by Anne Caputo, 2010 President, SLA

People of every generation think they live in a time of dramatic change–change far more revolutionary than any that came before. I try very hard not to be one of those who lament the loss of former times and say the past was better than the present. What I do say, however, is that we are living in a “new normal” state of affairs. Old assumptions and practices are passing away, and what we are left with has become a kind of replacement for what had been normal.

If we want to be Future Ready and thrive in the new normal we need to be mindful of four things:

First, a roadmap is required. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland and many other books of whimsy said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” We don’t want to travel by just any road, but by the best-informed, best-prepared route. I would suggest we look to the Alignment Project and the emerging Future Ready Toolkit, which will offer elements to create our roadmap. The toolkit will provide resume templates and sample cover letters, brand-building suggestions and examples, communication tools, descriptions of best practices, and information about skills we can use to transition to other jobs.

Second, fundamental values matter. Our core competencies of selecting and acquiring the best and most appropriate content, organizing and describing content in ways that make it useful and findable, assisting in choosing the best sources, and teaching others to use our tools have never been more needed and more valued. We need to describe these skills in ways our clients can understand and continually adapt them to meet the needs at hand.

Third, follow the money. By this I mean we must believe in the value we provide, measure and articulate that value in meaningful ways, and create sustainable programs, organizations and services that fit the new normal. We are not, as a profession, skilled at measuring and articulating our return on investment, but the Alignment Toolkit will provide us with suggestions and examples for measuring and demonstrating value within our organizations.

Finally, action trumps inaction. Will Rogers, the American humorist, once said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Holding back and waiting for someone else to take the initiative is not a good strategy at a time when the new normal is being invented. Take action to ensure you, your function, your skills, and your fundamental competencies become part of the new normal.

We must move away from old models that do not work while adopting new models that take advantage of our skills. Changes in information delivery, storage, organization, and acquisition beg for a new normal. We must become the centerpiece in making the new normal a success.

Anne Caputo is the Executive Director of Dow Jones Learning & Information Professional Programs. Additionally she is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, College of Library and Information Services. She was the 2010 President of SLA and is a history graduate of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Ms Caputo holds advanced degrees in architectural history from the University of Oregon and in library and information science from San Jose State University.

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 Victor Monti, Washington, DC Chapter, Social Science Division

Future Ready means anticipating trends, responding quickly to breakthroughs and knowing what fundamentals are constant.

You need to study the art of being aware of where the the library and information professional arena is headed in terms of upcoming advancements. Social media, the Cloud, more and cheaper memory, the rise of tablets.  Be prepared as you hone in on and discover what is up next. So, you have to look at blogs in your area and be on useful listservs and network with colleagues and attend training and information sessions. Use different media and venues to expand your horizon and be aware of changes coming to the profession.

And even with some expectations for what is arriving on the information scene, there will be the unanticipated and sudden outbursts from exploding ideas in communication and knowledge. The next big technical device or communication medium will quickly change the existing operating climate. You will have to learn about a new technology fast and then be able to turn that into value for your library, knowledge center and greater organization. Even with all of our best thought out plans, a surprise in the way we do business allows us to capitalize on innovation for our agency. Seize the new concepts and exploit them in spreading information and knowledge more effectively.

Finally, we have to recall the basics of the profession. Information – its categorization, retrieval, ease of use and analysis into productive knowledge. There will always be the need for information. Our lives are enhanced with the more that we know. Library and Information professionals are the facilitators, the liaisons for sharing the ideas, thoughts and concepts that we strive to understand and utilize. There will always be a need to better deliver information to the world. There are now more ways to get information to our customers but the idea of serving our clients with data, facts and knowledge is part of who we are and will be.

Future Ready is where we are and where we are going. Embrace change in information delivery. Keep our values of accessible knowledge constant.

PS – FR ready joke.  Are Archivists past ready?
Victor Monti is a nontraditional library and information professional working in IT Management for DOD Departments.  After a year in the Pentagon Library on the Reference staff, he has worked for the IT offices in the headquarters staff of the Air Force, Army and Defense Information Systems Agency (DOD-wide).