Hello from Wisconsin! We are delighted to contribute a week’s worth of postings from the Midwest! You’ll see that Wisconsin isn’t just about the cheese—our chapter boasts 120 members from diverse environments: corporate, law, academic, and other settings, many of us from unique national companies and associations. Our state’s two library schools have renewed focus on special librarianship and growing interest from our student members is evident. We are an active, enthusiastic chapter and happy to contribute our thoughts on future readiness! It’s great in the Dairy State!

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything, but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always gotten there first, and is waiting for it.”

-Terry Pratchett-

Eigengrau is the “color” seen by the eye in perfect darkness. Essentially, it is the absence of light, of illumination, and for this exercise, of knowledge. If we compare this to the practices of organizations, just how comfortable are we with making decisions in the dark?

Librarians are often responsible for the collection, retrieval, storage, analysis, and synthesis of information. Keepers of the Light, if you will. Therefore librarians are brokers of enlightened decision making. The difference between guesswork and effective strategic direction. Organizations all too often take for granted how little they know about the subject at hand, however they also take for granted just how much information is already within their organization, and often within the library. A ‘Future Ready’ Library is of no real benefit unless it is providing ‘Future Ready’ decision support, knowledge awareness, and illuminating the path ahead.

“Future Ready” capability comes from “Future Ready” information. An Information Horizon exists between what is already known within the organization and industry, and what will, can, and might be known in the future. While exceptions do exist, the source and method of collection is as important as the data itself for equipping one’s organization for the future. Market research, focus groups, industry reports, data analysis & modeling, syndicated content, databases, et al. can be essential sources for decision making, though this data needs to be understood as coming from within the information horizon. It is effectively repurposing and consolidating already-known information into long-winded briefs and massive pivot tables of data. The future requires more, and you’ll find this on the far side of the information horizon.

What organizations need to expand their information horizon, and illuminate their position in the market doesn’t fit well into PowerPoint slides, spreadsheets, and pithy quotes about “next quarter.” Expanding into new frontiers and conquering the darkness is tricky business, and more often than not the information needed for the future comes from a series of data points and sources that may seem unrelated. Knowing where to look for the information, how to find it, and what to do with it is where dark turns to light, risk to reward, possibility to profit. Intelligence collection, news monitoring, wargaming, and futurism looks at the far side of the information horizon, forging the path for what will happen, not what already has.

The quality of intelligence gleaned about the future is paramount. If a market research report is errant in a few data metrics it might only change a few percentage points, or less. However, if your intelligence reports are off, it might be the difference between a completely different product launch, a different quarter, region, market, or nothing at all. If you base decisions off of this wayward data, darkness may be your least concern. Eigengrau, the color you actually see in perfect darkness is actually lighter than the black of the night sky. The light emitted from a star shines contrastfull to the otherwise unknown blackness of space. Eigengrau is a shade of grey, not black. Therefore no data at all is superior to the false knowledge of misappropriated data. Nags Head, North Carolina provides a prudent example of such faulty data. In the early 1800s a group of pirates known as the Nags Head “Bankers” supplied merchant vessels with ‘false data,’ taking a horse with a lantern tied around its neck, they would lead it back and forth atop a coastline hill at night. To passing vessels this appeared to be a distant ship and they believed it to be a safe route through the treacherous Outer Banks. Until that data led them straight into the rocky coastline where the looters would plunder the ship, often making for a fatal mistake for the ships’ crew.

Blue Ocean markets lie ahead for your organization. Your Future Ready library is the Crow’s Nest, compass, and knowledge nexus of your organization. Your goal for the future is not only to chart attractive growth markets, but to identify the treacherous and perilous as well – delivering the difficult information, as well as the desired. In economic climates such as the current, organizations can be one false data point away from ruin; however so are your competing organizations. The unique advantage and difference can be the library – you. And the good thing about discovering information about the future is that you don’t have to wait for it to happen, you can start right now.

Zach Steltenpohl is the Sales & Marketing Manager for Aurora WDC, which provides news monitoring, primary research, and training to some of the world’s most respected companies. He is an active member of SLA-WI chapter and various SCIP chapters.

