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.

At Marine Corps University (MCU), Embedded Librarianship is called Direct Support. Within the past three years, this program has proved highly successful as evidenced in the growth of services, increase in the number of reference requests, and positive responses from both faculty and students. Essential to the program are e-initiatives to include e-resources, e-instruction, e-reference, and of course, e-content. Capitalizing on our virtual connections laid the foundation of direct library support, essentially creating our new dynamic duo.

“There you are, Norton. The people! Try and lick that!”

~Meet John Doe, 1941

Like the ending scene in Frank Capra‘s classic “Meet John Doe,” our people have spoken and our librarians have listened. At the Marine Corps Research Library (MCRL), patrons may access e-collections, e-services, e-programs, use e-readers and the list goes on. E-initiatives have outfitted our Direct Support Librarians with an e-arsenal letting us truly practice ‘in the field.’ As the practices have expanded, I have developed a list of lessons learned. Each lesson was an eye-opener in itself, but has proved invaluable in defining the Direct Support initiative. For those wishing to start their own programs, here are the top ten lessons I’ve learned through the privilege of serving the tough men and women of the Marine Corps.

“The most powerful weapon is the Marine mind.”

~EPME Course Card

Get to know your patrons…

Getting to know your patrons is critical. Too often we just listen to our patrons ask their questions and don‘t take the time to get to know them and how they think. As Direct Support Librarians this should be your first priority. Don‘t let traditional meetings take the place of actual communication. For faculty and staff, try to visit each staff member individually. Read the university catalog, the faculty bios and the faculty’s subject areas of interest. Set up additional times to survey their informational needs and requests. Create an email roster for keeping them apprised of new content within their subject areas. Highlight the resources that fit their areas of research. Let them know you are interested in them and what they teach and how you can assist. For our Marine students, this means asking what their Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) is, learning the rank structure, knowing the organizational hierarchy of the Marine Corps, finding out where they have served and what they hope to do. Listen more, talk less, take copious notes, ask questions, and in the end, you will have made lots of friends and influenced many people.

“Once a Marine, Always a Marine!”

~MSgt Paul Woyshner

Speak their language…

At MCU, Direct Support is also known as good gouge. This is a great compliment which took a lot of hard work. What‘s good gouge? It‘s military slang meaning great information. Working in an all-military environment, you must learn quickly to navigate the lingo and acronyms. This builds connections and camaraderie and when you speak the jargon, you can truly demonstrate the value and effectiveness of your library resources in ways that are meaningful for them. It’s not about the intrinsic merit of the library and what you do; it’s about making your professional resources and services relevant and translatable to your community. For example, when describing our subscription databases to a Marine who‘s MOS is in artillery, I might describe them as an informational arsenal where the journals are represented as weapon types; the idea of using only Google to search for reliable resources is like using a mortar when you really need a sniper rifle.

For a Marine who’s MOS is in aviation I might describe our website as a sort of checklist he needs to run through before he can begin his campaign analysis. One of the oft-used acronyms in the Marine Corps is MAGTF, or Marine Air Ground Task Force. A MAGTF, according to the Marines, is ‘a balanced air-ground, combined arms task organization of Marine Corps forces under a single commander that is structured to accomplish a specific mission.’ When describing the Direct Support program to the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, I likened it to a MAGTF only I called it a LAGTF, or Librarian Archivist Ground Task Force. Little connections like this go a long way to achieving relevancy within an organization.

“Each Marine is required to read the CMC’s choice “First to Fight”

by LtGen (Ret) V. Krulak.

