by Cindy Romaine, SLA President 2011

Just 365 days ago, the first post went up on FutureReady365. From its inception, the FutureReady365 blog had one big, wild, hairy, audacious goal. We sought answers to a single, provocative question: How are YOU Future Ready? A dedicated team of volunteers committed to publishing a new post every day of 2011 and—WE DID IT!

Over the course of 2011, information professionals from around the world posted solutions, strategies, tactics, and tips. They showcased how they are preparing for a future that is indeed bright. It was a great conversation on an important topic, and your contribution made us smarter and better informed.

So before I look back, I’d like to thank my team of stalwart volunteers. And I have to express my admiration for everyone who posted for us. And I have to thank the readers who participated, posted comments, and kept coming back for more. Thank you all!

For me, personally, it was a great experience to serve as a catalyst to this conversation. As I bow out as SLA President and we prepare to re-invent FutureReady365, I want to share a few lessons I learned from the posts and from the experience of running a daily blog.

Great members, great posts

1. What’s Hot. We’re faced with a lot of seemingly orthogonal issues, related only tangentially, but they do connect to the issues of the day. The blog followers are amazingly adept at connecting the dots and reacting quickly. There were three issues that we kept hearing about, in one form or another:

• How information pros are adding value.
• The importance of collaborating constantly.
• The necessity of embracing technology.

2. Already There. Many SLA members and information professional are already engaged in some very interesting, completely future-ready activities. Whether you are working with data fusion, e-readers, or mobile apps, you get it and you’re there.

3. Business Savvy Required. The most savvy members have survived and thrived in an amazing technological revolution. But the best geeks don’t make the best information professionals. There are some core attributes on the business side that can make or break your career. Technology AND business acumen are required in order to be Future Ready.

4. It’s Quotable. There was some great writing on the site, and it is impossible to narrow it down, but here a few examples of one-liners that I liked:

• “Pick yourself.” ~ Dale Stanley, April 6
• “Stick your nose into other people’s conversations.” ~ Gloria Miller, March 3
• “They call it ‘data fusion.’ I call it sexxxay!” ~ Juliane Schneider, April 15
• “… define your library as a place for innovation and experimentation….” ~ Helen Josephine, March 10

Embracing the Daily Grind
I had never managed a publishing effort on this scale, and none of the FutureReady team had either. But at the end of the day, it all came down to something many SLA members are exceedingly good at: project management. We created a schedule, assigned roles, and became a well-oiled machine. Here are some random musings about how we did it.

5. SLA is made up of tribes. The divisions and chapters have their own interests and personalities, and they’re never shy about expressing their feelings. And that’s good! It took us about half the year to figure that out, and to tap into it efficiently. When we did, it was like rocket fuel.

6. Go Team! It’s hard to overstate the enormous contribution and dedication it took to implement this project. Here’s a shout out to the team: Meryl B. Cole, Michelle Mayes, Arik Johnson, Christian Gray, Jill Strand, Chris Vestal, Tiffany Renshaw, Jamal Cromity, Lorene Kennard, Dennie Heye, Sharon Rivers, Cindy Shamel, Kendra Levine, and many others.

7. The power of social media is in the connections. Sure, I know what you are thinking: “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” But seriously, human beings are social creatures. Something deep in our DNA makes us love to share and learn from each other. Camaraderie was essential to the FutureReady365 success, and just like with the holiday spirit, it’s as much fun to give as it is to receive.

8. Social media is free, but it is not cheap. It takes many man-hours to staff a robust social media program. It takes planning, hard work, and energized people who make and keep their commitments. There was nothing accidental about our success. We improvised, overcame, and adapted, all with amazing agility, and we walked the talk about what it takes to be Future Ready while doing it.

It was good for me
The FutureReady365 blog benefited me on a personal level, too. I always had something to talk about with fellow professionals. “Always be recruiting” became my mantra, and I learned to be boringly consistent so that others would know what to expect from me. Here’s what it meant to my personal journey:

9. I can rise to the occasion. I learned that I can reach deep inside of myself and pull out something that I did not know was there. I can be outside of my comfort zone pretty much all the time and still breathe. It was taxing, and sacrifices were made, but, at the end of a terrific year, I can say—it was worth it.

10. Go big or go home. I also learned that when people put their trust in you and give you their vote, you can’t be shy. You can’t plan a modest agenda. If you try hard and fail, at least you tried. If you try hard and succeed, you can feel really, really good about it.

