de Stricker

Info Pros: Star Performers

In the spirit of the holiday season, I trust my readers will indulge me in some allegorical thinking about our profession:

Treated by dear and incredibly generous friends to a Canadian Tenors concert in Toronto (www.canadiantenors.com), I had the opportunity to watch at close range the intricate workings of the orchestra supporting those four magnificent singers: The musicians worked the piano, strings, and percussion - what an amazing array of drums, cymbals, hanging xylophones, rainstick type instruments, and other sound producing objects I don't know how to name! - with obvious engagement and enjoyment to organize and sequence thousands of individual notes into a harmonious, powerful, and sometimes surprising result. The light manager provided a splendid visual complement to the music, and the copious amounts of water vapor released into the concert hall lent a touch of magic. Each song performed reached back through decades or centuries to revered composers and was given life in the moment by the latest technology - in a manner uniquely suited to the occasion and the audience.

Giving thought to the vast planning and coordination required to produce an experience so clearly enjoyed by the sold-out house, it struck me: Isn't that what info pros do, too? Don't we, well, "orchestrate" myriad individual preparatory and immediate actions in order to "produce" the experience our audiences receive? Don't we collaborate within our organizations and across the profession to gain the skills to, well, "play those instruments with such perfect timing"? Don't we rely on the work done in decades and centuries before us and on the latest technology to meet our clients' unique needs? Don't we plan and organize so that the "star performers" - our users - get to deliver outstanding results?

As for the tenors - they, too, seemed like info pros to me - bringing to bear their education and talent on producing value. We're talking world class operatic stars … who related to the audience with humility, warm humor, and personable ease. In just that way I so often see information professionals being utterly modest and unassuming about their work, no matter how outstanding it is: Don't they deliver spectacular performances in the way they hit just the right notes when they do research or produce strategic plans (etc etc)?

Indeed we info pros do not perform in misty, colored lights on a background of exquisite music to deliver value to our clients. But in my humble opinion, we are pretty close.

Thank you for indulging me. Peace and Good Will on Earth this Solstice.

Translation from Info Lingo to Business Speak: Key Skills for Finding Jobs

Thanks to our professional networks, I recently had two occasions to participate as a panelist/speaker in a "Professional Preparation" class (I would never pass up such an opportunity!).  Kimberly Silk at the University of Toronto and Cabot Yu and Terri Tomchyshyn at the University of Ottawa have been inviting their colleagues to share insights and advice with LIS students in the courses they teach as adjunct faculty, and we colleagues appreciate the chance to meet and interact with soon-to-be new colleagues.  In both cases, the theme of "salesmanship" or "crafting compelling arguments for investments, initiatives, or hiring" was a prominent topic of discussion - and understandably, the hiring part is top of mind for the members of the class.

It's encouraging to read stories like the piece on impending information technology labor shortages in Canada at http://business.financialpost.com/2011/03/29/tech-labour-crunch-looming-in-canada/, yet the takeaway is that information professionals may not obviously be courted by organizations needing to fill their information technology positions.  For classes like Kim's and Cabot's/Terri's, I endeavor to stress the fact that employment opportunities do exist - but we must connect the dots for the potential employers.  In my work, I encounter many individuals who have positions focusing heavily on knowledge acquisition, sharing, and analysis - and I always think "ah, such work would be just the ticket for an information professional".  The hitch is that managers in organizations with openings whose job titles include such words as "analyst" or "officer" may be unaware how closely the LIS graduates' skill sets match the demands of the job.  We can, and should, do whatever we can to raise awareness generally about the versatility of LIS qualifications!

One suggestion I give job seekers is to examine job postings broadly to identify ones using language suggesting they are "information centric" and then to apply using the business terminology appropriate for the hiring organization.  Easier said than done, of course - but what's to lose?  The exercise of stating our skills, past work, and accomplishments in terms meaningful for the hiring teams can only help us get better at convincing potential employers we have what it takes to be highly productive in countless environments.  As examples, consider how much public policy or administration, client relations, and fund raising have in common as a result of their reliance on information and knowledge management - and then consider how pervasive intensive work with data is in business and public sector settings.  

Of course, per the story referenced above, any information professional could benefit from thinking about enhancing his or her technical skills - but let's not overlook the opportunities available right now among organizations looking for talented employees.

Precious Time: Managing Information Time Waste

The crushing burden of information seeking and overload has just been reconfirmed and quantified (validating previous industry studies such as IDC's "The High Cost of Not Finding Information") by LexisNexis in its 2008 Workplace Productivity study (http://www.lexisnexis.com/literature/pdfs/LexisNexis_Workplace_Productivity_Survey_2_20_08.pdf and http://www.lexisnexis.com/media/press-release.aspx?id=1041.asp). I quote from the press release:

• Sixty-two percent of professionals report that they spend a lot of time sifting through irrelevant information to find what they need; 68 percent wish they could spend less time organizing information and more time using the information that comes their way;

• Workers admit that not being able to lay their hands on the right information at the right time impedes their ability to work efficiently; 85% agree that not being able to access the right information at the right time is a huge time-waster;

• More than 40 percent of the survey participants indicate an inability to handle future increases in information flow;

• While an average workday for white collar workers is 8.89 hours, the survey finds that on average, 7.89 working hours are used conducting research, attending meetings, and searching for previously created documents, and;

• White collar professionals spend an average of 2.3 hours daily conducting online research, with one in ten spending four hours or more on an average day.

It is no wonder knowledge workers are stressed if 89% of their time is spent hunting for information or being in meetings (another form of information work). Assistance in managing the flow of information - to free up time so they can apply their expertise in pursuit of the organization's goals - is required ... but how?  Is the solution to be found in technology?

Information professionals offer to help establish a REASONABLE flow of RELEVANT information, using their tricks of the trade.  With every reduction in the typical knowledge worker's time spent in unproductive information seeking, they contribute value. Managing knowledge worker information supply is a daunting challenge - get information professionals on it.

Hip - Hirable - both?

HIP: We all know the information profession needs modern-day entrants and practitioners.  So it was good to see the article in The New York Times' Fashion & Style Section on 8 July 2007 entitled "A hipper crowd of shushers" extolling just how hip today's librarians are.  It is encouraging that the life style article appeals to new professionals. We need them, and the article's focus on how the profession of librarianship has gone from "shh" to "cool" painted an encouraging picture.

HIRABLE: Ideally, I would like for any CEO reading the article to think, "I'd better hire some of those!". That angle was not the article's focus, but I was reminded that we always need to answer the question:  Sure we can be hip, but can we also be in business demand because we deliver business value?

The trick, of course, is to be hip and hirable. Perhaps that could be restated as "know the impact you want to make".

 

If this isn't scary, I don't know what is

From EDUPAGE:

ETS REPORT SAYS STUDENTS NOT INFORMATION LITERATE A new study by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) suggests that although college students appear fluent with technology, many are unable to effectively use computers to solve information problems.
Students are comfortable using technology for leisure and social activities, but the study indicates that they have much more trouble evaluating online material and using technology effectively to find needed information. In the study, which surveyed more than 6,300 college students and high school seniors, fewer than half correctly identified from several choices the Web site that was objective, authoritative, and timely. Irvin Katz, a researcher at ETS, said, "It’s not only in academics but also in the workplace that people don’t have the necessary critical skills to access information."
Inside Higher Ed, 15 November 2006
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/15/infolit

So what can / shall we information professionals do about this well known challenge?