Learn their content/curriculum…

This means spending time reviewing course material, required reading lists, professional journals, highlighting terminology, and becoming familiar with names, dates, concepts, operational terms, and acronyms. Need a crash course to catch up quickly? Ask the faculty if they might provide some of their lecture notes. I read the faculty handbooks so I understand the assignment and the learning objectives of the course director. Again, this gives you a huge advantage in assisting your students and faculty members as well as being able to anticipate their reference needs. When you have learned what the topics are and understand some of the history, relevant terms, keywords, etc., you can apply the necessary taxonomy or subject heading and open the door to more information on that topic. For example, a course card for a class on Warfighting highlights specific WWII campaigns within the Pacific theater of operations. To prepare for the students taking this class, I research the appropriate subject headings of these campaigns, possibly the call number range and the multiple names by which the campaign was known by the different services of the military to allow rapid information retrieval. You don‘t want to have your ‘weapon jam’ when you get the reference question, so arm yourself ahead of time by reading the curriculum!

“Retreat Hell! We’re just attacking in another direction.”

~Attributed to Major General Oliver P. Smith, USMC

Translate your skills with real life examples…

With all this under your belt, you can easily begin to translate your skill set into the language they speak; relevant to the material they instruct or study. Have examples ready which demonstrate the relevancy of your information to their courses or interests. Too often we have witnessed briefings from librarians showing the standard catalog or database search with no topical relevancy for the intended audience. What could be more disastrous! Match your brief to a topic under study, e.g., if the class is studying nuclear deterrent, use S.A.L.T. as your search example. If the topic is Afghanistan and humanitarian assistance, use nation-building, humanitarian intervention or military operations other than war (MOOTW). If you have a group of Marines who’ve not used a library in years, try something unconventional. Marines know combat and martial arts so it’s a safe bet they are familiar with Chuck Norris or Bruce Lee films. Relate the library resources to round house kicks and the databases as digital kung fu. Take it further by demonstrating access via your BlackBerry or iPhone. The results will be rewarding every time.

“You don’t hurt ‘em if you don’t hit ‘em.”

~Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC

Keep it relevant and concise…

Librarians love to talk about information literacy. We want the whole world to know what we have! Frankly, I’d hire a band and fly a banner 24/7 – 365 if I could; however, there is a time and place for this. Introducing library research is not the best time to veer off into metrics and metadata; you will have glazed looks and Marines who never come back. You have to keep it tight and relevancy is always key. In other words get to the point! Marines call this squared away, the opposite being a ‘soup sandwich’ which paints quite a picture. Now, should they require more, that’s easily accommodated, but until that happens, rein it in. You want to win friends and influence people, not destroy them via death by PowerPoint. Use your e-platforms to have instructional material available for them to use at their convenience like online tutorials, instructional videos or discussion boards. This meets a variety of user needs quickly and succinctly.

“Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there.”

~Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak, USMC

Meet them where they are; don’t wait for them to come to you!

Meeting them where they are is critical. Depending on your patrons’ comfort level in the library, you may have to be very proactive. For Marines, they respect action so take your laptop and set up shop like the proverbial Lucy with your ‘Dr. Is In’ sign and greet them with a smile and a clear, confident look in the eye. Knock on doors; stick your head in a meeting if you need to. Let them know your intent is serious; it’s not a waste of their time and it costs them nothing. This is the part that will be hard for those of us who are not really social. Imagine a room full of Marines and it’s doubly hard! You must force yourself out of your comfort zone and be available. After all, how else will your build your support? This is easier nowadays with e-initiatives to support all type of requests for information via email, IM or text. However, nothing can replace the value of personal interaction. It shows you are willing to make the time and put in the effort.

“I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world.”

~General Douglas MacArthur

Stop talking at them; let them do it!

There is an old Chinese proverb that states, “Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand.” Once you have successfully launched your Direct Support efforts, let your patrons work through some scenarios. No one likes to be briefed to death; instead try finding ways to get them involved. For Marines, this is essential as they are all about action; let them lock-n-load! Having them perform allows for the ‘aha’ moment of understanding especially when you need them to make connections and remember essential information. Consequently, I have shortened my presentation time to include instructional examples our Marines can work through via our guidance the first time they visit the library for their introduction. The goal is to have them familiar with the best of our website and resources during this intro by having them navigate through it. I liken this exercise to what Marines call LandNav or ‘land navigation’ only in this instance, the landnav instruction guides them through the library resources.