11. SLA Rocks. Finally, recently, I led a delegation to Cuba for a professional exchange. Frankly, it is not a wealthy country; internet connections are slow or non-existent, and the computers are seriously outdated. Can you say 3.5-inch floppy? Yet somehow, the librarians manage to put together useful collections and provide good services, so their spirit gets an A+. All this made me realize—yet again—that this is a pretty darn good profession to be in.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what will become of FutureReady365 in the future. Turn it in to an HBO Special? Or should I go with a Discovery Channel reality show? How about a New York Times best-seller? We’ll have to wait and see. Then again, in his December 30 blog post, Brent Mai, SLA’s 2012 President, challenged me to take this blog to the next level. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be hearing from me AGAIN!

Thanks a million – truly.

Cindy Romaine is SLA President 2011. She is the owner of Romainiacs Intelligent Research and long-time active member of SLA and the Oregon Chapter.

by Blane Dessy

Federal agencies are constantly looking to new models of how the business of government is conducted and making strides to improve techniques and practices at every level of service. To be future ready, Federal librarians will need to discover forthcoming agency efforts and package their services to serve the project mission. To stay in the forefront of emerging trends, they will need to merge information from various groups and identify information available from external sources.

To define this future, FEDLINK completed an environmental scan of the external factors that may influence the information field. The scan included a review of materials from a variety of organizations including the Special Libraries Association, OCLC, the Pew Internet and American Life Project, and Outsell, a noted research firm that focuses on issues relating to the information industry. FEDLINK also reviewed materials from the federal government on reforming information technology in the federal government, information on transparency in government and samples of resources making use of new technologies.

After a thorough analysis, the environmental scan identified seven major trends that define how Federal libraries can be future ready.

Trend number 1: Demonstrate returns on investment.
Libraries will need data on use and cost savings not just in financial terms, but also in terms of savings in staff efficiency. Librarians will need to use a variety of analytics to document costs and benefits.

Trend number 2: Establish mission critical programs.
Managers will more broadly define processes, standards and policies and explore a variety of options to insure viability.

Trend number 3: Integrate mobile devices, “apps” and dashboards into workflows.
Libraries will need to create tailored apps to access library resources and programs through mobile devices.

Trend number 4: Expand roles as analyst, educator and consultant.
Librarians will need to integrate evaluation tools with the newest software and devices and expand instruction in digital literacy and online searching techniques.

Trend number 5: Cultivate use of the Semantic Web, cloud computing and Web 3.0.
Library use of social collaboration and interactive responsibility will combine with Web 3.0 technologies to create a semantic Web that includes human intelligence combined with data management where content and technology are now one. With increasingly cloud-based sources and tools, librarians will serve as a bridge to share information and support projects that cross agency lines.

Trend number 6: Customize and personalize information to meet the needs of users.
With the proliferation of mobile technologies, the semantic web and other web searching technologies patrons will want information compiled so that it is immediately usable and tailored to meet a specific need.

Trend number 7: Collaborate via knowledge transfer and information sharing.
In tandem with the previous trends, libraries will need to discover forthcoming agency efforts and package their services to serve the project mission.

Librarians also will need to integrate evaluation tools with the newest software and devices and expand instruction in digital literacy and online searching techniques. We must help to make the connections required for knowledge transfer from one generation to the next.

To respond to these future directions, FEDLINK released new competencies for federal librarians and uses them as a centerpiece for developing FEDLINK’s education programming. Our outreach efforts now combine the use of online learning systems, continued efforts on mentoring and the recent creation of NewFeds, a new working group that supports the development and advancement of early career professionals with less than five years of federal service. NewFeds is also concerned with building a sense of community among new FEDLINK members, advocating for new professionals, promoting careers in federal libraries and developing partnerships with other FEDLINK working groups and library professional associations.

With an eye toward trends and professional development, libraries and librarians can make their rich and valuable content compatible with current learning and researching patterns. In doing so, we set the trends and guide our users into the information future. Federal librarians want to be future ready, but just as importantly, they want to shape the future environment for their work.

Blane K. Dessy is the Executive Director of the Federal Library and Information Center Committee and the Federal Library Network at the Library of Congress. Prior to this, he had been Director of Libraries at the United States Department of Justice and the first Executive Director of the National Library of Education. He came to the Federal Government after working as a State Librarian (Alabama), Deputy State Librarian (Ohio), library consultant (Oklahoma), and public library director (Pennsylvania). He is currently also an adjunct instructor in Management and Federal Libraries at the Catholic University of America School of Library and Information Science.

Mr. Dessy received his MLS degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976 and subsequently attended advanced library management training at the School of Business Administration at Miami University (Ohio).

