by Ryan Jones, Pubget

Researchers are turning to free search engines over licensed databases because of familiarity, simplicity and access to free content. By starting there, though, they face a fragmented experience across free and paid resources that’s fraught with dead ends, different formats and broken user interfaces. They also may pass up a perfect resource because it doesn’t crop up on the first page of the many results on Google. These shortcomings make up the Google Gap.

The Google Gap (or PubMed Gap or Science Direct Gap, etc) has been well explored by the library community. Technologies like link resolvers and federated search have cropped up to bridge the gap—with limited success. Link resolvers often mean errors in holdings (subscription collections), confusing resource choices and more dead ends. Meanwhile, federated search solutions connect resources at too high a level to provide a satisfactory experience and ignore holdings, the quality of metadata and the format, and usability of content.

So if link resolvers and federated search won’t do, what can bridge the gap between closed and web-based data? The “what” has to be something with enough computing power to provide a simple experience, yet span the web, free and paid content.  It has to be something with a high understanding of all the content types that sit at the end of each search task. The answer, it turns out is not a website or database at all. 

It’s an app.

Apps, as you’ve come to experience them on your phone or desktop, host more purpose-built code and processing power than traditional websites (as Chris Anderson wrote in this excellent piece in Wired ). Apps can provide enough intelligence to overcome content fragmentation among the user, the web, and library resources to deliver the simple yet powerful experience users ask for. They connect content destinations in highly customized ways, with intelligence, and can thereby standardize user experience across disparate resources. Apps can perform tasks in the background, fetching resources or content in anticipation of users’ needs. Apps can present a familiar and simple interface to the user.

This extra intelligence benefits the library, too. Apps can provide comprehensive data from both users and platforms, which in turn means better content management and more efficient libraries.

At Pubget, we think more intelligence is needed in the way users, the web, and resources are connected. As Chris Anderson says, “The World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting.” At Pubget, we think there’s an app for that.

Ryan Jones is the President of Pubget, which provides full-text access to life sciences research. You can follow them on twitter.

by Daniel Lee, SLA Board of Directors

SLA isn’t yet Future Ready, so I am doing something about it. This site is the first live website to use SLA’s new web hosting service and newly designed theme for WordPress!

For many years, our unit websites have been disparate in content, design, and functionality. Some sites are coded “old school” with plain HTML, some use ColdFusion, some ASP or PHP, and some are externally hosted. They can’t effectively exchange data with Headquarters (or each other) and, to be honest, many have seen better days. At first glance, you would hardly know they were units of the same organization!

Operation Vitality*

SLA will revitalize its website community as “Operation Vitality” swings into high gear this year.

“Operation Vitality” has five objectives:

1. Provide a stable and modern website hosting service to all chapters, divisions, and caucuses;
2. Ensure the service is affordable and cost effective for the Association;
3. Design a brand-compliant template for all units to use;
4. Promote a common content management system we can all use, understand and build upon; and
5. Rebuild the community for SLA’s webmasters.

I ran for the Board of Directors on a Leadership, Volunteers and Technology platform and “Operation Vitality” sits at the intersection of these three themes. This will be my main focus during my last year on the Board.

New Hosting Service

The SLA staff has made tremendous strides towards establishing a new web hosting service for the units and 2011 will be the year we convert to a common content management system and promote a common look and feel.

• SLA has partnered with award-winning web host provider HostGator;
• WordPress will be promoted as the content management system of choice; and
• A professional WordPress theme has been designed specifically for SLA units and will be included as part of a new web hosting service.

There will be a cost for the new service, $40 per year, which includes a fully functioning WordPress install with the SLA Theme, 24/7 technical support provided by HostGator, email accounts, MySQL databases, FTP Accounts, an easy to use and flexible Control Panel, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. For the real web gurus out there, advanced features will also include CGI, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, Curl, CPAN, GD Library, Image Magick, SSH Access and Cron Job Scheduling.

The Plan

In late 2010 a set of units who self-identified as early adopters started using the new service. Based on the feedback from this pilot, the service and the WordPress theme will be adjusted and rolled out to the whole Association in early 2011. The goal is to have all SLA units who are currently hosted by SLA converted to the new service by December 2011. Units who have pursued their own hosting are encouraged to rejoin.