“If I had one more division like this First Marine Division I could win this war.”

~General Douglas MacArthur in Korea

Share, share and share some more…

Once you have this underway, your task is to share with the rest of the library world and shout it out loud! We are the collective brain of our profession and we are only as good as the knowledge we share with one another. How many of us have lamented working long hours on something only to find out it’s been done and hey, they have an app for that. Let’s help each other out and share our hard earned knowledge. Hopefully, your patrons will help with this process too. I know Marines have a good gouge network and word of mouth within a small organization can take you far. Encourage the sharing with your patrons and within your communities. We can all benefit.

“I am convinced that there is no smarter, handier, or more adaptable body of troops in the world.”

~Prime Minister of Britain, Sir Winston Churchill

Don’t be afraid to try new tricks…

Ah yes, trying new tricks. This makes everyone shudder. You mean I have to do what? How? When? Get over yourself! I’m not suggesting anyone form ‘circles of trust’ or join the martial arts training with Marines. But reaching your patrons does mean trying new stuff. We have all these new e-tools at the ready. Add them into your bag of tricks and make them work for you and your patrons. Also, consider lightening up. It’s ok to laugh at yourself. Our stereotype can be used for good here! Often, I start my opening briefs with Marines by highlighting that we are not the typical ‘shushing’ librarians but we will give the WWF smack down to Marines who talk on their cell phones while in the Reference area. This always draws smiles, lets them relax and the connection is made. Exploit, recreate and reconnect! It should be fun for all, after all, everyone has a job to do but not everyone looks for the fun in it.

“A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons.”

~Admiral David D. Porter

Have back up for your back up…

Finally, you must have backup. For Marines this means having a COA, military jargon for a course of action, and Marines always have three options. Technology is great and e-readers are phenomenal but when it fails, don‘t be left with egg on your face. Have a COA and continue the work demonstrating the capability and flexibility you have. Remember that dynamic duo of Direct Support and e-initiatives? Well here’s a real-life COA in action for the online bibliographic tool Refworks. First, I decided to have three presentation types as my COA’s: One that was in PowerPoint format, one a live demonstration, and one in print in case the first two were not an option due to technical difficulties. The first COA, the PowerPoint brief, was my backup for the live demo and had all my notes, tips and tricks plus had the necessary screen shots should I have technical difficulties. The second COA, the live demo, was my preference as it lets student follow along and we practice together; plus, I could answer questions on the spot by illustrating how to perform certain actions. Additionally, I practiced on a mobile device to demonstrate another e-platform of value and capture the Marines who prefer the less traditional approach to Refworks. The third COA, the print version was an official Refworks 101 brochure that offered step-by-step instructions on getting started. This is ideal for Marines who could not attend, or preferred printed materials. What were the results? I had a few technical issues with the live demo, which allowed me to use the canned version to illustrate with a screen shot. Then I had several questions concerning access and mobile devices which was perfect as I had already prepped for this by using the mobile e-platform in practice. Additionally, the brochures served as backup for my backup, as I discovered more than half the Marines wanted those for further assistance. Consequently, I had more requests for the RefWorks tutorial that year than ever before.

Lessons Learned: Be ready for anything, and most importantly be ready to say, “Yes, I’d be happy to help with that.” An informal motto of the Marines is to improvise, adapt and overcome. Marines do it every day and so can you. They will respect you for it and remember you walked the walk.

Rachel S. Kingcade is the Chief Reference and Command and Staff College (CSC) Direct Support Librarian for Marine Corps University, Quantico VA and has held that position since August 2008. As CSC Direct Support Librarian, Rachel works with over two hundred CSC students instructing on information literacy through multiple briefings, workshops and brownbags. Rachel received her MLIS from the University of South Carolina, while also working in reference services for both the USC and Beaufort County Library systems. Rachel did her undergraduate work in English and Communications, receiving BAs for both from Bluffton University, while participating in two international exchange programs with universities in Northern Ireland and Poland. Rachel is an active member of Military Librarians Division of SLA. In her free time, Rachel enjoys many outdoor sports including running, hiking, wakeboarding, snowboarding and swimming.