He is the recipient of two John Cotton Dana Awards for library public relations. While at the Department of Justice, he received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the second highest honor in the Department of Justice.

by Jose María Ortiz

(English Translation follows)

El mundo de la información está lleno de numerosos caminos. En muchos de ellos nos perdemos por el desconocimiento en la selección de fuentes, por la avalancha de datos constante e inmediata. En una biblioteca de una escuela de negocios el tiempo es uno de los valores más apreciados y compete a la biblioteca generar medios y difundirlos para engrasar la rueda de la docencia y la investigación.

Visibilidad interna y externa

Parte de un plan de colaboración debe incluir las medidas adecuadas para no generar procesos repetitivos que impidan al staff estar al 100% orientado hacia el usuario. Pensemos en los procesos de catalogación, donde la mayor parte del trabajo está en origen ya hecho y en realidad se requiere formación en compartir e importar datos. Esto mismo tiene dos consecuencias, la primera y ya comentada, se descarga al bibliotecario de trabajo mecánico en pro de un mayor servicio a su comunidad de usuarios, traducido a mayor visibilidad interna de nuestro centro de información.

La segunda, la confluencia de nuestra actividad en el entorno de la información, en los catálogos colectivos, los grupos de trabajo y las redes profesionales, que a su vez genera espacios para la visibilidad del trabajo y la marca de nuestra biblioteca hacia el exterior.

Rentabilidad y eficiencia que impulsan la visibilidad

Es una primera consecuencia, el hecho que la colaboración implica reducción de costes y un mayor aprovechamiento de los recursos disponibles en una biblioteca. Si nuestro centro de información forma parte de un consorcio que opera en materias de préstamo interbibliotecario, compras consorciadas de recursos electrónicos, sabremos que obtenemos beneficios directos en nuestras inversiones y condiciones generales de nuestras licencias.

Pero sumado a esto, pensemos que el hecho de participar colaborativamente en estos foros nos lleva también a crear una posibilidad para la presentación de nuestros servicios, a definir lo que nos posiciona en un carácter distintivo y atractivo dentro de una comunidad académica.

Piensa en global, colaboración es participación

Parte de mi trabajo diario es fomentar las posibilidades y dotar a la biblioteca donde trabajo de herramientas participativas que permitan un eficiente servicio a nuestros usuarios. Siempre que pienso en cómo podemos colaborar y participar en diversos foros, me pregunto ¿de qué manera contribuirá esto a la visibilidad y posicionamiento de nuestra biblioteca, y también de toda la organización?

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The world of information is full of many processes. In many of them, we get lost due to ignorance on the selection of sources, due to the onslaught of constant and immediate data. In the library of a business school time is one of the most cherished values and it is a function of the library to generate and disseminate resources to grease the wheel of teaching and research.

Internal and external visibility

Part of a collaborative plan must include appropriate measures to avoid creating repeatable processes that prevent the staff from being 100% oriented towards the user. Think of the cataloging process, where most of the work is already done originally and actually training is required to share and import data. This also has two consequences, first and already mentioned, it takes the librarians time away from better service to its community of users, translated into greater internal visibility of our information center. The second, the convergence of our activity in the information environment in the catalogs, working groups and professional networks, creates space for visibility of the work and the mark of our library to the outside.

Profitability and Efficiency driving visibility

It is a first consequence, the fact that collaboration means lower costs and better use of available resources in a library. If our information center is part of a consortium that operates in the areas of interlibrary loan, consortia purchases of electronic resources, etc, we know we get direct benefits from our investments and general conditions in our licenses. But, in addition to that, we think that participation collaboratively in these forums also leads us to create an opportunity for the presentation of our services, to define the ways that make us distinctive and attractive in an academic community.

Think global, collaboration is participation

Part of my daily job is to promote opportunities and provide the library where I work with participatory tools that enable us to provide efficient service to our users. Whenever I think about how we can cooperate and participate in various forums, I wonder how this will contribute to the visibility and positioning of our library, and also of the entire organization.

Jose María Ortiz is Associate Library Director in IE Business School, one of the top business schools on the FT rankings. He has an MLIS and is also a constant reader and learner on how librarians influence society.  Follow him on Twitter @josemaLIS.

The SLA Board recently adopted a very ambitious strategic agenda with five elements that will guide decision making by the Association’s leaders. These five strategic agenda elements are: (1) annual conference, (2) professional development, (3) creating a richer volunteer experience, (4) opening new markets, and (5) growth through diversity. By adopting this strategic agenda, SLA leaders are prepared and resolved to make decisions, solve problems, forge judgment, and plan forward.