The Team

A large project like “Operation Vitality” requires the energy of a dedicated and talented group of people. Volunteer “Super Admins” and staff members will be available to answer WordPress-related questions and provide guidance to units as they join the new service:

• Amy Buckland
• Michelle Dollinger
• Nicole Engard
• Britta Jessen Charbonneau
• Daniel Lee
• Kendra Levine
• Heather Ritchie
• Margaret Smith
• Linda Broussard (SLA’s Chief Administrative Officer)
• Jeff Leach (SLA’s Director, Marketing)
• Quan O. Logan (SLA’s Chief Technology Officer)

Are You Ready?

Today is the official launch of this project at Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. I will present details of the new service (along with a live demo of some of its features) to SLA’s leadership and will also invite units to join the second round of early adopters.

I am very excited to see what web-based innovations the association will realize when we are all finally rowing in the same direction. If your unit is ready to make the switch, or if you have any questions or comments, contact me.

Daniel P. Lee
Director, 2009-2011
Email: danielplee at sympatico.ca
Office: (416) 644-7000
Twitter: @yankeeincanada

Appendix – Early Adopters (First Round)

• Florida & Caribbean
• Illinois
• New York
• Oregon
• Philadelphia
• Silicon Valley
• Toronto
• Washington, DC
• Western Canada
• Academic
• Business and Finance
• Competitive Intelligence
• Leadership and Management Division
• Legal
• Science-Technology
• Transportation

* I chose “Operation Vitality” as the nickname/codename for this project because I wanted to inject a “a healthy capacity for vigorous activity” into our webmaster community and because I was doing things slightly under the radar to build support from the ground up.

Since 2002, Daniel has worked as a Research Librarian for Navigator Ltd., a research-based communications and strategic counsel firm in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is currently serving as Director on the SLA Board of Directors, chaired the Technology Review Advisory Group and received an SLA Presidential Citation for the Innovative Use of Technology for introducing twitter as a back channel at the SLA Annual Conference. Daniel was voted “most organized” in high school and is also known as @yankeeincanada on twitter.

by Cindy Shamel, Shamel Information Services, San Diego Chapter

Imagine that you’re hungry. Seeking something to eat, you visit a local restaurant and order lasagna. The chef swings into action and soon a platter lies before you. It contains a carton of ricotta cheese, a package of dried lasagna pasta, some eggs, a bundle of fresh herbs, a basket of tomatoes, and a block of parmesan cheese. Clearly the chef has missed an opportunity here, and you don’t have food that you can eat. As a hungry diner you will not value a pile of raw ingredients nearly as much as a nicely presented meal, prepared with the skills, judgment, and training of an experienced chef.

Now, apply this scenario to the information center or library. A need exists for actionable information and the request comes in. The info pro swings into action, and soon gathers a selection of bibliographic information, articles in full-text, and several links to relevant web sites. It’s all delivered up as attachments to an e-mail with a note saying, “Here’s the information you requested.” Clearly the info pro has missed an opportunity. To add value, the info pro will want to apply skills and experience to filter, analyze, and summarize the findings, formatting them in a way that meets the immediate need of the requester.

Just as the chef adds value to raw ingredients by transforming them into a satisfying meal, the info pro can add value to information by creating content ready to consume. The formatting will vary according to the need. It might include tables, graphs, charts, and spreadsheets. Key findings can be featured in executive summaries, in bullet points, or with highlighting, bolding, or font colors. Organizational tools such as tables of contents, headings, and subheadings enable scanning and navigation. Article summaries in place of full text save time for the reader. A value added deliverable will feature the content that answers the question or meets the need. Info pros have the skills and experience to develop spot on deliverables that organizations need to succeed.

Where do we find the time? Many of us are solos. We’re shorthanded. We’re overwhelmed. We’re working with limited resources. Consider this. I contend that just as individuals can enter a grocery store and purchase the raw materials for lasagna, they can go online and gather information. The differentiator lies in adding value. Just as the chef creates the dishes that satisfy hunger, the info pro creates the deliverables on which to base enterprise actions.

Cindy Shamel has provided value added research to clients since 1998. She is a member, former director, and past president of the San Diego Chapter of SLA.

by Debbie Schachter, Western Canada Chapter, Information Technology Division

It is a pleasure to be able to contribute to the Future Ready blog for 2011, particularly as I’ve recently been thinking about the past and the future of special libraries and our association, as part of a panel for SLA Western Canada Chapter’s 25^th Anniversary. The conclusions that were drawn by that panel and by the audience were mostly positive about the future, and not unexpected. Beyond the specific technology predictions offered, people generally talked about:

• the need to continue learning new skills;
• the need to develop community engagement processes with our users;
• the need to continue to network and support each other. 