Hello from the nation’s capital!  DC/SLA is excited to be contributing all of this week’s FutureReady365 posts (thanks to our future-thinking Communications Secretary, Chris Vestal).  We are a diverse community of 800+ information professionals, with members from D.C., Maryland, Virginia, as well as 30 other U.S. states and 12 countries.  You’ll see this diversity reflected in the range of future ready ideas presented in posts throughout the week.  We hope our posts will spark some thought and conversation and, of course, your comments. Most of all, we want to help keep the spark of the FutureReady blog alive  – a spark that’s become a fire, gathering us around it to brainstorm our way into the future. — Mary Talley, DC/SLA President (2011)

by Mary Talley, Washington, DC and Maryland Chapters, Business & Finance, Information Technology, Knowledge Management, Legal, and Leadership & Management Divisions

It was a wonderful life. When I started out, libraries and librarians were the only information game in town. Books held the answers and we held the books. There was no question that our work supported our organizations in crucial and irreplaceable (if not always measurable) ways. We were sure of our value: they (formerly known as “patrons”) needed us to identify, organize and maintain the sources and get at the data. These were powerful, valuable positions. It was a wonderful life.

Then… Well, you know the rest. The competition arrived and with it the temptation of the low-hanging fruit of good-enough information that forced us to rethink our place and value in this ever-evolving, 2.0 information world. To complicate life further, technological change and the competition it brings with it isn’t coming in fits and spurts – it’s rapid and continuous.

But wait a minute – was our old place in the information world really all that wonderful? Did we drive our organizations back then, tending the gates of knowledge; or, were we really in adjunct, transactional roles? If our positions did not allow us to be active participants in driving our organizations’ goals and objectives, we were – and are – adjuncts in our organizations. In a self-serve, peer-to-peer, 2.0 information world, as long as we hold adjunct roles, we will remain at the periphery of the organization and continually challenged to prove our value.

What can we do to be truly future ready? Move the conversation away from “proving value” to being valuable and trade in our transactional roles for those that are directly involved in the high-value work of our organizations. Moving information professionals out of libraries and embedding them in user communities provides a path to that direct involvement. Embedding trades in the service-provider role for one as a team member accountable for the outcomes.

The rise of a highly-interactive, information environment is opening the way for embedded information professionals, as much as it is making these new roles imperative. Collaboration, immediacy, accessibility, the disintegration of boundaries, and a new emphasis on relationships – this is the 2.0 information world our user communities inhabit. This is what they expect when they seek information from technology or us. Luckily, these are also qualities associated with the provision of embedded information services.

Mary Talley heads TalleyPartners, an information management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, repositioning and embedded information structures for information centers.  She currently serves as President of DC/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 Alyssa Vincent, Oregon Chapter, Museums, Arts & Humanities Division

As an MLS student about to start my second year of study, I feel that I am gaining more of an understanding of what it will take to succeed in this profession. As I write this, I have just completed my “Research in Library and Information Science” class, and I know that the skills gained from that experience are the ones that will help me shape my future career.

A major foundation of this class was the concept of evidence-based practice. With budget cuts plaguing the information profession, nothing makes more sense than committing time and energy to conducting research that will enhance our services or identify weaknesses. For my evidence-based action plan paper, I chose to investigate the role of the librarian in a corporation and ways to improve that service. After many weeks of researching, I was able to formulate an action plan that both asserted that embedded librarianship was a worthwhile service model for corporations and provided steps on how to embed a librarian.

