by Dr. Craig Fleisher, Dean, School of Business and Public Affairs, College of Coastal Georgia, USA

The future for business planners, knowledge managers, and special librarians will require enhanced sense-making ability.  In the past, finding and organizing information was the key to competitive success. Those organizations who found it first had advantages that they could often leverage in the marketplace.  Today, most individuals and organizations have excellent access to data and information; in reality, my research has shown that most organizations have too much of both, and too little of an idea for what to do with it.

Making things worse, much of the collected data and information resides in storage (i.e., data warehouses, networks, spreadsheets, etc.) where it gets stale quickly and cannot serve any viable competitive use. Like milk, information spoils if it isn’t treated and utilized. The half-life of time for acting on competitive information continues to shrink in this day and age and isn’t likely to lengthen anytime soon.

Future ready means that analysts in companies will need to work on the front-end with their data acquisition and information management/knowledge professional colleagues, making sure that what is collected provides the missing pieces to the puzzles that analysts and planners know they need to put together to support decisions. The need to make decisions drives our analysis. Our analysis needs drives our data collection. The rule for future success: Don’t collect data or information for which we do not already have analytic mechanisms in place to use it within. Why buy and store milk if you are not going to drink it?

Dr. Craig Fleisher is a former President of the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals, author of several foundational books in CI and analysis, and was awarded its Meritorious recognition for lifetime contributions to the field.

by Dianna Roberts, Australia and New Zealand Chapter, Transportation Division

Our Information Centre has always been well-positioned in the company especially as our two most recent Chief Executives had wives who were librarians. We now have a new, young and dynamic CE with a non-librarian wife and who is making lots of changes, all of which I support, but like many of you I suffer from what I refer to as ‘librarians’ paranoia,” i.e. the fear of being seen as irrelevant and potentially disposable.

My immediate manager has been asking questions which were making me feel nervous, such as “what would it cost the company NOT to have the Information Centre?”, but I knew I’d done all I could to present a positive image with glowing feedback and value statements that proved our worth, and that any outcome was probably now beyond my control. So this morning I was very pleasantly surprised (almost shocked!) to be told that the company wants us to move beyond being viewed as “the library” and to take on a more active role of Information Management with ownership of functions such as EDRMS, e-learning, KM and anything else I can suggest.

We currently have a staff of only 2.5 FTE who serving a population of 2,500 in four different countries. Our main focus has been on indepth research, document supply and alerting services so taking on these wider roles will mean expanding our staff and learning new skills. It will also provide us with more authoritative position in the company.

What an exciting year it is going to be.

Dianna Roberts is the Manager of the Information Centre at Opus International Consultants Ltd.

by Steven A. Lastres, New York Chapter, Knowledge Management Division

Since the earliest days of libraries, librarians have served as knowledge managers. Whether they were maintaining the scrolls at the Library of Alexandria, creating the catalog for the House of Wisdom (a Ninth Century Islamic library), or assembling annotated links for the law firm intranet, law librarians have always been in the forefront of organizing information and adding value to it. Librarians have long excelled at getting information into the hands of the people who need it. The precise definition of knowledge management (KM) is an elusive one, but one pillar of KM practice holds that knowledge management “is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets.”¹

Steven Lastres

Becoming Business Managers

What has changed is that the librarian needs to wear a new hat–that of a business manager. The array of tools available to today’s librarian has driven that change. No longer restricted to offering only upon-request services, librarians can instead embrace a broader view of their professional role. They actively manage their organization’s information assets rather than passively respond to requests.

KM, as evolved from traditional librarianship, today means identifying business opportunities within our organization to help our users practice more efficiently and effectively. Librarians need to understand how our users work, not just anticipate what their information needs will be.

As librarians expand their professional roles, their efforts at KM must align with their organization’s business objectives. Librarians need to become business managers. If we take the business view, librarians are selling a product (knowledge and information) to a market (our users) that needs to be serviced effectively (the right product), efficiently (at the right time), and cost-effectively (at the right price). Figuring out how to improve upon that business model is what knowledge management is all about. When it comes to knowledge management, the emphasis should be on management.

Why do librarians make good knowledge managers? The answer may be that librarians tend to be more eager to adopt new ways of sharing information than our users. Librarians look at new technologies and services with a critical eye to understand how to meet current and emerging information needs. KM is not technology for technology’s sake. Instead, librarians focus on content and its seamless delivery. In many ways, they can decipher what our users need before our users even ask. (After all, that’s what reference interviews are for!) They know the resources, they know how the resources are delivered, and they know how to find the information that our users ask for.