I think one of the most important things that we can do to get ready for the future is to build a good personal foundation today; and we do that by developing our change management skills in both personal and professional contexts. It is said that you make your own “luck” through your plans and actions, rather than simply responding to the events that happen to you. If you are prepared, either through continuing education, new skills development, or even just psychologically prepared for the unexpected, you will be better prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. 

Scenario planning is a great way to do some of the mental exercises required for thinking of the future. Once you have started to look at some alternative realities, it is a heck of a lot easier to begin planning for these than if you are simply reacting to what is happening, as it happens. It is difficult to predict the future but we can plan scenarios based on what has happened before, and what we are seeing today. When I think about the work that I will be doing next year, I expect that much of it will be the same type of work, but there will be the challenges of unexpected changes, and obstacles that will need to be addressed, and skills that I will need to learn. 

I also want to say that the power of a movement, such as the Future Ready movement, can accomplish a lot for all of us. I don’t know what I will be doing in five or ten (or two!) years, but I do know that there are lots of smart librarians out there who are also thinking and planning and sharing. One of the areas in which we do excel is in our networking and sharing. The very nature of the Future Ready movement is about bringing the profession into the future together.

Debbie Schachter has held multiple leadership positions in SLA’s Western Canada Chapter.

by Josh Walters

At the end of 2010 I reviewed and reported on the goals I’d set for my work-year back in January.  These included top level categories like service delivery, business partner engagement, advocacy and outreach, and strategy and communications. Tactics within each of these areas involved extensive use of web communications vehicles and online business networking platforms. Time and time again I was called upon to join teams as a consultant, a critical ear, or to aid in the redirection of a team mired in its own detail.

I should mention that technically, I’m an Access and Interface librarian–that means I do web design, usability, optimization; I “productize” services we’ve traditionally done as manual processes using the web, or translate business partner and end user needs into a service we can “sell” inside the enterprise to other groups.  In many cases, this leads to innovation.  In others, it means greater user-awareness and more work.  In either, it’s exposure, proof, leverage, an elevator speech… that said, considering the words “access” and “interface,” and using a broad interpretation, it may be apt.

We have a leadership attribute inside our company that translates to: Finds a way.  It implies that when the road is ill-defined (or non-existent) one who will succeed is one who taps some inner reservoir and marshals a solution.  During this current economic downturn–as we have fewer resources, people and consequently, time–it is often the punchline to a dire joke.  But it’s serious as a heart attack to librarians under the gun.

Librarians jump into new platforms and mediums as easily as breathing.  New social bookmarking app?  Librarians are in it.  Putting web pieces together using JQuery and AJAX?  Librarians.  Extending the blog as a strategic communications vehicle? Turning a wiki into a publishing platform? Tying together underpowered SharePoint environments for greater collaboration? Teaching groups that there’s more to the library than what they ever thought possible?  Librarians, librarians, librarians… librarians.

In reviewing my goals at the end of 2010 I noted that in more than one of my focus areas ‘come 2011, I’d be putting “Finds a Way” to extensive use.  Being “Future Ready,” none of those subject areas are going away:  Service, engagement, outreach, strategy, communications: open the tool box, find a way.  The fun is just beginning.

Talk to you again soon,
Josh

Josh Walters is a librarian with The Boeing Company. He spends extensive time consulting on projects throughout the enterprise related to optimal use of tools and collaboration environments, supporting the Knowledge Management effort, and talking about effective communications practices using social business platforms.  Though physically located in Durham, North Carolina, and with due respect to the locals, he considers himself an SLA-Southern California Chapter member in diaspora.

by Chad Groenhout, Michigan Chapter, Competitive Intelligence and Information Technology Divisions

I began the library science program at Wayne State in May of 2009 at about the time when SLA leadership and members were contemplating a name change and discussing how to market the profession to employers. I wondered if I was entering a profession in its decline, suffering from an identity crisis that would ultimately leave me unemployed. Yet, as I approach graduation in a few months, I am more hopeful for the future of the profession and I realize I am fortunate that SLA started the process five years ago to rethink the profession of special librarianship. This evolution of the field is what creates new career options such as taxonomists, knowledge managers, embedded librarians, and competitive intelligence analysts. Nearly five years earlier the first inklings of self-reflection were emerging among SLA leadership and membership. What do I hope the next five years will bring?

