by Michael D. McDonald, Dr. P.H.

It can be argued that libraries have their origins in the swarm behavior of individuals and groups acquiring and sharing cultural artefacts (e.g., pictographs, books) as the fundamental repositories of knowledge within a community and the broader society. Librarians have played a key role in the founding and differentiation of America at its origins. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, for example, played key roles in deepening and broadening the tradition of knowledge sharing within the early United States.

Thomas Jefferson saw public education and acquisition of knowledge as one of the key cornerstones of a free republic. As a result, he founded the University of Virginia and the Library of Congress with the sharing of his own extensive library. Ben Franklin, in holding a similar ideal for knowledge sharing, formed the first social libraries in the late 1700s in Philadelphia, which could be described as perhaps the first public libraries in the United States.

Fast forward — the United States, in the early 21st century, is a global society with its knowledge-based transactions touching billions of lives a day. Knowledge sharing is now more a phenomenon of the world wide web and social media than of static collections of books alone. As a result, library science is fusing with knowledge science, the cognitive sciences, and the sciences of complexity, which now have less to do with human/book interactions than human/information system interactions. As a result, librarians are not only influencing the interactions between individuals and the knowledge source, but also how the knowledge of populations shapes collective intelligence and its impact on individual behaviors, and collective behavior.

Like the biologist of the 21st century, who must think not only of germs, plants, and animals but also about DNA and genes, the librarian of the 21st century must also now consider memes and memeplexes — the fundamental artefacts of science and culture and how they replicate and inform behavior, social process, and social structure. In so doing, the 21st century librarian, thinking back from the ultimate impact of their craft, has enormous power in shaping the trajectory of individuals and populations influenced by the knowledge management systems librarians architect and manage. In a world of human populations rapidly exceeding the carrying capacity of their ecosystems globally leading to food insecurity, energy crisis, water crisis, social conflict, and war, the librarian’s effective shaping of knowledge management systems becomes mission critical.

Librarians in this context have enormous power in guiding the great transformation of social ecologies in the U.S. and around the world toward resilience and sustainability. In this context, the work of librarians makes a strategic difference in humanity’s epic struggle between mass collapses of populations and humanity’s abilities to thrive under rapidly changing conditions. It is no longer just the shaping of knowledge that the 21st century librarian must attend to, but the kindling of wisdom to anticipate changing conditions, collectively transforming wise decisions into unity of effort across large populations — to collaboratively shape and live within resilient and sustainable social ecologies compatible with healthy biomes; this is the power and the craft of librarians today facing the strategic challenges of their communities, the United States, and the future of our collective humanity globally.

Dr. Michael D. McDonald is director of the National Sustainable Security Infrastructure Initiative and the chief architect of the U.S. Resilience System. Dr. McDonald has led several large PanFlu exercises and provided testimony to the Congressional Budget Office on key weaknesses of current U.S. pandemic flu policy. He has been an early voice for global, real-time, transparent biosurveillance systems and building infrastructures supporting situational awareness and verifiable resilience at the household, neighborhood and community levels. Dr. McDonald chaired the Genomics and Bioinformatics working group and was co-founder of the Bioterrorism working group of IEEE. Dr. McDonald does research in memetics and biosecurity in association with several universities and government agencies and has been co-principal investigator with the Centers for Disease Control on the Psychosocial Dimensions of BioSecurity Initiative. He is Principal Investigator on the Global Resilience System testbed and is currently the President and CEO of Global Health Initiatives, Inc. He is deeply involved in the prevention and management of large-scale social crises, such as through his work in Haiti, Japan, Vietnam, and the United States.

On October 20, Dr. Michael D. McDonald will engage a discourse on the social media, intelligent social networks, information sharing environments, and Resilience Systems, as some of the fundamental tools of strategically oriented librarians embracing the full power and responsibilities of the professions. You may join this in person or via simulcast.

by Graeme Byrd

Reposted by permission from FMYI (www.fmyi.com/blog/single/we_are_information_sherpas)

We definitely are in the information age. People are sending 1,200 tweets per second (tps) and spending 800 million minutes a month on Facebook posting 900 million objects. Wow. What do we do with all of this information that is constantly being thrown our way?

With all this information being shared in a digital fashion, even Seth Godin has posed the question about The future of the library.

Godin believes that if one wants to watch a movie, “Netflix is a better librarian, with a better library…” Yes, the structure of a library is changing, but it continues to be essential to education, to future generations. Netflix may have a “library” of films, but is missing the human energy. “The librarian isn’t a clerk who happens to work at a library.” Wrote Godin, “A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher.” Librarians – information professionals – are more critical to knowledge sharing than ever before because of the increased amount of information being shared.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of presenting to and spending a day with the Southern California Chapter of the Special Libraries Association, an international organization of information professionals, discussing knowledge management and the relationships people have to information.