In this Future Ready 365 Blog Post, we’re examining strategic agenda Item 4: “opening new markets.” Each element of a strategic agenda must support the organization’s mission and be results-focused. This one certainly is. Part of SLA’s mission is to strengthen its members through learning and networking initiatives. One of SLA’s historical strengths has been its ability to bring together its membership around learning opportunities and networking initiatives, whether locally, regionally or internationally based. For a number of years SLA leaders have envisioned the need to “build a bigger tent” in order to expand these opportunities and initiatives – that is, to welcome members whose role in the information industry may not be defined as traditional or whose world view may be different from that of North America. And expansion of membership is definitely something that is measurable. As your 2012 President, I have a personal stake in the success of this one, because in my vision for SLA’s future, I forecast a membership increase of 15%.

During 2012, your Association leaders will be looking at a number of issues that put focus on this vision by looking at both internal and external factors that either promote or inhibit the opening of new markets. We will examine the impact of our current fiscal structure, our governance structure, our geographic structure, our marketing structure, our technology structure, and our collaborative structure on our ability to accomplish this goal. What does our current internal and unit-related fiscal structure do to further this goal? Is our current governance structure flexible enough to work in new markets? As an international organization, are we maximizing contemporary geographic organizational structures to best serve our members and those yet to join SLA? Will our current marketing efforts reach these new markets? Are we maximizing new technologies to reach and serve these new markets? Can we leverage collaboration among SLA’s current units and with external groups and organizations to maximize our support for members in these new markets?

These are but a few of the questions that will be examined as we envision SLA’s future through the lens of strategic agenda Item 4: “Opening New Markets.”

Brent Mai is SLA’s President, 2012.

Howdy from the beautiful Rocky Mountains! The Rocky Mountain chapter of SLA is thrilled to contribute this week’s FutureReady365 posts. We are a small, diverse community of 150+ members spread across a four-state region (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota). We have a medley of posts from public school, government, higher education and independent professionals that we hope will prompt conversations, comments and thoughts on being future ready. Happy reading!

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by Joseph Kraus, Rocky Mountain Chapter, Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics and Science-Technology Divisions

Collaboration has been a big buzzword in the library literature lately. Well, maybe I see that buzzword just because I have been training myself to see that concept in library articles, blog posts and reports. I am one of three editors for the blog, Collaborative Librarianship News at http://collaborativelibrarianship.wordpress.com/. This blog provides news and links to information concerning collaboration and cooperation in libraries of all types. Valerie Horton, Robin Hastings and I have been doing this since the journal Collaborative Librarianship opened its doors in January of 2009.

When it comes to collaboration, I agree with Stephen Abram when he noted that “cooperation is simple; collaboration is hard since it hits so many of those human hot buttons that generate emotional intensity—territorialism, ego, identity, sharing, power, etc.” (http://collaborativelibrarianship.org/index.php/jocl/article/view/50). True collaboration means that the staff of a library may need to give up some control of an aspect of their work. Collaboration with other types of organizations and people in other fields will require the staff to trust that the other organization or group will support a service that is no longer offered by library employees. Or, the collaboration may provide enhanced services that the library couldn’t have done without collaboration. In the end, some aspect of the work could have formal contracts between the library and the other organization so that the services and tasks are spelled out.

Some examples of collaboration could include:

• Public library collaboration with a middle school
• Academic library collaboration with the Anthropology Department to develop museum displays
• Corporate library collaboration with the R&D Department
• Library/vendor collaboration
• Government information center collaboration with the IT Office on a specific project

What does this have to do with being future ready? As libraries and information centers continue their transformations, collaboration of all types and flavors will be even more important for the sustainability of the organization. The skill we all should have learned in kindergarten, “plays well with others,” continues to be a crucial skill.

Joseph Kraus is currently the Science & Engineering Librarian at the University of Denver (DU) Penrose Library. DU is a medium sized private university in Denver, Colorado. He is active in the Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics and the Sci-Tech Divisions of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). He has written numerous articles and has presented on topics from Library2.0 resources, unconferences and collection development.

Dear Members:

The rapid evolution of the information industry, along with input from SLA members, has spurred the SLA Board of Directors to develop an updated strategic vision for SLA. This vision will serve as a roadmap for our association between now and 2014 to provide the best career-enhancing benefits to our 9,000-plus members worldwide.

The strategic vision reflects the fact that SLA Board members listened to a lot of member input. Given the diversity of SLA’s membership (academic, corporate, self-employed, etc.), we expect every SLA member to find some aspects exciting…and other aspects less so.  The strategic vision is a high level summation of bold goals, and we know boldness carries risk.  But we want to be bold, and we want your participation to follow the input you provided.  The specifics of implementing the vision will depend entirely on member engagement, and details will vary among each chapters and division.

