by Dianna Roberts, Australia and New Zealand Chapter, Transportation Division

Our Information Centre has always been well-positioned in the company especially as our two most recent Chief Executives had wives who were librarians. We now have a new, young and dynamic CE with a non-librarian wife and who is making lots of changes, all of which I support, but like many of you I suffer from what I refer to as ‘librarians’ paranoia,” i.e. the fear of being seen as irrelevant and potentially disposable.

My immediate manager has been asking questions which were making me feel nervous, such as “what would it cost the company NOT to have the Information Centre?”, but I knew I’d done all I could to present a positive image with glowing feedback and value statements that proved our worth, and that any outcome was probably now beyond my control. So this morning I was very pleasantly surprised (almost shocked!) to be told that the company wants us to move beyond being viewed as “the library” and to take on a more active role of Information Management with ownership of functions such as EDRMS, e-learning, KM and anything else I can suggest.

We currently have a staff of only 2.5 FTE who serving a population of 2,500 in four different countries. Our main focus has been on indepth research, document supply and alerting services so taking on these wider roles will mean expanding our staff and learning new skills. It will also provide us with more authoritative position in the company.

What an exciting year it is going to be.

Dianna Roberts is the Manager of the Information Centre at Opus International Consultants Ltd.

by John Digilio, Chicago Chapter, Legal Division Chair

Nervous energy.  It is everywhere these days.  It is that feeling in the pit of your stomach or at the back of your mind that something might not be quite right.  As discussions on the future of libraries become more pressing, there is nervous energy.  As we continue to reel from the library closings and job losses that seemed to gain momentum during the recent global economic crisis, there is nervous energy.  In fact, there is so much nervous energy in our industry these days that I dare say it is palpable to each of us as library and information professionals.  The good news is that we have an important choice to make.  We can let this energy weigh heavily upon us and drag us down or we can choose to harness and channel it in ways that make us truly future ready.

What is gripping so many in our industry these days is nothing less than a real and warranted fear of the unknown.  What is to become of libraries and librarians in a world that is increasingly dominated by virtual interaction, technological interfaces, and instant electronic gratification?  It is an almost overwhelming contemplation.  It is also a necessary one.  In his excellent series on management skills, The Leadership Pickles, Bob Pharrell talks about the negative impact this fear of the unknown can have on workers and productivity.  If left unchecked, it can sap some of most integral human commodities: enthusiasm, confidence and integrity.  In his course, Pharrell urges managers to meet this fear of the unknown head on.  As a librarian, I believe this is not only sound advice for managers but an urgent call to action for each one of us, regardless of level or title.  As the old adage goes, “When life hands you lemons . . . “.

I believe that when it comes to the future of libraries and librarians, the tech-laden world of tomorrow is still very much our oyster.  There are plenty of pearls to be had and nobody – I repeat, NOBODY – knows how to find them better than we.  The trick is to not let nervous energy and fear of the unknown drag us down in our pursuit.  When we are having these vital discussions in our meetings with colleagues, on discussion boards, and with our bosses and employers, we have to come to the table prepared.  I personally recommend a three-pronged attack.  Take that nervous energy by the horns and channel it into optimism, activism, and creativity.  If you can do that, tomorrow and all of its unknowns will not know what hit them.  Note that I am not saying this will be easy.  I am saying it is essential.  Here’s the breakdown:

by Noël Kopriva, Pittsburgh Chapter, Food, Agriculture & Nutrition Division

Lead? Me? When I was asked to run for Chair-Elect of the Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition Division (FAN) after only a few years as a member, I couldn’t help saying to myself: “I don’t know what I’m doing yet!” Now, nearly a year later, I’m reflecting on the experience of learning to lead.

When I was asked to run for Chair-Elect, I had qualms about my inexperience, both as a FAN member and as a librarian, but those were not my only doubts: I was convinced that I was temperamentally unsuited to a leadership position. I like to listen to people and encourage them, but I’m not fond of giving directions; that is to say, I unconsciously equated leadership with bossiness.  As I thought about FAN and the people I knew in leadership positions, however, I realized my experiences with the division had actually shown me that leaders do not “boss” if they want to be effective. Good leaders listen well, they encourage you to play to your strengths, and they help you to learn from failure. These are all qualities I wanted to cultivate as a librarian and as a leader, so I ran for Chair-Elect and got the position.