Military Libraries come in all shapes and sizes. We’re academic libraries, supporting Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees. We’re public libraries, complete with children’s story hours and retiree’s financial resources. We’re also other types of special libraries: medical; history; science, technology & engineering; intelligence; and headquarters support. The Military Libraries Division brings together members from all U.S. military services, Canadian Combined Armed Forces, international military services, contractors, vendors, academic institutions and anyone with an interest in military librarianship. Check us out at http://military.sla.org/. – Gloria Miller is a Librarian at the Headquarters, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Redstone Arsenal (Huntsville), Alabama. She is currently the Chair-Elect of the Military Libraries Division.

It’s November 2010. I have just become the solo librarian at a professional/continuing education center for the military. It’s my first job as a professional librarian and also my first job working for the military. I have one part-time staff member, a whole host of daily duties, and (thankfully) a lot of creative freedom. I see a million different projects we might tackle in order to move the library into the future, and, as a zealous young librarian, I want to tackle them all.

I decide instead to take a more sensible route stemming from my background in marketing—figure out who our customers are, identify their information needs, and draft our priority list accordingly. According to experts, analyzing customer needs helps reduce your urge to “do it all” by focusing your efforts and limited resources on high priority areas.¹ This is especially pertinent in a military environment, where shrinking budgets and high turnover in executive leadership dictate the need for data-driven decision making.

Flash-forward to today: Our information needs assessment has been wildly successful. We have learned a great deal about our customers, including their usage habits, information-seeking preferences, on- and offline research behaviors, and perceptions about the library and librarians’ roles. Our small but mighty team acted on this data to develop a clear vision of how our library can support as well as delight our customers—through innovative, creative solutions to their most pressing needs. In addition, we used the data to help us map out and prioritize the routes we will take to meet this vision.

For example, the needs assessment unearthed an unmet need among faculty for access to relevant, credible news articles. Putting our heads together with the programming and graphic design departments, we re-vamped our library’s e-newsletter into a desktop research tool, bringing topical news briefings to our instructors’ fingertips in a more useful format. This creative shift of existing resources produced a more relevant product, increased customer-satisfaction levels, and demonstrated how responsive the library is to customer needs.

Over the course of one year, our library’s scope has narrowed; we are no longer interested in doing it all but in doing all we do extremely well. Since our customers’ needs have provided us with clear guidance, our focus moving forward will remain on them.

Lee Ann R. Benkert is the resource center manager at the U.S. National Security Space Institute and is a member of the Rocky Mountain chapter of SLA. She views librarians as an army of information ninjas, stealthily advancing the world’s perceptions of info pros, one silent footstep at a time. You can follow her on Twitter @lbenkert.

Introduction (Toni Wilson – Chair, SLA CI Division)

There is a great deal of discussion this week regarding the value of analysis – the exercise that turns information into intelligence. In today’s blog post, Emily Rushing emphasizes the importance and value of analysis and offers some practical ideas for accomplishing this important step in the competitive intelligence process, ultimately helping ourselves and our organizations become future ready.

by Emily Rushing, Texas Chapter, Competitive Intelligence and Legal Divisions

“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign…”

-         Signs, Five Man Electrical Band, 1971.

In keeping with this week’s Competitive Intelligence (CI) theme, I’d like to offer a comment on some favorite topics of mine: using CI to predict the future by reading the signs, and the value of intelligence analysis. I do so with apologies to readers of the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog who may have recently seen our post on “Applaud the Jellyfish.”

Many of us regularly engage in CI work and one of the most common, and most valuable, services we provide is the analysis of data. This analysis typically occurs when you’ve done the research, assembled an intimidating pile of data, and now need to sort through, sift out the meaningful stuff, and turn that into answers.

The process of providing that analysis helps us derive meaning from the signs. Or, to phrase that another way, to turn data into intelligence. A smart organization, with savvy library and information professionals, becomes future ready by watching for the signs, understanding what they mean and then using that intelligence to make good decisions.