The difficult part of the realization that evidence-based practice through research is a key component to a thriving career is that the time that I was able to devote to research is a luxury in professional environments. So, what happens to my belief that research will move our profession forward when time is at a premium? It adapts and doubles in conviction. No, I may not have months to conduct studies of use patterns, but perhaps I can take a few moments to observe the foot traffic in my library. By continuously striving to work from a foundation of evidence-based practice, I will be improving the services that I can offer my users, even if I cannot devote weeks or months to developing theories or conducting surveys.

Alyssa Vincent is a midwesterner at heart who is enjoying pursuing her MLS in Portland, OR through Emporia State University. She has a bachelor’s degree in print journalism and gender and women’s studies. When she’s not responding to posts on Blackboard or splitting her professional time between a technology-centered non-profit and a small architecture library, she’s reading about fashion, biking around town, and cooking. Her professional interests include digitization issues in relation to 3D objects and embedded librarianship, and she looks forward to somehow marrying those interests in the future.

by Amy Maule, Oregon Chapter, Competitive Intelligence and Information Technology Divisions

At our annual conference last month, Thomas Friedman talked about the challenge of standing out in a world where potentially thousands of people are ready to do your job better and for less money.  Employers aren’t looking for someone who can DO the job, they’re looking for someone who can invent and reinvent the job based on the needs of an evolving organization.

His statement really hit home for me.  I work with a small consulting team at a major engineering firm doing primary and secondary source research, writing, editing, information and document management, a bit of intranet support, and whatever else comes up.  I see my job as a kind of extreme-embedded-librarian gig, but my business card says “Analyst,” and my coworkers couldn’t care less about librarianship.  My boss recently told me that I’m appreciated most for my adaptability–I’m always ready to learn a new skill or contribute in a new way. I’m constantly inventing and re-inventing my job.

For example: Earlier this year, I helped a co-worker with some statistical research, writing and editing of a report for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.  A few months later, we were asked to do similar analysis of a specific site in the province.  Because I had helped write the previous report, I was asked to co-author the second report, which included a trip to Newfoundland for in-person site analysis.  The initial report opened the doors for exciting travel and more direct project involvement.

I’m sharing my experience with you because I’ve learned that being Future Ready can mean more than staying on top of new technology or developing the skills needed to run the library of the future.  It can mean thinking outside the library and inventing and reinventing yourself as a professional.  The skills that make you a good librarian could help you to stand out elsewhere in your organization–you just need to reinvent your job in a way that lets you shine.

Here are my tips for being Future Ready in the uncertain climate of today’s special libraries:

• Look for ways to use your skills outside the library.  You might discover that skills we take for granted will set you apart in other groups.
• Think about how you can adapt your skills set to contribute in new ways.
• Do even the most routine tasks quickly and well, because sometimes the little things lead to big opportunities. (But do have boundaries.  I only make coffee when I’m hosting an SLA event!)
• Worry less about whether the bosses think libraries are valuable.  Make sure they know that you are valuable.
• Stay actively involved in SLA.  Contact with like-minded professionals is even more important when you’re venturing into unexplored territory!

I hope that next time you browse the job listings or ponder ways to advance with your current employer you’ll remember that in addition to being a librarian, you are a highly skilled, adaptable professional.  There are great opportunities for enthusiastic, creative, organized people like us inside the library and out.

Amy Maule is most recently known to her coworkers as a “Business Location Analyst” for CH2M HILL’s Industrial & Advanced Technology group.  She worked in public, academic, law and corporate libraries prior to becoming embedded in an engineering consulting team.  Amy is also president elect of the Oregon Chapter of SLA.