In my son’s favorite episode of The Backyardigans, called “Super Team Awesome,” one of the characters is a tour guide without super powers. Not to worry: “You have the gift of leading people,” Tyrone the Tour Guide’s friends tell him. “You’re a real superhero!” And it’s true: Tyrone gently leads his team of certified superheroes through an obstacle maze of sticky bacteria, slippery rocks, and active volcanoes to help them save the earth.  His is a perfect example of servant leadership, which is characterized, according to Fillipa Manulo (2007), by “the desire to serve authentically and with purpose (par 36),” not by a desire for power or control. It’s an example I aim to follow each day as I communicate, plan, and organize in the virtual world with my colleagues in FAN and in real life as a subject librarian and instruction coordinator. In either context, I see my primary mission as one of empowerment—helping students to become lifelong learners, helping faculty to succeed in their research, helping colleagues obtain access to the professional development tools they need to do their jobs effectively.

The desire to serve, the desire to lead: to do both effectively, we must be future ready. We need to think not only in terms of our skill sets, whose currency we anxiously monitor, but in terms of our openness to change, our commitment to thoughtful stewardship of our resources (Anzalone, 2007, par. 30), and to a realistic assessment of our ability to be effective in innumerable environments and platforms. If we do these things, we will not only be ready for the future ourselves, we can show others the way.

Since 2007, Noël Kopriva has been the Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design Librarian at West Virginia University Libraries; since 2008, she has served as the Instruction Coordinator for Evansdale Library. Prior to her career as a librarian, Noël worked as a college writing instructor and in the production end of medical and educational publishing. She holds a BA & an MA in English, and an MLS, all from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

References

Anzalone, F. (2007). Servant leadership: a new model for law library leaders. Law Library Journal, 99(4), 793-812. http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_journal.asp.

Berstein, AD, Burgess, J., Gray, S (Writers) & Kim, D (Director). (2010). Super team awesome. In Janice M. Jacobs (Producer), The Backyardigans. New York, NY: NickJr.

by Gretchen Leslie, Oregon Chapter, Science-Technology Division

I am writing this post because I believe we, as an association, have not really done a good job of researching our industry—the information industry—and using that research to better position our members  and our association in the future.  We talk about being “Future Ready,” but I have not seen us applying our core research competencies to scoping where the growth is and what the trending is in the information industry, what skills we need to find work in the coming information industry scenario, who our potential partners can be, and where the hidden snakes lay on our path to the future.  The research, data, and analysis are out there, generated by companies such as Outsell Inc., Simba, IDC, and Gartner.  Are we using it?  If not, why not?

So I guess this post is a call to action for the association leadership to begin a program to buy and use the published research about the information industry. Perhaps we could even partner with other associations, and cooperatively build a sustainable way to get the needed data and analysis on a continual basis.  That way, we could always benchmark on where we are as informational professionals, vs. where the information industry is headed.

What do the rest of you think of this “info pros – research thyself!” approach to mapping out what Future Ready means?  I’d like to hear from my colleagues in SLA about the idea of using market research on ourselves; making market research of the information industry part of our websites and continuing education, applying the ideas of where the information industry is moving to how and what we teach in information science graduate programs, and ultimately, building a better understanding of the global information industry and where we fit in the future as information professionals.

Gretchen Leslie has a 35+ year career in special libraries, and has always wondered why we cannot do a better job of analyzing our own industry.

by Camille Ann Brewer, New York Chapter, Museums, Arts & Humanities Division

I have been working as curator of contemporary art for the last 12 years.  Three years ago, I decided to return to school to earn a MLIS degree.  My thought was to have a “back-up” plan of working as a librarian as I watched employment opportunities dry up in the museum and gallery world.  Far more than a back up, the training has greatly augmented and enhanced my work as an art advisor and curator.  The entire program was conducted on-line; therefore I learned the course material in tandem with technological tools used by the university.  This exposure to new technologies has provided me with options that I had never considered before entering the degree program.  I am now creating blogs to support special exhibitions and their ancillary educational programs, building databases for private collectors that are designed in accordance with Getty Research Institute metadata standards for art objects, and exploring the possibilities of designing mobile device applications that make cataloging objects easier for small institution and private art collectors.