So, we librarians and information professionals can demonstrate our future readiness by continuing to find and create innovative ways to add the analytical value to our work.

This analysis may be supported by exciting new predictive search tools, or temporal analytics, or just good, old-fashioned environmental monitoring. The processes may be improved with efficiency measures or with new and better technologies.

Whatever the latest techniques, as long as we are effectively turning signs into meaning, and data into intelligence, we will be future ready.

Emily is the Competitive Intelligence Manager for Haynes & Boone, LLP. Her interests include competitive intelligence, business and financial intelligence, legal and business research, business development, strategic planning, knowledge management, and information technologies. Emily has written and presented on competitive intelligence, research and technology. A Dallas native, her hobbies include reading, cooking, and reading about cooking.

by Tim Ferguson, Editor, Forbes Asia

Sue Radlauer, the new Director of Research Services at Forbes, and subject of this post, has been an Information Specialist at Forbes since 2006, the year she received her MLIS from Drexel University. Prior to starting at Forbes, Sue was an Information Specialist at People magazine. Sue is a member of the New York Chapter, and the Divisions Business & Finance, News, and Solo Librarians.

Read the post here: http://blogs.forbes.com/timferguson/2011/07/27/in-praise-of-the-news-librarian/

Tim Ferguson edits Forbes Asia magazine, which circulates from Pakistan to Japan to Australia. We draw on the work of correspondents from throughout the region. I’m also interested in business developments from the rest of the world.

by Laura Dushkes, Pacific Northwest Chapter, Solo Librarians Division

In your graduate work, you learned how to catalog and conduct a reference interview; you learned about databases and collection development. And, you brought with you all the experience from your previous work life.  Now you have a job. Of course you’ll do a good and conscientious one, but that’s not enough. You must continuously prove your value.

But they hired me! They must know my value! They have a library, so they must know the value! Or, They hired me to start an information center, so they must know the value of that!

True, but you’re working for a business. Whether for-profit or not-for-profit, your company has a mission other than getting books and information in the hands of citizens.  Your library’s mission is the mission of the organization.  If you don’t show that your work adds to this mission, you might be seen as expendable. You can go a long way to preventing that. It’s a three-step process:

1. Track itTake a “snap shot” of your library. Pick data that make sense for your setting. Such data might include:How many books/journals does your library hold?
   How many people use your services (pick a period of time)?
   How many questions did you respond to? (pick a period of time)?
   How many hours is the library staffed?
   How many square feet does the library use?
2. Better itLook at this information and see where you can improveCan you move from check out cards to electronic check out?
   Can you create a presence on the intranet to show your new holdings?
   Can you start a blog with items of interest to a work group?
   Can you attend staff meetings and introduce yourself and your services?
   Can you weed to create needed space?
   Can you work with another department that needs help with research or organizing their work?
   Can you digitize copyright-held materials to make widely available?
3. Communicate itNow you have a “before” and an “after.”  Everything you did to improve your library – processes, materials, relationships – can be demonstrated in numbers or statements. Don’t just say what you did. State the benefit.I created an intranet pageso that our satellite offices can get the same new information as our main office.
   The catalog was paper; I created a digital catalog, making it accessible to everyone.
   Last year 40 books were checked out. This year the library circulated 350, increasing the use of already-purchased materials.
   I helped marketing do the research for a proposal that won a $1 million account.

Bring this to the attention of your boss or board in the way they like to get information (even if it means a PowerPoint!). They will quickly see you as more than “overhead.” They will see you as a vitally important part of the organization.

Laura Dushkes is the solo librarian for NBBJ, the 3rd largest architectural firm in the U.S. and 10^th largest in the world, with six offices in the US, as well as offices in the UK and China. She also teaches Special Librarianship at the University of Washington’s iSchool. She has an MA in History as well as her MLIS from the University of Washington.

by Valerie Enriquez

Ask a humanities major to envision the concept of research and they would probably imagine long hours in a library or archive, perusing books and documents. However, ask a scientist to visualize research, and they will likely picture collecting data out in the field.