We invite you to read the strategic vision with care, and then consider where you wish to put your efforts.  Members are the drivers for success in reaching the vision’s elements; where do you fit so that your volunteer contribution will generate the greatest benefit for your SLA unit and for yourself?

Your avenues for responding include the Future Ready 365 blog (today and during the first week of December), your chapter, your division, any special interest group (example: First 5 Years), the Board, and your personal professional network within SLA.  To facilitate idea-sharing, members of the Board will be hosting a Future Ready blog post detailing each focus area, and will be responding to members’ comments and ideas beginning November 28^th through December 2^nd.

SLA leaders look forward to hearing from you. Send an email to your chapter president or division chair, comment on the 365 blog right now, or call a board member.  We are here for you!

We’re pleased to unveil this updated strategic vision—a plan that is at once ambitious and realistic:

Vision:

SLA is a vibrant, global association of professionals who are employed in every sector of the information and knowledge economy. Our members thrive where data, information, and knowledge intersect and our strategic partners support SLA because they believe in the association’s mission and the future of its members. The goal of SLA is to support information professionals as they contribute, in their varied and evolving roles, to the opportunities and achievements of organizations, communities, and society.

Key Areas of Focus:

To supplement the strategic vision, priorities have been identified to guide the association’s leaders, volunteers, and staff toward fulfillment.  Focus areas include:

Annual Conference: SLA’s chief member-benefit is its highest priority. We will increase collaboration across SLA’s divisions to provide more focused, refined content. This collaboration will leverage our professional experience and institutional knowledge to ensure increased relevance of programming for SLA’s conference attendees. While increasing specificity of topics is key, focus will also be placed on broadening opportunities for learning (November 28^th blog post by Mary Ellen Bates, Division Cabinet Chair).

Professional Development: SLA’s value to its membership will be enhanced not only through improved in-person development offerings, but in combination with a year-round, virtual education program. We will define a new approach to providing reliable and useful professional development programming, comprising virtual opportunities throughout the year, and partnerships with schools of library and information science to co-develop content, communications, and delivery of educational programs (November 29^th blog post by Sara Tompson, Director).

Creating Richer Volunteer Experiences to Develop In-Demand Skills: A fulfilled association-vision will depend heavily upon SLA’s volunteer-force—the network that gives the association its strength and relevance. What better incentive to become active in the association than the fact that it will benefit your career down the road? New skills picked up as volunteers in our chapters and divisions may just be the stepping stones to a promotion or achievement at work.  Added focus will be placed on creating richer volunteer experiences in the areas of web development (search engine optimization, plug-in development and research), marketing (developing a marketing plan for local events and programs), program management (overseeing budgets, fund raising with local vendor communities), and more. SLA’s volunteers will be powerfully well-rounded in the years to come (November 30^th blog post by Daniel Lee, Director).

Opening New Markets Through Collaboration: A bright future for SLA depends on collaboration with key partners within the information industry. We will strive toward an increase in opportunities available to SLA’s membership through affiliation with schools of library and information science and the vendors who provide products and services that empower SLA members (December 1^st blog post by Brent Mai, President-Elect).

Growth Through Diversification:  The information profession is evolving faster than ever, thanks to the rapid rate of technological change and innovation. In this evolution lies opportunity to grow SLA’s offerings to new and nontraditional sectors of the information profession, and to enhance SLA as a professional home for these groups—e.g. competitive intelligence specialists, IT development specialists, and software and standards trainers (December 2^nd blog post by Richard Huffine, Division Cabinet Chair-Elect).

Envisioning a Bright Future:

The focus areas described above are highlights of our plan to fulfill a prosperous vision for the future. It goes without saying that each area of focus is inter-woven—each one depends on the other. As always, the value here lies in the opportunity to network, to try on something new, to step out of our comfort zones, and to achieve more than ever before. The Board of Directors encourages members to discuss ways in which they may participate and contribute to making the vision a reality. I am confident that as I pass the torch to incoming President Brent Mai and President-Elect Deb Hunt that the strength of the association’s volunteer force and staff will put us in a position that is both stable and pioneering within the information industry.