In 2015 SLA will have emerged from what all great traditions go through, a period of questioning that allows them to adapt to the changing environment and to envision what their role will be in the future. Special librarians will have rebranded themselves to make their skills even more marketable to marketing managers, CI directors, and senior business strategists. In five years, I hope the CI director that Arik Johnson mentioned in his inaugural Future Ready blog post will have already realized that he needed a special librarian. By now, they will be reputed information analysts who are adding value to information by interpreting it, putting it in context, and recommending courses of action to senior management. In five years time, the reference interview will be positioned as a crucial asset that saves businesses money by finding out the right question decision makers should be asking before they spend thousands or millions of dollars seeking an answer to the wrong question. Librarians will still be the guardians and purveyors of information, but they will be in the new role of linking all of the information flows found throughout the organization to strategic business objectives.

In another five years, special librarians will no longer need to justify their existence to senior management, or explain what is “special” about special librarians, or even explain what SLA stands for. Librarians will no longer be seen as functional accessories that can be discarded but as valuable assets who will always be needed to guide the business in the right direction to ensure its survival, being as integral to operations as marketing, finance, and human resources. As a budding professional who will soon enter the job market, I am beginning to worry less about our future and am instead seeing the amazing possibilities for the integral role special librarians will play. For over 100 years, special librarians have sustained a tradition that will only be strengthened in the years to come.

Chad Groenhout is a circulation assistant at Henika District Library and a technical services coordinator at Aquinas College. He graduates in May from the library science program at Wayne State University and is pursuing a career as a competitive intelligence analyst.

by David Cappoli, Southern California Chapter

Reputation, content, and convenience – these are the core areas on which I am focused for the near future.  I oversee the Friday Forums for the UCLA Department of Information Studies. The forums are a series of continuing education workshops geared towards the needs of information professionals. With subjects ranging from an overview of competitive intelligence, to movements in youth literature, to understanding the needs of paper conservation, these workshops introduce professionals to emerging ideas and new ways of thinking about ongoing challenges. Nearly all of the workshops are hosted on campus, but my goal is to reach out beyond the confines of UCLA and find new audiences who can benefit from these workshops.

In moving forward to attain this goal, I will utilize the well-regarded reputations of the workshop instructors, and the forums themselves, which have been confirmed by surveys and evaluations. The instructors have been cultivated and identified because of their high levels of expertise; interest in helping people learn; and, preparedness. Their collective ability to engage participants confirms their value. I will also continue to examine the needs and trends in the information profession so as to work with instructors and develop content that is highly sought after, and easily employed in one’s career. And as content is created and developed, I will work on new methods of delivering it, whether it is done by offering virtual workshops or hosting off campus workshops. These options make continuing education more convenient for professionals enabling a higher rate of participation and a wider spread of the benefits gained from attending the workshops. An expectation of broader participation is that the reputations of the workshops will be further enhanced, thus feeding into the expansion of the Friday Forums.

The personal network that I have constructed with instructors as well as workshop participants will aid me in focusing on reputation, content, and convenience, as I seek a broader audience for the workshops. I am also aware a substantial amount of time and effort will need to be invested in order to succeed, but the benefits will be plentiful.

David Cappoli is the Digital Resources Librarian at UCLA. An active member of SLA locally and nationally, David has been president of the Southern California chapter, and a member of SLA’s Annual Conference and  Nominating committees.  He currently serves on SLA’s Public Relations Advisory Council.

By Gayle Pellizzer, LAC Group

Are you a tech-savvy problem solver?  Do you enjoy organizing content in multiple forms in order to improve access across different business lines and units?  Perhaps a career in digital asset management, or DAM, is in your future.  Digital asset management is an exciting, rapidly growing field that is eager to hire the best and brightest information pros who are not afraid of change and willing to think “big picture” in order organize, manage, and deploy digital assets throughout a company or organization.  Take a quick look at the speakers featured at the 2010 Henry Stewart DAM Conferences that took place in New York, London, Chicago, and Los Angeles.   These leaders in digital asset management have diverse backgrounds and multifaceted skills-sets.  Not simply metadata experts or archivists, these individuals are skilled professionals who understand that managing digital assets requires both business and technological acumen, as well as a firm understanding of how information, particularly different forms of digital content, are effectively organized, classified, and accessed by the user.