By David Shumaker, Washington, DC Chapter, Academic, Education, Knowledge Management, Leadership & Management Divisions

Once upon a time, there was a young information services manager named Dave* who heard about embedded librarianship and decided to put it into practice. To begin, he embarked on a campaign to raise information and knowledge services’ visibility at the executive level of the corporation where he was working. He made appointments to go around and brief the executive councils at each of the major operating units of the company. He planned to show them how valuable library services were already, and how the librarians were planning to do even better with embedded librarianship. Starting with a unit led by a senior vice president /general manager he had already worked with, he prepared a briefing all about the value of the librarians’ work, what they were doing and what their plans were. After listening to his presentation, the senior vp turned to him and said, “Dave, what do you need from us?” It was a question he actually wasn’t prepared for. He had thought only in terms of what he and his team had to offer – not about what they needed from senior management.

Fortunately, he recovered, and he and his team went on to implement embedded librarianship and expand their value to the corporation, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Moral: SLA-funded research indicates that senior management engagement is one of the key attributes of successful embedded librarianship initiatives. When you’re preparing your elevator speech or your presentation about your value, also think about what senior management can do to help you be successful. Whether it’s funding, space, support for continuing education, visible communication, assigning mentors to new librarians, constructive feedback – ask for what you need!

*Name not changed to protect the guilty.

For details about embedded librarianship, see the SLA research report at http://www.sla.org/pdfs/EmbeddedLibrarianshipFinalRptRev.pdf , Information Outlook Jan-Feb 2010, or the embedded librarian blog at http://embeddedlibrarian.wordpress.com.

David Shumaker has served as Clinical Associate Professor at the School of Library and Information
Science, Catholic University of America, since August 2006. Dave’s teaching interests include the present and future roles of librarians in society, the management of libraries and information services, marketing, information systems, and library public services. His research and writing explore the changing roles of librarians in organizations of all types. He and his co-investigator, Mary Talley, were awarded the 2007 Special Libraries Association Research Grant for their project, “Models of Embedded Librarianship.” The final report of the project is available on the SLA website, and related articles have been published in Library Journal, Reference & User Services Quarterly, and Information Outlook. Dave is a frequent speaker and panelist on embedded librarianship. Follow his blog at http://embeddedlibrarian.wordpress.com.

by Quincie Rivers, Washington DC Chapter, Knowledge Management Division

InfoCurrent has had a ringside seat watching the library and information science world change over the last few decades. As the Information Management Division of CORESTAFF Services, InfoCurrent has a 40-year history of providing library services to a broad spectrum of business, industry and government clients.

While InfoCurrent continues to place traditional librarians, technicians and clerks, we are constantly being asked to find highly skilled professionals who can manage digital archives, content management systems, web content, digital rights management, taxonomy, e-learning, competitive intelligence and analysis and more.

To be “future ready” in today’s market means more than being proficient in traditional Library Sciences.  It means being futuristic, strategic, and quick to adapt to change. Employers are looking for librarians who are creative, flexible, innovative – who are at ease with technology and understand how that technology can help an organization manage their resources better. Information is key to a business’s growth. Hiring managers expect a librarian to be team oriented, collaborative, people focused. They want and need librarians who can become thought leaders, strategists and innovators.

As companies are exploring ways to recover and expand in the current economic climate, budgets continue to be under strict scrutiny.  Often with limited resources, library services must continue to evolve and become leaner, smarter and faster as the new age of technology and social media transforms our markets.

Organizations and businesses realize that the management of knowledge is a valuable commodity and necessary for growth.  It is not enough, however, just to manage information and provide a service but rather to proactively adopt new technologies and economies of scale.  Businesses who have sought skilled personnel to cost effectively deliver and streamline information now view these individuals in a far less traditional role.

How does one become future ready?  Become innovative and adapt to the evolution of business strategies as it relates to your specific industry.  While the demand for MLIS/MLS professionals remains high, the work environment will be a far less conventional business.  As long as you are flexible and have a curiosity for life-long learning, there will be a place in today’s future ready business world by translating traditional skills and adapting new technologies to their best and highest use.

The day of the back office librarian is vanishing. Professional Librarians are embedded in the teams they service. They are managing virtual researchers and collections, orchestrating the delivery of these valuable resources in whatever form they take. Expect to be part of a team collaboratively working to provide innovative solutions in a dynamic environment.