Here’s to success in 2012 and beyond!
2011 SLA President,
Cindy Romaine

Cindy Romaine is the current SLA President and is focused on encouraging members to be Future Ready 24/7 in 2011.

by Clara Cabrera, New York Chapter, Leadership & Management Division

So how does someone starting her second career and new to the library profession get to the best seat in the house of the SLA annual conference? This is how I got there along with some of my thoughts on being “Future Ready.” Prior to 2009, I was working for a small financial publishing company, having spent 2007-2009 working full time and attending graduate school to obtain my Master’s degree. Scheduling and finances being what they were for me, attending a library conference was difficult to swing. I did hear and read about friends and colleagues attending conferences and knew I was missing out on a great experience.

After being an active officer of the SLA student chapter at Pratt, I became actively involved in roles at SLA-NY. I attended local chapter events; I even organized a few events and meet many fellow information professionals along the way. I was nominated for the 2011 Rising Star award – an award that five new information professionals from across all the chapters receive. For the record, the best part of receiving this award is that I was nominated by people that I have worked alongside as a volunteer. None of the activities I have been a part of could have been successful without the parts played by so many others. The award provides entrance to the full SLA conference and an awards ceremony at the opening events of the conference, and the award winners each take part in a panel of fellow Rising Stars and newly inducted SLA Fellows.

The panel discussed the four pillars of Cindy Romaine’s concept of “Future Ready” – described on the Future Ready Blog as:

Collaboration to accelerate the availability of useful information
Adaptable skill set that anticipates and responds to the evolving marketplace
Alignment with the language and values of the community you serve
Community that connects stakeholders in mutually beneficial relationships

Working with Webb Shaw, Director of Editorial Resources of J.J. Keller – sponsor of the Rising Star Award – each of the Rising Stars were paired with a Fellow and we discussed how the elements of being “Future Ready” relate to our experiences in the profession. Leoma Dunn, of the Kentucky SLA chapter, and I paired up to discuss Collaboration.

Since we discussed how these pillars were part of our professional experience as new and veteran professionals, I’ll briefly mention the comments we made in discussing Collaboration. Since I think my biography reads of my collaboration in this field, it was fairly straightforward for me to discuss how collaboration played a part in my professional development. In my graduate years I found collaboration opportunities in both informal classmate study groups and student associations/groups. Collaboration is evident in my current work place

• in intra-departmental communication and reference tracking tools, such as email and SharePoint;
• in departments within the same branch of our corporate organizational structure (Technical Services, Knowledge Management, Content Management);
• with other firm departments, such as Business Development, Legal Talent recruitment, and Information Technology groups;
• with suppliers/vendors; and, of course,
• with the End User.

In the professional arena my collaboration experience has been in professional associations (SLA and others) and within informal meet-ups of professional people who share the same information professional space, but may differ in the job titles or firm in which we work. It also extends to the professional literature which I see as the “published format of collaboration” in which we follow and find out what other professionals are doing in the field (such as blog commenting or letters to the editors for print publications).

My panel partner Leoma discussed her own unique experience as President of the Kentucky Library Association, which includes public, school media, special, and academic librarians, and how the collaboration of these varied libraries help with each library’s own issues. Leoma works in the academic setting and has found that the nature of academic culture, where you have to present and work with others as part of your job, is more open, inclusive and naturally lends itself to collaboration.

Both Leoma and I referenced a great transcript (found on the CEO’s Corner page of SLA.org) of Janice LaChance’s presentation on collaboration at the ICAL conference in Delhi, India, in 2009. I recommend everyone read this speech. LaChance provides specific examples of collaboration at work in several U.S. library environments that really informed our understanding of collaboration at the larger multi-institutional level.

I enjoyed my participation in the panel on being “Future Ready”: meeting some of the other great new professional talent in the field, and the veteran knowledge workers that I had the honor of sharing the table with. Since the panel took place fairly early on in the course of the multi-day conference, I spent the bulk of my first time conference experience popping in and out of various sessions that piqued my interest, and vendor sponsored events that highlighted some upgrades to their products. Overall, I had a wonderful learning experience, and look forward to future conferences.

I could not have had these great experiences without SLA and J.J. Keller, the award sponsor of the 2011 Rising Star award. I owe a great thanks to SLA New York Chapter for nominating me for the Rising Star award and for also awarding me with a chapter scholarship to attend the SLA Conference. Thank you.

This article was was published in the Fall 2011 Newsletter of the New York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association.

Clara Cabrera is a Research and Reference Specialist for the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr. Clara received her MLIS from Pratt Institute in 2009. An active member of the SLA–New York chapter, she has previously held the Library School Liaison and Joblog Coordinator positions. Clara was awarded the 2011 Rising Star award by SLA.