I currently spend a great deal of time traveling to clients to manage and appraise their collections.  After a series of bad airline flights and endless airport security “theater,” my hope over the next year is to minimize my travel by developing new and improved methods of collection management using the new tools being developed now in today’s market place.  One of my goals is to bring newly developed museum metadata standards to private collectors.  As art objects move from private hands to major cultural institutions, the respective metadata will migrate seamlessly into the larger database systems.

In my mind, being Future Ready means keeping abreast of the latest developments in technology while engaging creative thinking as to how these new tools and systems can augment what I do as an arts professional.   I am more excited now than I was five years ago about the opportunities that are presenting themselves as I approach my career from an interdisciplinary perspective.  It is in the intersection of these disparate disciplines where the excitement and hope for the future begins.

Based in New York City, Camille Ann Brewer is a fine art advisor and appraiser of contemporary American art and traditional African art. She is a member of the New York Chapter of SLA.  More information about Ms. Brewer can be located at www.cabfineart.com

by Janice LaChance, Chief Executive Officer of SLA

“If you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more.” – Eric Shinseki, U.S. Secretary of Veteran Affairs and former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army

This is one of my favorite quotes from someone I greatly admire. To me, it sums up the situation we all find ourselves in today. Even when Eric Shinseki was born in 1942, everyone was feeling the pressure to change on one level or another. Politicians, soldiers, salespeople, advertisers, accountants, and yes, even SLA members, were encountering new technologies to use, policies to follow, expectations to fulfill, and lessons to pass on to the next generation of pioneers.

It seems one of the few things that hasn’t changed over the years is the constancy of change itself. So, why is there so much emphasis on change now if it’s old news?

Because we’ve seldom encountered change of this pace or magnitude before. Everything—from your workplace to your organization’s strategy to the phone you use to the car you drive to the road you drive it on—will be different in five years. The occurrence and pace of change are out of our control. The way in which we choose to change is not. We must not simply change, but progress.

Sure, as information and knowledge professionals, SLA members are hearing about the importance of being future-ready perhaps more than others, but all professions are being called upon to learn new skills and adapt to a new world of work. If you’re an SLA member, you’re not in it alone.

We have a vast yet tight-knit community that acts as a support structure to all our members—and this blog is just one of the many things that bring us together. SLA has conducted alignment research that is unprecedented within the profession, and that research has shown us the way to introducing new professional development programs and educational resources. SLA is faced with the task of providing relevant resources to librarians in medical hospitals in India and information analysts in top law firms in the United States, and everyone in between. While the context of knowledge delivery and use is unique across the globe, the necessity to adapt is not.

I’ll leave you with some of SLA’s resources included with your membership, many resulting from the alignment research and all focused on the task of giving a diverse membership tools to better meet the demands of information users across the globe.

• SLA’s 23 Things – Deb Hunt, along with MLIS grad student Kim McGrath, worked together to update this weekly learning program. I think you’ll like what’s new here; see week 6 for updated social networking and learning. This program was created by our members, for our members.
• Atomic Learning – This resource often gets passed over, but it shouldn’t. From beginner to expert level, from Sharepoint to Delicious, these easy videos are a fun and easy way to learn at your own pace.
• Alignment Toolkit –Look for tools, based on the alignment research, to be unveiled starting April 1^st and leading up to SLA 2011. Writing Your Own Marketing Plan, Dictionary of Future Ready Terms, and SLA Tools for LIS Students will be among the first resources provided.
• This blog – Our strongest asset is…ourselves! No, sometimes we don’t all have time to read the blog every day, but the good thing is we can catch up at any point in time. We’re up to about 60 posts already (way to go, Cindy and team!). So read, discuss, and try a post of your own sometime in 2011.
• Click U – Ask the Copyright Experts, Social Media Research for Business, Moving into Management.  From in-person classes to online webinars, free and paid, these opportunities are scattered throughout the year.
• Information Outlook – Read our latest issue online. Don’t miss the articles on mobile applications; one could give you an idea to change your organization for the better.

So don’t look at Future Ready as a goal for just 2011, because it’s more than that. Treat it as something to embrace, a way of thinking. It’s not only about seeking out opportunities, but looking forward to those opportunities with the confidence of preparation and positivity. The world is driving forward, upward, and outward, and I’ve seen more than enough evidence from SLA’s outstanding membership to know that we can be right there in the driver’s seat.