An exciting day of 5 speakers discussing tools for information sharing, building relationships with vendors and best practices for knowledge professionals, followed by an afternoon of unconference sessions full of engaged professionals.

• Britt Foster, a gradating MLIS student and blogger with a passion for public libraries shared social media tools to help engagement.
• Sandra Crumlish with the St. Jude Medical provided examples of how working closely with vendors and building a partnership provides for better adoption of services.
• Scott Brown with Social Information Group and Christy Confetti Higgins, Oracle’s Cybrarian shared examples of Oracle’s internal virtual library and how one person has built relationships in an international company to engage their team and share knowledge management tools.

The theme throughout the day was that as a member of a small team of information professionals in an organization (often, a team of one) build relationships with other stakeholders. Libraries are powered by human energy (like FMYI) – sherpas of knowledge.

These special guides are trusted more by colleagues because they provide relevant tools and resources. Information junkies can be change agents empowering teams to make a difference.

While librarians are “information professionals” you also are a knowledge expert in your organization. Are you ready to be a change agent?

We are surrounded by Change agents who are empowering teams to make a difference. Ian Symmonds is helping revolutionize the future of education by advising schools around emerging trends. Kevin Carroll is changing the world with a red ball and helping create a positive atmosphere for youth through sport. And Cindy Romaine (the SLA President) is leading SLA to be Future Ready in an ever-changing world. We all have knowledge. We all can empower others to make a difference. We all can be change agents.

As leaders in knowledge management we are uniting as change agents as the future of information is rapidly changing. Are you ready today to be an information sherpa for your organization? Be Future Ready.

Keep empowering.

Graeme Byrd is the Business Development & Collaboration Manager of FMYI [for my innovation], a collaboration software company, headquartered in Portland, OR, committed to positively affecting society through sustainability and technology. Thousands of companies, nonprofits, government agencies and universities use FMYI to communicate and collaborate. Committed to building a better future and engaging his generation in sustainability, Graeme is the Chapter Leader for the Portland Professional Chapter of Net Impact and serves on Oregon Environmental Council’s Emerging Leaders Board. Graeme has been a speaker at Net Impact, Sustainable Business Oregon and Special Libraries Association events helping others become change agents.

Compiled by Amy Affelt, Illinois Chapter, Business & Finance Division

Future Ready Toolkit

This post is from SLA’s new Future Ready Toolkit. The Toolkit was constructed by SLA members who have drawn upon substantial professional experience and alignment research to help you hone your skills in a way that is relevant and global. The toolkit is collaboration, alignment, adaptation, and community put into action.

Value-Added Intelligence

The knowledge that we provide is correct, citable, and on-point.  We deliver this knowledge on-time, in the format that the requestor finds most helpful, and either under or as close to budget as possible.

Facilitation of Good Decision-Making

We do this by gathering, organizing, and sharing high quality and highly-relevant information to ensure that the best decisions are made by our stakeholders.

Creation of a Culture of Knowledge Sharing

We do this by educating our colleagues on the best use of information sources (which are the most credible, most citable, etc.)

Creation of a Competitive Advantage

We do this by applying expert analysis to ensure that our stakeholders have the exact information they need to gain insight, understand trends, and secure an advantage over their competitors.

Expert Analysis

We go beyond “rip and ship” to inform the strategy of the organization by packaging results in such a way that sets the context for their use.  The knowledge that we provide ultimately reflects and enhances the organization’s overall goals.

Trend Identification and Insight

We look for trends across all industries and consider how those trends can be applied to our own work environments.  We anticipate the future by considering the present.  We read the news so that our stakeholders don’t have to, and we share developments immediately with stakeholders and in convenient formats such as through mobile applications.

Bottom-Line Benefits

Our work benefits the bottom line by saving stakeholders time and money.  We can conduct research more quickly and easily and achieve higher quality results than those with other job functions.

Context and Analysis for Knowledge and Results

We turn the information that we uncover into knowledge by setting the context for it as well as providing analysis of how it relates to the stakeholder’s challenge.  The stakeholder uses the knowledge we provide to ensure positive outcomes for the organization.

Amy is the chair of the SLA Public Relations Advisory Council, the Alignment Ambassador for the SLA Business and Finance Division, and director of database research at CompassLexecon, an economic consultancy.  She has a BA in History, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an MLS from Dominican University. Amy is coordinating the Future Ready Toolkit.

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.