It’s an exciting time to be a librarian. At InfoCurrent we see the future every day.

InfoCurrent, with offices in Washington, DC, New York City, Boston and Houston, is the Information Management Division of CORESTAFF Services specializing in library and records management services.  InfoCurrent is a full-service, nationwide staffing firm offering temporary, temp-to-hire, direct hire and project management for almost every industry, on projects large and small, and on items from legal documents to art collections.  We keep pace with trends in both Library Sciences and Records Management, sharing best practices to help our clients build faster, nimbler – and smarter – organizations.

by Deb Schwarz, Southern California Chapter, IT & Legal Divisions

As a working information professional, a consultant, and an entrepreneur in the library space, I come across a lot of my colleagues and peers in a wide variety of jobs and industries during the course of my regular work schedule. The strong level of commitment to the work usually exhibited by most everyone I meet is striking, even when I find out that in reality many aren’t really happy with their current job situation.  That commitment level to the “work” is laudable, and of course entirely appropriate, but perhaps in thinking about Future Ready scenarios on a personal-career level, info-pros ought to reserve some of their energy towards committing to leveraging and repositioning themselves within the organization they serve.

I think many of us believe that sooner or later the print-bound library in many organizations, especially corporations and even law firms, will see its demise. Of course this transition has not reached its conclusion everywhere, but it probably will, and by how much is just a matter of degree.  Is this bad?  Well bibliophiles will have to get their fix elsewhere, but for the working information professional it could be liberating by bringing (or forcing!) opportunities to go forward into the organization, bringing your skills right along with you. Call it embedded or assimilation, but getting out of the physical library and installed as, say, a researcher supporting a business unit, or a knowledge manager handling proprietary work product, or managing content on SharePoint, or developing and refining taxonomies—well, all that sounds pretty exciting and challenging to me!

So how to get there? One way is use your information and reference skills and apply due diligence efforts to position yourself.  That’s all well and good you might say, but how? Every situation is different, of course, but a basic tenet is to understand the organization’s business strategy and study it to determine where there is a fit. For example, most organizations (particularly in this still recovering economy) are spending time and money on finding new customers or clients and retaining existing ones in order to stay competitive and grow. From an  information professional’s vantage point that could mean supporting marketing, business development, and competitive intelligence or being part of an internal strategy group.  Since the value of information in an information-overloaded, social media-blitzed world is golden, then doesn’t it follow that an information professional should have a participatory, if not a key role? A lot of analysts can’t do their jobs without having comprehensive, up-to-date, accurate information to analyze.  Who better to partner with than a knowledgable information guru (er…professional!)?

With the billions of dollars being spent on content it also makes sense to work with an organization’s procurement or purchasing department to support them as they go about negotiating contracts with vendors for subscriptions, site licenses, and other content. It would do your organization and its users of this information a great disservice to have such deals negotiated strictly by the bottom line and outside of the context of information users’ needs. Who knows this better than an information professional?

Are these jobs well-defined and easily found? Not always and not necessarily – although we at LAC often see many of these qualifications and requirements in various job descriptions.  And we have created a lot of these jobs through our consulting efforts and recommendations. Future ready may mean trail blazing.   Maybe getting out of the library but pitching your value, expertise and skills to the COO or the head of marketing is the trail you need to blaze. You may have to take an opportunity and turn it around as well as inside out in order to strategize how to go for it, but do go for it if you want to be a Future Ready information professional in this rapidly-transforming, information-trading environment.

LAC Group is a professional services firm specializing in information management, virtual research, recruiting and outsourcing (www.lac-group.com).  Deborah Schwarz received her MLS from the University of Toronto, and is the owner/founder of LAC Group, serving as its CEO.

by Allan Foster, Europe Chapter and Business & Finance Division

For more years than I care to remember I have been charting developments in business information use through an annual survey of information managers. This is the Business Information Survey published each March in Sage’s quarterly journal Business Information Review. The focus of the Survey has changed over time, from a concentration on sources of information to key issues in information management.