Although DAM may not be in your current job description, it is an area worth exploring.  As new opportunities for information professionals continue to move away from the traditional research and reference role, it is imperative to understand what skills, both soft and hard, are required of those who handle “everything digital” or “everything media related.”  Companies and organizations from all sectors, including web, film, and broadcast media, recognize the tremendous value of their digital assets, and are continuing to ensure that they remain secure, accessible, and preserved over time.  If you are not already involved in this exciting area of information management, take some time to explore DAM related blogs, podcasts, and websites.  Searching for DAM related opportunities on various online job sites is another way to learn about the skills required by companies currently hiring DAM experts.  Once you begin your search, you just might be surprised what you discover.

Gayle Pellizzer is a recruiter at LAC Group. Gayle is a member of SLA’s Business & Finance and Knowledge Management Divisions.

by Jill Strand, Legal Division, Minnesota Chapter

I’m borrowing the title of recent American Bar Association Journal article in which the authors Patrick Lamb and Paul Lippe ask if anyone starting a new law firm today would have a library or even a librarian. Although unsure about the value of a physical library, they favored having a librarian, noting that “finding essential information is more important than ever. When you live in a value free world, someone who finds the right information efficiently is really valuable.” While I would debate their assumption that all the resources lawyers need are available online, they are right to recognize that “the role of the librarian is becoming more critical as the volume of information in the world grows.”

Yet the authors go on to wonder if there is a disconnect between how they would define librarians’ value and how librarians themselves define it. Mr. Lamb and Mr. Lippe see librarians as professionals who can manage internal knowledge and external information, understand the costs involved and the connections to marketing and business development. They go on to quote an unidentified survey of a small group of librarians who describe their value using phrases such as “loyal, accurate, friendly and smart.” The authors see this disconnect as a challenge to everyone (not just librarians) “to figure out how to add real value to their enterprise.”

Sound like a familiar challenge? Nearly two years since the ground-breaking research of the Special Libraries Association Alignment Project was released, this challenge persists. More importantly, how do we make sure that we, as librarians, are aware of the value our customers perceive in us, and how do we change our perception of our own value? I chose to see the challenge as an opportunity for librarians to demonstrate that we understand these concerns and are already several steps ahead in addressing them. SLA’s Alignment Task Force is currently turning the Alignment Project research into tools and tips to help members align themselves and their libraries with the goals and values of their organizations.

In a way, being Future Ready is really just a form of Alignment put into action. Even better, it offers an open slate – you get to decide the how, when and why of your own Future Ready agenda. As a law firm library director I’m taking the advice of another Future Ready librarian, Nina Platt, and spending 15-20 minutes to meet with individual attorneys and learn a little more about the focus of their practice, their business development goals and how they stay informed. Each interview gives me a glimpse into the future. Rather than wait and respond to a last minute request, it allows me think ahead about tools and information that can support their goals.

Even before the economy took a nosedive, librarians and knowledge professionals were investigating innovative and cost-effective ways to add value to their organizations. Mr. Lamb and Mr. Lippe note that “we create five exabytes of information every two days and that pace is accelerating.” In order for lawyers, doctors, scientists, professors and other professionals to be able to fully use their unique training and talents for success, they require the unique training and talents of librarians and knowledge professionals to evaluate and manage the information searching, sifting, analyzing, synthesizing and delivery that affords them that focus.

Jill Strand is an active member of SLA at the local and national levels. She has held several leadership positions in the Minnesota Chapter, and is currently a member of the Annual Conference Advisory Council, and Nominating committee and past member of the Public Relations Advisory Council.

by Christian Gray, Southern California Chapter, Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Division

My Future Ready tool kit: I have not rated, ranked nor explained where these links will take you or what value you might find… I truly believe that a key attribute to being Future Ready is a healthy curiosity. Please comment on those you find interesting or useful.

www.cluetrain.com

http://blog.duarte.com

www.slideshare.net

www.wikinomics.com

www.technologyreview.com

http://gist.com

www.fmyi.com

www.mailchimp.com

www.mindomo.com

www.jigsaw.com

www.yammer.com

www.roomtoread.org

www.ted.com

www.boingboing.com

http://radar.oreilly.com

www.techcrunch.com

www.presentationzen.com

www.tweetdeck.com

www.altimetergroup.com

www.wordle.net

www.salesforce.com

www.animoto.com

Christian Gray | Business Development
Reprints Desk, Inc. | The Content Workflow Company regarding SLA, I’m also the former Vendor Relations Chair