Open Science was born from Newton’s idea that scientific advancement relies on “standing on the shoulders of giants.” The sharing of ideas encourages the advanced development of knowledge. However, in the world of publish or perish, the shadow cast upon the shoulder is doubt: fear that in sharing preliminary data, a researcher may be scooped, to borrow a journalism term. As a budding archivist, I find the idea of preserving knowledge for future use appealing and the fear of being scooped short-sighted when considering the long game. What if raw data from someone’s research could be the missing piece to finding the cure for cancer, or at the very least, figure out why all the bees have gone and what we need to do to bring them back? What if important datasets faded to obscurity without anybody ever knowing about them?

What can we, as librarians, do to help encourage more sharing of research data? Article citation rate helps researchers by providing them with a way to measure their impact upon the literature within their field. DataCite is an initiative to help bring this level of prestige to data publication. So, why not help encourage data sharing and citation through outreach and advocacy? For example, providing handouts or workshops about data research and the proper citation of reused data (as per Altman 2007):

• Dataset Author
• Dataset Title
• Date the dataset was published/made public
• Unique Global Identifier (such as a DOI or Handle)
• Universal Numeric Fingerprint
• Bridge Service (such as the DOI resolver)

There are many tools available to help researchers share data. For example, OpenWetware offers researchers a wiki format lab notebook, where they can share their observations with each other and solicit feedback. Digital repositories such as ORNL DAAC (Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Archive) for biogeochemical dynamics, ecological data, and environmental processes; TreeBASE for phylogenetic information, GenBank for genetic sequences, and PANGAEA for geoscientific and environmental data help ensure that the data created through the hard work of researchers is preserved for future researchers to build upon.

Last summer, I participated in an internship with DataONE, where I attempted to find examples of articles citing data that had been created in prior studies. The experience was  like trying to find a friend on Facebook if all I knew about them was their hair color and favorite breakfast cereal. At first, I felt like a failure, since as an information scientist, what else could it possibly have been if I could not find the information I was seeking? However, this turned out to be an opportunity to prove the necessity of enforcing data citation standards and creating tools that track data reuse in the same way that we track article citation and journal impact factors.

What can we do? Ongoing evaluation is needed to determine the impact of data reuse and the need for citation standards. I am currently taking courses in evaluation and digital preservation and curation to learn more about past efforts and see how they have been refined over time. My internship mentor from DataOne is going to coordinate a related project that she refers to as the “Tracking 1000 Datasets Project.” Along with staying on top of trends in data research, we must also drive the creation of standards and tools to best serve our user populations. It is time to stop thinking of research and raw data as merely a step towards getting the end product of publishing. If it is truly a “publish or perish” world, we need to advance the idea of publishing, and helping faculty and students  find a place to deposit their initial data could be as much of an outreach and instruction opportunity as helping them find related articles or datasets.

It is little wonder that data librarianship is one of the fastest growing fields in library science. It is up to us to grab such opportunities and stay up to date about the resources available to our users, or risk falling off the shoulders of giants.

Thus, we should lead by example through:

• evaluation of the existing literature and of our own practices
• collaboration with our users, other institutions, and our vendors
• and instruction of our users, new librarians and with our own continuing education.

As I like to think of it, we are all in the process of building: building upon our individual base of knowledge, the knowledge of those in the library science field, and the knowledge of those who require our services. If we do not build upon past information and lessons learned from prior mistakes, our structure will fall with no foundation. If we do not build in conjunction with our present users and creators of tools, we risk having our great tower of learning fall to pieces, walling us in isolation and hindering communication. The past, present, and future of our profession are as inextricably connected as our relationships with researchers ought to be.

Valerie Enriquez is a Fellow with the Association of Research Libraries Career Enhancement Program pursuing an MLIS from Simmons College with a concentration in archives management.  Her internships have included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Visual Studies, the Harvard Countway Center for the History of Medicine, and the DataONE Project.  Her career goal is to use the past to contextualize the present and shape the future of how we seek and process information.