In addition to their skills, when it comes to knowing the content available, most librarians fit well into the KM mold because of their technical sophistication. Today’s librarians are perfectly at home in the online world. And unlike the past, when any project that lived on a server was automatically the ward of the IT department, KM projects are now managed by librarians. Library staff members drive the selection of tools to deliver content, the adoption of interactive services such as wikis and blogs, and the promotion of KM applications such as work product retrieval. This is a major change in librarianship, in which librarians are innovators and technologists, as well as content managers. Most librarians bring considerable technical savvy to their professional work. Librarians, in short, should select the information resources that best fit the practices they support, but they also should be involved in selecting the best delivery platforms. That includes managing the graphic display of information on portal or intranet pages and creating a Web-based presentation that is easy to use and search.

As librarians adapt to a changing world, it’s a good idea to understand some of the changes they face, including these:

• Users expect to receive information faster than ever.
• Users expect to have no impediments to get the information they need.
• Users depend on knowledge managers to keep up with KM innovations and best practices.

As knowledge management becomes more ingrained in corporations and law firms, KM managers need to become experts in three specialized fields: librarianship, legal technology, and business management. Librarians need to understand the technical possibilities–not just the nuts and bolts of the software but also the realistic research needs of the lawyers.

Change is propelling librarians forward in a world where they must adapt to new ways of thinking about the information over which they are stewards. This changing world means new opportunities for librarians, as librarians redefine themselves as KM managers who create value for the firm by effectively managing the information for which they are professionally responsible.

¹ Megan Santosus & Jon Surmacz, “The ABCs of Knowledge Management”, CIO Magazine, 2001.

Steven A. Lastres is Director of Library and Knowledge Management at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. His e-mail address is salastres@debevoise.com.

by Berika Williams, PR Chair 2011, IT Division/Web Services Librarian, UH-Victoria

I love this profession and I’m completely fulfilled in the work that I do. As information professionals, we adapt to emerging technologies surrounding the access to information we provide. As a result this poses fresh opportunities to organize, manage, represent, and access it.

I believe that being Future Ready is about knowing where your values lie and having goals, dreams, and pursuits that support them. I value the work that I do, time spent with family, friends, colleagues, giving back to the community, and being open to new skill sets and technologies. I am learning to say “no” to commitments, things, and even people that pull me away from my vision.

I am Future Ready at my job and beyond the office by being under the mentorship of those more experienced and absorbing as much training, knowledge, professional development (and interpersonal) skills to be truly successful as a newbie librarian. The greatest part is that this development is continuous and built on life-long learning.

We are service oriented, but we also enhance the goals and missions of organizations by providing consultation in being more efficient in information management. Many of us sit on the brink of technological developments and create new tools and systems that meet a variety of information needs. The versatility of our knowledge base provides immense value. This is why I love this profession.

Berika Williams is the web services librarian at the Victoria College/ University of Houston-Victoria Library. She is currently the PR chair for the Information Technology Division of SLA.

by Lynn Strand-Meyer, Minnesota Chapter, Advertising & Marketing Division

Spring 2007:  Graduate with MLIS.

Summer 2007: Attend 1^st SLA conference in Denver.

Fall 2007: part-time back-up consumer market research job morphs into excellent job share position with another SLA member.

Spring 2008: Morphs again into fulltime position.

Summer 2008: Attend 2^nd SLA conference in Seattle.

Summer 2008: Job morphs again back to part time.

Fall 2008: Lay-off.

Winter 2008-09: Wallow in self-pity and bemoan lack of jobs.

Winter 2008-Spring 2009: Start taking on contract research gigs.

Summer 2009: Attend 3^rd SLA conference in Washington DC.

Fall 2009-Spring 2010: Having a lot of fun working for myself.

Summer 2010: Attend 4^th SLA conference in New Orleans.

Fall 2010: Great opportunity at a big company opens for a market intelligence position. This newly created position SCREAMS for an individual with a library science background, but the big company doesn’t realize that. I sell myself. They totally buy in. Core competencies include knowledge management, organization of data, serving internal clients in a variety of positions – sales, marketing, business development.

The through line of the past almost 4 years: SLA conferences, keeping my skills, knowledge and expertise Future Ready.

Summer 2011: Attend 5^th SLA conference in Philadelphia.

Summer 2012: Attend 6^th SLA conference in Chicago (as part of the Annual Conference Advisory Council).

The Future? Bring it on!

Lynn Strand-Meyer is the immediate Past Program Development Chair of the Minnesota Chapter and Past-Chair of the Advertising & Marketing Division.

by Christy Confetti Higgins, Rocky Mountain Chapter, IT & KM Divisions

Connecting and integrating is a critical piece in being future ready within your organization and in the delivery and management of your information services.