By Mary Talley, Owner, TalleyPartners, 2011 DC/SLA President (DC & Maryland Chapters, B&F, IT, KM, Leadership & Management and Legal Divisions)

Best Practices for Government Libraries is a collaborative document that is put out annually on a specific topic of interest to government libraries and includes content submitted by government librarians and community leaders with an interest in government libraries. The 2011 edition includes over 70 articles and other submissions provided by more than 60 contributors including librarians in government agencies, courts, and the military, as well as from professional association leaders, and more. Best Practices is edited by Marie Kaddell, Senior Information Professional Consultant; SLA DGI Chair.  If you did not write for this year’s Best Practices, Marie invites you to submit a guest post for the Government Info Pro marie.kaddell@lexisnexis.com.

Relationships, relationships, relationships! Like the old adage about the importance of location in real estate, embedded information professionals’ success rests partially on the depth of their relationship with their user groups. The research that I performed in 2009 and 2010 on models of embedded librarianship with my colleague, Dave Shumaker, showed that strong working relationships are often built on frequent interactions, such as face-to-face meetings, hallway chats, and shared meals and social events. Being present in information users’ day-to-day work life helps them to see the information professional as a member of the group and promotes credibility. Social interactions break down barriers and promote trust.  As information users become more comfortable with the information professional, they think of them more often as someone who can solve less traditional information problems.

Being There — Virtually
In a virtual environment, duplicating this level of interaction can be difficult. How can you create and sustain equally strong connections with information users that you may never see? Although you may have to work harder to develop virtual relationships, there is encouraging data from the research, case studies and the literature that shows the way.

In a case study from our research, a knowledge analyst on the East Coast is integrated into a practice group located everywhere around the globe – except the East Coast. The analyst’s strongest supporter is the practice group’s executive manager, who is located on the West Coast. The analyst and the manager rarely meet, and the analyst has never met most of the practice group. Yet, the analyst is one of only two who have full access to all practice group-related emails, which she monitors for both work product (which she captures) and emerging issues (for which she provides preemptive support).

Start at the Top
How did the knowledge analyst do it? Her initial connections with the practice group were made through collaborative work with the senior manager on high-value, departmental work products. In many ways, the analyst worked as an apprentice knowledge manager with the senior manager, learning and building trust. The senior manager encouraged the analyst to expand her subject expertise and take on more challenges. She credits the manager’s support as the single most important factor in her success.

Over time, the senior manager has integrated the knowledge analyst as an active participant in all of the practice group’s online communications, meetings and learning opportunities. As a result, the practice group has come to know and trust her capabilities; demand for her work is skyrocketing and other groups are requesting her help as word spreads about her capabilities.

In the successful embedded groups identified in our research, management support is the key to successful integration of the embedded professionals into their information user groups. Relationships between the embedded professional and management are exceptionally strong. In one self-rated highly successful embedded group we identified, ties to user group management include giving both written and verbal reports to group managers.

In a dispersed virtual environment where information professionals may rarely, if ever, come into contact with senior management, reciprocal relationships between management in both the information center management and the information user groups are also instrumental in connecting individual information professionals with organizational groups. In the case of the knowledge analyst (who is an employee of her parent organization’s library), the information center director has cultivated connections with all levels of organizational management, facilitated the collaboration between the analyst and the practice group manager and encouraged the analyst’s alignment with the information user group.

As important as management support is, the information professional can’t just wait for her boss or a senior manager to intervene. To become embedded, a professional in a virtual or physical environment needs to be highly skilled in outreach and relationship-building. Members of the self-rated highly successful embedded group we identified proactively sought management support, including meeting regularly with customer group management to understand their information needs. Likewise, the knowledge analyst seeks continuous feedback from the two senior managers in the practice group she works with.

Subject expertise is imperative to gaining credibility and trust, but it’s not enough if the information users don’t know – and trust – the information professional well enough to call her for extraordinary issues. When senior management advises contacting this person for all information-related issues, chances are the user group will listen. The knowledge analyst in our case study noted that the senior manager endorsed and promoted her work to the group, increasing her credibility.

In a virtual environment, where casual interaction is unlikely, this endorsement from the top is critical. With management support and information savvy, the embedded professional can be as successful in the virtual world as in the physical one.

References

Shumaker, D., & Talley, M. (2010). Models of embedded librarianship: A research summary. Information Outlook, 14(1), 27-27-28, 33-35.