The methodology has also changed, from an open, widely distributed questionnaire to a series of in-depth interviews with a small number of senior corporate information managers. These are mainly based in the UK but many work for global businesses and have responsibilities for international services. If I was being pretentious(!) I would describe it now as almost ‘ethnographic’, a series of ongoing conversations with trusted colleagues, trying to chart year on year changes in their services, roles within their organisations and strategic priorities. It has only been possible to do this and to get brutal honesty from respondents by honouring a rule of strict confidence and aggregating results so as to avoid disclosing any identities. Most but not all respondents are involved in the Survey each year. In it’s 21^st year, the 2011 Survey¹ included seventeen of the interviewees from the previous year whilst another four were new participants.

Although the respondents represent a range of corporate information, library & research services, across industrial sectors and of varying sizes, I claim no statistical representativeness whatsoever for the Survey. But, given the seniority and frankness of the respondents, the findings provide a rich narrative of current practice and future intentions. It’s the latter which I’m concentrating on here as a contribution to the ‘Future Ready’ discussion.

Whilst massive turbulence in the business and financial environment is the new norm and technologies change so fast, the Survey results suggest that the crucial ‘future ready’ attitudes and skills in the corporate information scene are and will be in the next five years pretty much the same as those exhibited in successful information services now. This may be a disappointment to the ‘everything is changing’ lobby who are looking for new magic bullets and a cookbook formula to succeed in the corporate information/knowledge management world.

The key approaches and skills that define successful information management, now and in the next few years, amongst the 2011 Survey group of senior professionals, are:

1. Access to, and a good relationship with, senior executives, preferably at board level.
2. ‘Business strategy & culture fit’ – the ability to develop the information service in harmony with the company’s strategic objectives and organisational culture.
3. Developing a shrewd political instinct, having sensitive antennae amongst users and senior managers and being adaptive in consequence.
4. Financial nous – contributing to the increased profitability of the company, streamlining processes and services, reducing costs.
5. The ability to work globally with all that this implies – building alliances, harmonising & integrating services – whilst understanding different cultural and business practices which shape the environment.
6. Develop hard nosed negotiation skills with content vendors. And getting harder.
7. Responding to the growing emphasis on compliance work.
8. Managing capacity & workload, with flexibility and responsiveness.
9. Ensuring that your information/research/knowledge staff are embedded within business project and work teams.
10. Continuing to look dispassionately at alternative organisational and delivery models including outsourcing and off-shoring.
11. Embracing and handling internal ‘know-how’ as well as external data.
12. Enhancing knowledge management skills (note small rather than capitalised ‘KM’) – knowledge sharing, capturing tacit knowledge, using stories, applying appropriate technologies.
13. Use social media when appropriate. A number of respondents are somewhat sceptical of the business case for such deployment in terms of their information and research services.
14. More attention should be given to measuring the impact of the information services (including outsourcing/off-shoring), through ROI and other metrics.
15. New IT systems should be implemented in line with technological opportunities and trends but most of all to improve access to content and cost-effectiveness of services.
16. IS/KM staffing – the most important internal resource of all. Improve communications, provide development opportunities, undertake succession planning.
17. There’s no substitute for persistence and hard work.

1. These and other issues are developed much more fully in “Let’s save the company money” – the new orthodoxy. The Business Information Survey 2011. Business Information Review 28 (1), March 2011.

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Allan Foster (allan.foster@gmail.com) is an information industry consultant and writer, previously Director of Information Services at Keele University and a senior information manager at Manchester Business School, Lancashire Polytechnic, Sheffield Polytechnic and the British Institute of Management. He presented these findings at an SLA Europe session, Is your information service ‘Future Ready’?, in Manchester on 22^nd March 2011.

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.