The term “connect” can relate to so many areas of the work that information professionals do.

Connecting….

• People with knowledge
• People with information
• People with people
• Information with information
• Information to innovation, knowledge, development, growth, and learning
• Information with social networking tools

Especially today, with the robust tools available to us to connect with our customers and create conversations around information services, it’s even more critical to leverage these tools within our organizations to stay relevant to the organization.

Tools such as blogs, wikis, microblogs, virtual worlds, instant messaging, and community tools all provide natural ways for us to embed ourselves into existing communities, create our own communities and networks, and connect ourselves and our services to the organization. Here are a few examples of connecting and integrating by leveraging technology and social networking tools in the enterprise.

• This example illustrates integrating information services into exisiting communities, leveraging wikis, and RSS feeds. This was the MyLearning portal at Sun Microsystems where we had our information video podcasts, eBook services, and news stories integrated into the home page. In addition, a search within MyLearning resulted in information from the LMS, internal information and knowledge, as well as information services purchased by the organization. Another key integration point!

• This example shows information services leveraging the virtual world space on the Second Life platform for Sun Microsystems employees. We invited employees from all over the world to participate in interactive events, conferences, and activities related to information services, and information and knowledge sharing.

• This last example is a recent example of leveraging social networking tools to communicate with and create conversation around information services at Oracle (Sun was acquired by Oracle in February 2010) where I have a larger audience and a new set of employees to engage around information. These tools have provided me a very effective way to quickly connect – in so many ways! I can’t show screen shots at this time but an internal Twitter-like application, internal Facebook-like application, and our internal blog have created great momentum for information services – it’s a matter of getting out there and leveraging the tools in order to CONNECT!

These are a few of the ways which have enabled us to more quickly and effectively impact our organization by providing them with information services that are highly connected to the business.

The efforts have resulted in new key relationships and partnerships with stakeholders and users. In addition, it has provided another way for current users of information services to connect with us and others users, and to stay informed.

So, Just Connect and grow your information presence in your organization, start meaningful conversations, integrate, and create additional value add to the business!

Christy Confetti Higgins is Cybrarian, Virtual Information Services (VIS) at Oracle Corp.  She is a long-time member of SLA, and currently serves as the Bulletin Editor for the Rocky Mountain Chapter, and is a member of the Virtual Worlds Advisory Council.

by Diana Menashi

One topic that has been raised by my professors regarding the future of the field is the relationship between librarianship and technologies, such as e-readers (Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes and Noble’s Nook), social networking sites (Facebook), and an ever-expanding selection of search engines from Google to Bing. The popularity and frequency of use of these technologies raises the question as to the role of libraries and librarians and the way in which they are perceived by the community at large and/or by corporations in the present information age. There are those who argue that the presence of these technologies renders or has rendered libraries and their services obsolete. Still, there are those who argue that the information searching and research skills of librarians are invaluable and will continue to be so as the ease of access to information increases.

Libraries and librarians have addressed this issue by maintaining an active online presence on the Internet through social networks, and by promoting services through library websites. This serves as an example of the ways in which the field considers users’ needs and desires when identifying platforms that would be most effective at providing services.

I would like to see the profession ‘reborn’ in the minds of those who perceive libraries and librarians as antiquated artifacts of the pre-information age. I would like to see libraries and librarians demonstrate that skills such as online searching are much more complex than a search engine would have one believe – that constructing a search query requires deeper thought and consideration beyond imputing two or three word phrases into a search box. I would like to see librarians show their users that the skill set that they have acquired and developed over the years goes beyond tasks such as reference services and cataloging.

Librarians should conceive of ways in which to demonstrate that their skills could be used to directly impact the success of the firm or the corporation. Librarians should breathe new life into the profession by stepping beyond the desk, identifying problem areas, and using their skill set to determine a possible solution. Their skill set would provide a unique perspective on the problem which would serve as an additional option for the heads of the firm or the corporation to consider when devising a solution. This would dispel the idea that librarians’ skill sets can be easily duplicated by computer programs and machines which serves as evidence that human involvement is still a necessity and an invaluable tool within the information age. Librarians should continue to develop Knowledge Management so that it is easily understood by those not versed in it. This could ease librarians’ attempts to explain its purpose and therefore increase the extent to which it is sought out by users and applied by librarians which would be mutually beneficial to both parties.

Diana Menashi is an MLS student at St. John’s University with a concentration is in special libraries. She is planning to take courses in law librarianship to acquire an additional skill set.