Talley, M. (2011). Success and the Embedded Librarian. Information Outlook, 15(3) http://www.sla.org/io/2011/04/995.cfm

Mary Talley is an information professional and an entrepreneur. She heads TalleyPartners, an information management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, repositioning and embedded information structures for information centers. She was a co-recipient of the 2008 SLA Research Grant to study successful models of embedded librarianship. Mary currently serves as President of DC/SLA.

by Robert Hulshof-Schmidt, Oregon Chapter, Government Information Division

The old adage says “it’s not what you know but who you know.”  For 21stCentury professionals, I would amend that to acknowledge that what you know and who you know are inextricably linked. This is especially true for information professionals.

In an age of rapidly increasing sources of information and reduced resources for most libraries, noone can afford to go it alone. Fortunately, librarians are, by and large, a collaborative bunch. We use interlibrary loan to supplement our local collections; we rely on cooperative licensing to drive down the costs of information tools. A future ready information professional needs to remember to apply these same principles more broadly to succeed.

This is especially true for solo librarians or people who work in small libraries where they are the only person performing a specific task. Even the best, most well-trained person can benefit from other insights. So where do you turn?

This is where your professional associations are a great resource. The members of SLA and your state association are your peer support network.

Take advantage of discussion lists, blogs, and forums to post your tricky questions. Someone else has almost certainly faced the same issue; even if they can’t give you *the* answer, they can give you great advice on where to turn. (Or, perhaps even more helpful, where *not* to turn!)

In the crush of staying on top of every day’s deadlines, it is easy to hunker down and just try to get things done. It’s also easy to say “I know my mission and business, I can handle this.” When facing a new challenge, an unexpected assignment, or a tough question, stop for a minute. Take a deep breath. Think about who else might be able to help you.

I recently took on the task of redesigning my team’s performance measures. I know a fair amount about statistics, but I wanted to get a sense of what other people measured and why. Numbers should tell a story, and I wanted to be sure that my story was compelling. I reached out to my Oregon Library Association colleagues and to other state managers from a training cohort. I received dozens of great examples, not just of what data to present, but how to frame it for my audience (in this case, the Oregon Legislature). I also got some great ideas for getting an MBA intern to help with the project, including a sample workplan. By asking one question twice, I had a much clearer path and built a much stronger set of measures than I could have done alone.

Oregon’s library workers have access to a good, old-fashioned email distribution list called Libs-Or. The topics that flow through that list every week are fascinating and the answers that people take the time to provide are insightful, often ingenious, and frequently entertaining. A recent question had to do with libraries maintaining traditional reference desks (and what to call them), a topic that has also been featured on this blog. A constant refrain is “thanks for asking, this helps me, too!”

Networking for your own benefit will almost always benefit your colleagues.

It’s great if you can attend a conference or training, spend some networking time, and learn all kinds of things to take home with you. But there’s nothing like just-in-time collaboration to feel the love of your profession.

The future is all about connections, and being future ready means being ready – and willing – to collaborate.

Robert Hulshof-Schmidt is the Program Manager for Government Research Services at the Oregon State Library, a position he has held since 2005.
Robert is currently the President of the Oregon Library Association and Past President of the Public Management Association of Oregon. A long-time SLA member, he has held leadership roles in the Georgia Chapter and the Gay and Lesbian Issues Caucus. He received his undergraduate degree in English from Willamette University and his Master of Library Science degree from the University of Washington. Robert has worked for a variety of government and research libraries and non-profit organizations ranging from solo library shops to managing member relations for SOLINET (now Lyrasis), all experiences that proved the value of collaboration.

by Hal Kirkwood, Indiana Chapter, Business & Finance, Competitive Intelligence Divisions

‘Alice remarked in great surprise, “Why, I do believe we’ve been under this tree the whole time! In our country, you’d generally get to somewhere else if you ran very fast for a long time.”’

“A slow sort of country!” replied the Queen. “Now, here you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”

An article that I have kept and reread over and over is by Arnold Hirshon in Advances in Librarianship entitled ‘Running with the Red Queen: Breaking New Habits to Survive in the Virtual World’. In this article he talks about reinventing reference, meeting increased customer expectations, changing strategic directions, changing our physical spaces, changing how we collaborate, coping with the speed of technological change, and integrating technology effectively.

This article was written in 1996.

These issues are as relevant now as they were 15 years ago. The competition from Google, the multitude of technological options available, the need for building information literacy skills, the necessity to change our physical spaces and how we connect with our constituents are all challenges we as information professionals must face today. We must define our role. We must create the future. To remain relevant we have to run twice as fast to get anywhere, this is what Future Ready means to me.

Hal Kirkwood is the Associate Head of the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management & Economics at Purdue University. He is a past-chair of the Business & Finance Division.
Hal is currently running for one of the two Director positions on the SLA Board. He can be reached at kirkwood@purdue.edu.