Info-entrepreneurs, represented by the Association of Independent Information Professionals, stand out as innovative, forward thinking, and client focused information professionals.  This series of posts delivers future ready solutions and strategies from current and past presidents of AIIP.  As industry thought leaders they have much to share about staying ahead of the curve and delivering cost effective solutions to clients worldwide.  In this insightful series of postings readers will learn how to create a job for life by listening for opportunity, watching for changes, stretching to acquire new skills, finding a balance, planning for the long term, and drawing on your strengths. — C.S.

by Crystal Sharp

In the usual course of play, study, or work, individuals — consciously or not — take steps to exert some control over their immediate short-term or long-term future. What is unsettling about this age of Twitter and YouTube is the rapid pace at which our world is being stretched, flattened and flexed, and as the familiar and predictable structures of social, professional and personal relationships are shifted, we are left less in control.  

Sometimes it is hard not to feel left behind as others implement new solutions, devices, and paradigms, and seemingly march confidently into the future. There seems no time to stop, reflect and take stock as the information world keeps up its rapid shifting. However, it seems more important than ever to cut through the many competing claims on our attention and to stop and think about what we are doing, and why we are doing it, so we can meet the future with some confidence, even in this environment. 

Each of us should start by identifying our own core competencies and then aligning them with goals. This sets some boundaries and enables focus and prioritization of what to spend precious energy on. We don’t need to be part of everything that is happening around us. 

By core competencies, I refer not just to one’s collection of skills, knowledge and experience – but to the unique combination (or portfolio) of skills, services and intangible assets an individual possesses or has access to, that can be used strategically to develop products and services of economic and/or social value.  My core competency portfolio, for example, includes not only the education, experience and knowledge I possess, but that of my knowledge network as well as access to knowledge and special services and programs available to me by associations like AIIP and SLA. I bring all these to bear on the products and services I offer my clients. 

As information professionals we collectively have the core competencies to understand, harness creativity, and guide developments in information and communication technologies; to preserve knowledge, making it findable, usable and useful; and to educate and empower others in ways we have traditionally done. Now we need to be strategic about doing what we do. The concept of being “future ready” has different implications depending on the time horizon. Near-term future-readiness requires that we come to terms with change, enhance professional qualifications, understand how new technologies empower, enhance and endanger; and critically assess our core competencies and goals.  Longer-term future-readiness, however, demands thinking beyond our individual contexts, to shaping new environments; to providing insight and innovation that influences and guides wider operational, intelligence and social environments; and enhancing sustainability of the profession. We are part of this change and it is up to us to guide that change, to pave the way, to shape the future. 

Theodore Roosevelt in his Labor Day address in 1903 was reported to have said “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”  The democratization of knowledge we are experiencing today offers us this possibility. We need to seize the opportunity, but maintain perspective and understand that though tools will change and how we work and what we do will change, we cannot lose sight of who we are, what our mission is, and what matters in the long run.  We have to find a balance that works.

Crystal Sharp, MA, MLIS, is a Grant Consultant, Researcher and Writer at CD Sharp Information Systems, Ltd (www.cdsharp.com), an independent information business in London, Ontario, Canada. She has been a member of AIIP and SLA since 1998 and was President of AIIP in 2006.

by Susan Fifer Canby, Convener, ENCORE: Retired Members Caucus

If you are fifty-plus years, retirement has doubtless been on your mind, unless you’ve already transitioned to life beyond full-time employment.  And if you’ve focused on the dictionary definition of retirement — “to withdraw oneself from business, active service, or public life; to disappear, to take out of circulation; withdrawn or secluded; difficult to be seen, known, or discovered” — you might wonder why anyone would even consider it!

Thinking about retirement is really about reinventing – about finding the proper balance in life.  I know I don’t want or intend to work full-time for any one organization again, because I would like more balance and diversity in my life than was possible working full-time (even for National Geographic Society!).  How about you?  Where do you stand on the question of how you want to be spending your time in the next chapter of your life?

SLA President Cindy Romaine is encouraging us all to be future-ready.  Part of that preparation is thinking about that next chapter and considering how SLA might help with the transition.  Many of your colleagues are preparing for or have launched their encore careers.  Many of us have reached the precipice and discovered life is a cycle of beginnings and endings.  As our work as we knew it ended, whole new beginnings started.

As a growing cohort within society, we share the opportunity to work together to improve the balance in our life AND to find our new path within SLA. A little work on your part will enable you to engage creatively.

Plan to be at SLA Conference in Philadelphia on Tuesday, June 14 to attend Stephen Abram’s session on demographics of our cohort and ideas for the future. Stephen, a contributing author to the book “Boomers & Beyond”(ALA Editions 2010), will describe some of the expected changes in the post-post WW2 generation retired cohort.  What technologies do we prefer – or reject?  What will be our information and reading choices? What are the opportunities for a full and long retirement?

We have created a wiki, http://wiki.sla.org – choose ENCORE featuring stories of some who have already started new chapters and their tips for the rest of us. You will also see recommended readings. You can add your own story, advice or questions on the ENCORE blog or respond to this blog. You can ask questions and talk to your ENCORE cohort on the listserv encore@lists.sla.org.

Help prepare for your future, by joining ENCORE for only $12 – which can be added to your SLA membership dues if you call Headquarters Michelle Garvin at SLA Headquarters 1.703.647.4937 or email her mgarvin@sla.org.

See you in Philadelphia!

Best, Susan Fifer Canby, Convener, ENCORE: Retired Members Caucus

Susan Fifer Canby retired in 2010 and was named Vice President, emeritus, at National Geographic Society in Washington, DC. She applied more than 34 years of information management experience to shape and direct the Society’s libraries and information services. She served on the SLA Board as Chapter Cabinet Chair and is a past president of SLA’s DC Chapter, the DC Library Association, and CAPCON Board. She was recognized by SLA in 2001 as the Innovator of the Year, received the SLA Factiva Leadership Award in 2005, and her library was recognized by SLA as a “Center of Excellence” for management.

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