Michael Bellacosa, Fairfield County Chapter [immediate past-president], Museums, Arts and Humanities Division

Since my LIS career is just beginning after a radical professional transition, I am completely focused on moving into the future with all the change which that entails. Fortunately, my 18-year prior career as a trader, risk manager and business manager on Wall Street taught me many things about working in rapidly evolving and innovating environments: most importantly, either you plunge in to lead or you surf the wave or you get left behind [with a life preserver if you’re lucky].

As a newly-minted librarian, I have few preconceived notions about the profession: indeed, while I still like the term “librarian”, I have a very expansive view of the meaning of that word as well as the word “library”. Because my best strategy for breaking into this new field is to leverage my substantial [yet strictly speaking unrelated] resume, I am imagining the analogies between what I did before my MLS degree [completed last December] and what I can do now.

One trail I’ve been following is the relationship between managing the risk to portfolios of financial assets [i.e. hedging] and managing the risk to collections of digital assets [i.e. digital preservation]. I think the analogies can be generalized to physical and hybrid physical/digital collections. Further, many of the same risk management principles can also be applied to the digitization process itself. From this launching point, I’m working to invent a model for LIS professionals to use in making cost-benefit/risk-management business case arguments to non-LIS administrators in charge of the resources for funding such programs.

If I succeed at translating my skills and experience from the finance-world to the info-world and apply these to current and upcoming challenges in the LIS field, then I will have become “future ready”.

Michael Bellacosa completed his MLS in December 2010. Before commencing that program, he was a currency trader and a risk manager on Wall Street for nearly 20 years. His primary interests are in digital preservation, challenges from technological obsolescence, and the effective use of current information and communication technologies for preserving and providing access to special collections.  Michael presented the basic outline of his model at the “Contributed Papers” session on June 14 at 10am. Check SLA’s Web site for his handout.

By Gayle Pellizzer, LAC Group

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

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

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