Janice Lachance, SLA’s Chief Executive Officer since 2003, is a popular speaker and commentator and the champion, spokesperson and global ambassador for SLA and its 11,000 members working in 75 countries on five continents.  Before joining SLA, she was a management consultant to nonprofit and membership organizations in the areas of strategic planning, organization transformation, and culture change.

by Victoria Harriston, Washington DC Chapter

Innovation, always on my mind, sitting in traffic and yes even in my sleep. Why? Because I know that no matter what our Research Center is doing there’s always room for improvement, to be better than we are. Nothing earth-shattering here, just a few thoughts and musings on innovations that have given our Library/Research Center greater visibility from the top down, fostered increased demand for our expertise and services and kicked the value of our contributions to the organization up more than a couple of notches.

One of the best ways to keep your finger on the pulse of the organization and really get to know your stakeholders is to start a Liaison Program. No huge start-up effort and the rewards are a win-win for everyone. Know what’s going on within your organization, recognize and seize business opportunities.

Every librarian is a business entrepreneur. You’d be amazed how forming partnerships opens innovation doors. Partnership with our Staff Development Programs office gave us the financial support for our successful training program.

Advocate for your stakeholders. If your organization publishes reports organize public Forum events and invite internal staff contributors to speak. Spend time learning about programs or events within your organization to get the library involved. We regularly participate in our Graduate Fellows program. Showcase library value, publish an Impact Report (saved project staff 20 research hours, proposal research contributed to new project funding, citation analysis validated key report recommendations).

Gather those publisher backfile collections and create an Intellectual Heritage Vault. Innovation includes not reinventing the wheel (if you don’t have to!). Use publisher online tutorials for databases, use your Delicious guides as classroom instructor tools.

Victoria Harriston is Manager, at the George E. Brown, Jr. Research Center, National Academy of Sciences. Her 35 year career includes several management positions in special, corporate and academic libraries and serving for 2-years as Public Relations, News Bureau Manager for a telecommunications company.

by Denise Mc Iver

I’m still in I-school, so I’m new to the information profession.  Prior to going back to school to pursue my MLIS, I worked as a publicist in the music and entertainment industry for over a decade. Upon reflection, there are some lessons from that world that might apply to becoming Future Ready.

First of all, it’s true:  Publicists ARE control freaks (in the best sense, I should add) because that’s what we’re paid to be.  We control the public perception of our clients’ “brand” and we’re the “keepers” of our clients’ dreams and goals – whether they want to secure the cover of Rolling Stone, perform on a segment of The Today Show, or get ranked in the Top Ten on any Billboard chart.  So for me, a former flack in the music business, being Future Ready is all about branding.

Some lessons I’ve learned in my former professional life include…

Begin With the End In Mind: Publicists always begin a new campaign with this as our mantra.  For us, Christmas arrives in July.  If our client’s new album is being released in the fourth quarter, we spend a great deal of energy doing something called “set up” beforehand.  For information professionals and librarians, it might mean doing some setup by taking an audit of our skills, experience, and passion (a key ingredient!). We can then use these as springboards to ‘futurize’ ourselves.

Know Who You Are: Publicists understand that their recording artists have a public persona and the music they create (hopefully) extends this.  Lady Gaga gets this; had she made a boring entrance at the Grammy Awards a few weeks ago, it would have been clear that she wasn’t “on message” and her public would have been surprised, and possibly lost. Love her or hate her – she’s clear about her brand:  One-Who-Pushes-The-Envelope-Off-The-Table.  I’m not suggesting we become Gaga-ized, but it is vitally important that WE define ourselves first so that we can communicate who we are and what our value is to our various stakeholders and constituencies.  Capture the vision, promote it, and remember to stay on message.

“Grow Some Feet”: There’s nothing remotely glamorous about doing a bus tour of any kind (trust me on this!) unless your client is Mick Jagger or Beyoncé. If you want to sell albums, you’ve got to tour – it’s how you build awareness. The same goes for information professionals. I’m not one to sit behind a desk all day, so I hit the “road” (actually the hallways) and do short “drop-ins.”  I let my stakeholders know I’m a co-collaborator with them, and these drop-ins give me the opportunity to anticipate and determine what their needs are, possibly before they’ve even had the chance to think about them themselves.  This is how I make myself visible and sell my value.

