doing traditional library work.  And if they don’t, be sure to point it out to them.

 

Best wishes for all those new grads looking for non-traditional library work.

Information vs. Meaning: Mining the information in public sources

British publisher Infonortics' recently released Stephen E. Arnold opus, Google Version 2.0:  The Calculating Predator, is a shining example how information becomes meaningful when an analytical mind goes about linking individual, discrete items for potential predictive value.  In the thorough and extensive report (see www.arnoldit.com and www.infonortics.com), Stephen points to the content of patents held (under unassuming titles as is common with patents) by Google employees, their technical papers posted on the net, and their prior work history, making the case that Google is "interested" in certain kinds of technology and applications going way beyond search and advertising.  The suggestion is that before long, our lives will be Googlified through and through, Google having a leading role in many of the tools and functions we take for granted in day to day activities.

Stephen invested 2 years of digging and analysis to create the report - which seems quick, given the sheer weight of detail and knowledge he serves up. His pursuit of dots to connect, coupled with his unique expertise in esoteric computational technology, has yielded a fascinating glimpse into the directions Google might go in its next ventures ... amounting to a reminder that appearance can indeed mislead. As Stephen notes, he can't prove that his conclusions are correct - but the evidence he brings is sure compelling that Google is much more than a funky search company.  We shall see, in due course.

The opus would make superb required reading in Business and Competitive Intelligence courses under the topic of mining the gold in public information sources.  (As for the fact that deep expertise may be required to make sense of what is mined ... that is of course another matter!)

So what is data mining? Consumers worry

Thanks to Daniel Lee for posting to the SLA Toronto discussion list the MRIA press release (www.mria-arim.com) pointing out that consumers support market research but are leery about data mining.  I just got back from MRIA's most interesting Business Intelligence Conference 2006 (where I had the privilege of moderating a panel); I was riveted when Steve Mossop presented the findings described in the press release.  Consider that "data mining" may be thought of in two ways:  One is the watching for patterns of activity without regard for individual identities (think traffic volumes on a toll road); another could be the tracing of an individual's activities (think when and where did vehicle X enter and exit the toll road).  I suspect respondents to the MRIA study must have had the latter perception - which is unfortunate.