by Molly Hagen, Minnesota Chapter
by Liz Scheibel, Minnesota Chapter, B&F and Legal Divisions

We have found that Information professionals and Librarians are extremely welcoming to and excited for new people entering the profession – everyone wants to help! We are so grateful for the help and advice we received during our school years, and that support continues now as we are both in our first professional jobs.

Everyone wants to help new info pros, but are you ready to help? Do you know what fresh MLIS grads in your SLA chapter and in introductory level professionals in your department need from you? We’re a profession of planners and organizers. Have you planned how you will help new people and gotten your resources and ideas for doing so organized?

As new information professionals who are just becoming “old” enough to look back, here are four ways we believe you can give to the future of our profession:

1. Network with newcomers, over and over again. New people are important! Take some meaningful time to get to know them before recruiting them for something beyond basic membership or simple attendance. Learning about their skills, interests, and goals means that when the time is right, you’ll be able to ask your new colleagues to do something that is appropriate for them – and they’ll be more likely to say yes and do a good job.

2. Be the best mentor you can be. Signed up to be a mentor? Good for you! Your work has just begun. Study up and research it – read about it, meditate on it, talk to others who have done it and find out what made the relationship successful. Prepare like you would for a job interview. (Calling Minnesota Chapter members: as the chairs of our Chapter’s Mentoring Program, we’re here to help.)

3. Help connect classroom education to real world work. A good conversation starter with a student (or someone doing an internship) is asking them what classes they are taking or what they are studying. Keep the conversation going by describing how you use that kind of training or information in your real work. Making the connection between the classroom and what someone in the field actually does is one of the hardest things about making the jump between being a future information professional and a current information professional. Help them connect the dots.

4. Don’t just get them jobs, make them jobs. A key to being future ready is to avoid assumptions that hold us back, and one of the most devastating assumptions we make is that we can’t control job creation. Too often our assistance for job seekers stops at referring them to open positions, helping them network, and, at best, creating temporary positions or internships. It’s a tough economy for new people; many good ones are looking for their first break. Have you ever brainstormed about what you would do with an additional employee in your department? Have you sat down and made the plan – the job description, the qualifications, the proposal to management? Have you ever thought that another area of your institution, or even another institution altogether, could use an information professional, and then tried to make it happen? If you want to help new people in your field, create someone a job. It’s the thing they need the most. Then enjoy reaping the rewards of having a brand new information expert in your midst – his or her energy and fresh ideas will inspire you to even greater heights.

We know experienced professionals in our field are generous with their time and knowledge. Hopefully, these thoughts will spur some future ready thinking and planning on how to put that generosity into action! After all, being future ready means being ready for the future members of our professional communities.

Molly Hagen is the new Learning Center Associate at Thomson Reuters in Eagan, Minnesota. She graduated with her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2010. She can be reached at molly.hagen@thomsonreuters.com, or on Twitter @mollyhagen.

Liz Scheibel started her position as Librarian at Lindquist & Vennum PLLP in Minneapolis, Minnesota in April of 2010. She graduated with her MLIS from St. Catherine University in 2011. She can be reached at escheibel@lindquist.com, or on Twitter @emcscheibel.

The authors are members of the Minnesota Chapter of SLA and are the new co-chairs of the chapter’s Diversity and Mentoring Committee. They are available to provide mentoring connections to local information professionals, as well as sparkling conversation for information professionals new and old.

by Kimberly Silk, Toronto Chapter, Business & Finance, Academic, Leadership & Management Divisions

I graduated from what is now known as the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto in 1998, and since that time I have been mentored by many successful people, both within the information profession, and outside of it. Some of these mentors did not know they influenced me, but many of them did, and do, and I owe much of my own success to their wisdom, kindness and generosity.

Very early on in my information career, even while in graduate school, I was sure that I would not become a conventional librarian. Though I love libraries and am inspired by the knowledge they hold, I’ve always known I would not succeed in that workplace. Thanks to several wonderful professors and practitioners, I became aware of a wide variety of environments where information professionals could pursue their passions. These places were not libraries, or even information centres. But, they all employed information professionals, and those info pros were pivotal to the organization’s success.

Over the past ten years I’ve been asked to speak as someone who has pursued an “alternative” library career. I really enjoy talking about my career (who doesn’t??) but I’m surprised at how often I’m still asked. It seems to me that our profession should be evolving more quickly. I am concerned that my career path is still considered “alternative”. Here we are more than a decade into the 21^st century, where conventional library jobs continue to disappear, and at the same time the information profession is changing so quickly we struggle to define it. How can it be that my choice to not work in a conventional library is still unusual?

I am not alone in my confusion. You need to look no further than the struggles of our very own SLA to see that we’re all trying to figure out who we are, and what we want to be when we grow up. As president of the Faculty of Information Alumni Association, I talk with many students and new graduates, and it’s clear they’re nervous about the future. Of course feeling nervous as you enter a new profession is normal; still, I believe it’s our responsibility as practitioners to help new information professionals feel more confident in themselves, and optimistic about our profession.

Practitioners have a lot to offer new info pros: experience, knowledge, passion, and positive anticipation of the future. Many of us are being the change we want to see in our world. We are forging new paths, redefining our profession and weathering the bumpy road as we go. We run up against obstacles such as the squelchers who fear change, even though change is necessary, because the alternative is unthinkable. The world is changing quickly – we know we must evolve or die.

I believe we need to take personal responsibility for the future of our profession. We cannot do much about the squelchers, and it may be best to ignore them. Our energy is much better spent focusing on the future, and the future lies in the hearts and minds of the new information professionals. All of us can be active change agents through mentoring. Those of us who consider ourselves leaders can make an even bigger impact by mentoring our new colleagues – by talking with them about the exciting changes our profession is going through, the amazing opportunities opening up to us, and the adrenaline rush of achieving new firsts. I’m paying it forward through mentorship, and encourage you to, too. The most effective way to change the world is to make a positive contribution to the future, and for us, the future is the new information professional.

Kimberly Silk is the Data Librarian at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. She is also President of the Faculty of Information Alumni Association, and Technology Director for the Toronto Chapter of SLA. While she lovingly embraces the librarian moniker, her current job is the first that has ever held that title. Kim loves what she does, and likes to infect others with her enthusiasm. You can read her blog at www.KimberlySilk.com and email her at kimberly.silk@gmail.com.