Summing it all up:  After the press screening of Black Swan, actress Mila Kunis, who was strapped into five-inch high Christian Louboutin stilettos, expressed how exhausting and painful it was to wear them throughout the long evening. She also remarked how grateful and amazed she was that her publicist had the presence of mind to bring along a comfortable pair of slippers for her to change into as the evening wore on.

Now that’s a lesson in being Future Ready.

Denise L. Mc Iver is a recipient of an IMLS scholarship and attending the MLS program at St. John’s University.  She anticipates graduating in May. She’s a student member of the NY Chapter of SLA.

by Aileen Marshall, Virginia Chapter, Business & Finance, Competitive Intelligence Divisions

Here we are, March 2011…am I ready…are you? The job landscape for librarians and information professionals is more than tough, as we all know. Long-employed librarians face lay-offs, and students who are graduating soon are worried about finding work in the first place. Those who are fortunate to be employed face budget cuts and worry how they can keep up their level of service. In addition to all of this we have to fight a constant battle to demonstrate that librarians are needed! Add personal issues we all face to this mix, and I’d say this could be a very stressful year.

But fear not! Don’t think the glass is half-empty when, with a little bit of creativity and boldness, we can make it half-full again. Complaining about everything that is going wrong is tiring and does not lead to anything, really. Instead focus on how you can improve existing services with non-traditional resources and your passion for our profession.

About two weeks ago I attended a webinar facilitated by Scott Brown, a competitive intelligence professional, who spoke about using social media for business research. He showed us how to extract information from sources that are absolutely free! Using non-traditional sources for our work can be a huge deal, not only to gather valuable insight but also to stretch the budget. Just looking at his resources and how he utilizes something that most people see as completely unrelated to work inspired me to look for these kinds of information sources.

But social media is not only a great tool to obtain information. Working as law librarian in a public library, I use Facebook and Twitter to promote what the Central Rappahannock Regional Library has to offer. I have managed to increase patron awareness in our services by making use of social media and our blog. Many of my patrons are even willing to speak up for the library at the next budget meeting. Statistics and personal testimonies can go a long way when fighting for more money. I also advocate for my library and our profession in general as much as I can. So many people are not aware of the vast amount of materials that the library offers, and they are amazed when I tell them. And usually they come back with friends and family. So advocate, advocate, advocate. Involve your patrons and clients in your problems in a reasonable manner. You will see results in time.

Librarians are all about collaboration. So if you find a great new resource, let others know about it. Make use of our collective knowledge and wisdom to discover new ways of doing your job and getting results. Try to get out of your comfort zone, at least a little bit, and let people know how important libraries and information professionals are. Our future will be brighter than the present if every one of us contributes just a little bit.

Aileen Marshall is the law librarian at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg, VA.
She posses a MA from the Westfaelische Wilhelms-University in Muenster, Germany, and will graduate
from the University of South Carolina with her MLIS in May 2011. She can be contacted at www.cyndera.com

by Jennifer Burns, Toronto Chapter, Academic Division

If I had to describe my relationship with work-life balance on Facebook, I’d say, “It’s complicated.” I’ve struggled with it for a long time, and I’m not alone. Work-life balance has been a concept in organizational development for a generation, but in practice, it has been elusive. Can it be that we’ve spent 30 years trying to solve the wrong problem?

Maybe. The very expression “work-life balance” assumes that work and life are separate, even antagonistic. I’m not sure that this is true, at least not for knowledge workers.

We live in a post-Industrial era. This new age, the Knowledge Age, demands a new model. I believe that knowledge workers should aspire to work-life integration, where work is a healthy and fulfilling part of our daily lives.

Let’s get real. There is no steam whistle signaling the end of another workday in the Knowledge Age. Knowledge is organic, frequently imperfect, and never stops. It is our work and very much a part of our lives. Balance just isn’t realistic in the current environment of rapid economic, social, and technological change. Better to strive for flexibility and resilience, both in ourselves and in our organizations. Yes, there is work that needs to get done, and there are only 24 hours in a day. But we also need to manage our energy, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for that.

If we can blend Work with Life, we will have more interesting, prosperous, and meaningful careers and lives, and our organizations, families, and communities will be better for it. That is a future worth working for.

Jennifer Burns is the President of the Toronto Chapter of SLA. As a Collection Development Manager with Baker & Taylor’s YBP Library Services, she travels extensively for work and has the luggage tags to show for it. She does her best thinking on airplanes. Jennifer can be reached at jen.ann.burns@gmail.com