San Diego, California is home of beautiful weather, spectacular beaches- and a group of highly motivated, driven and future-ready information professionals. The SLA-San Diego Chapter is proud to join in the conversation with our SLA peers about what it means to be Future Ready.  Our San Diego membership boasts a wide range of professional experience and expertise, and we hope that you find our contributions to the FutureReady365 blog to be both thought-provoking and useful!

by Kathy Elliott, San Diego Chapter, Biomedical & Life Sciences Division

Anticipation … no, not the 1971 hit song, and not the feeling you get sitting down to a Thanksgiving feast. I am talking about the act of preparing for the future before it arrives. As information specialists, we often find ourselves juggling too many tasks, struggling to keep them all up in the air. Who has the time to look into a crystal ball? But that just-in-time attitude only has us treading water in tough economic times. Anticipating future trends can give our clients the added value they need to succeed and thrive. This is true for businesses, academic institutions, hospitals, museums … every type of organization that uses information.

What can a special librarian do to anticipate future trends? Obviously, research plays a critical role. But we’re information specialists, not necessarily subject specialists. So I have one more word for you: networking. An idea may start out with one or two people, but librarians are connected to a world of colleagues who are in this business because they love to help others. As a former scientist retooling for a career in libraries, I’ve been struck by this supportive culture. And when librarians reach out to non-librarian specialists, synergy happens.

What does this model look like in the real world? I’ll offer one example. My sister, Judy Kammerer, is the managing librarian for the health sciences library of University of California, San Francisco, Fresno Center for Medical Education and Research and the hospital library of Community Regional Medical Center, while I have experience doing genomics research in the lab. We decided to collaborate on a project that anticipates the application of new genomic medicine discoveries to clinical practice.

As a first step, I am writing a paper on this topic for a Medical Librarianship course at San Jose State University. I started by collecting background information from the literature. Then I posted a questionnaire for hospital librarians on several listservs, asking if clinicians (doctors and nurses) were requesting information in this field, and what resources the librarians recommended. The survey feedback was great. It suggested that this hot new field has not yet made significant inroads into clinical practice. Next, Judy and I plan to network with clinicians and genomics researchers. A key step will be to design an algorithm that can identify articles about clinical applications of genomic discoveries. Finally, we will create a website with links to these articles, relevant RSS feeds, and other resources that will enable clinicians to monitor and understand new applications as they arise.

Experts in the field predict that translation of genomics research into clinical uses will accelerate rapidly. We hope that our website will help doctors and nurses learn about new applications without delay. Reducing the time lag between discovery and application may save not only money but also lives.

For the future-ready librarian, just-in-time is not good enough. Anticipation rocks!

Kathy Elliott is a graduate student in the MLIS program at San Jose State University. She received a BA in Zoology from Humboldt State University and an MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. After teaching high school biology, Kathy returned to the laboratory, performing molecular biology research at SIBIA Neurosciences, Merck Research Laboratories, TorreyPines Therapeutics, and in 2009 she played a major role in the start-up of Pathway Genomics. Her career change to librarianship is providing new opportunities to apply her scientific background. Kathy is currently Student Liaison for the San Diego chapter of SLA.

Kathy shares her home in San Diego, California, with one husband, two dogs, and three lizards. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, singing, hiking, and volunteering for American Brittany Rescue and the San Diego Zoo.

Image: By Courtesy: National Human Genome Research Institute (http://www.genome.gov/17516876) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons”

by Robert Hulshof-Schmidt, Oregon Chapter, Government Information Division

The old adage says “it’s not what you know but who you know.”  For 21stCentury professionals, I would amend that to acknowledge that what you know and who you know are inextricably linked. This is especially true for information professionals.

In an age of rapidly increasing sources of information and reduced resources for most libraries, noone can afford to go it alone. Fortunately, librarians are, by and large, a collaborative bunch. We use interlibrary loan to supplement our local collections; we rely on cooperative licensing to drive down the costs of information tools. A future ready information professional needs to remember to apply these same principles more broadly to succeed.

This is especially true for solo librarians or people who work in small libraries where they are the only person performing a specific task. Even the best, most well-trained person can benefit from other insights. So where do you turn?

This is where your professional associations are a great resource. The members of SLA and your state association are your peer support network.

Take advantage of discussion lists, blogs, and forums to post your tricky questions. Someone else has almost certainly faced the same issue; even if they can’t give you *the* answer, they can give you great advice on where to turn. (Or, perhaps even more helpful, where *not* to turn!)

In the crush of staying on top of every day’s deadlines, it is easy to hunker down and just try to get things done. It’s also easy to say “I know my mission and business, I can handle this.” When facing a new challenge, an unexpected assignment, or a tough question, stop for a minute. Take a deep breath. Think about who else might be able to help you.

I recently took on the task of redesigning my team’s performance measures. I know a fair amount about statistics, but I wanted to get a sense of what other people measured and why. Numbers should tell a story, and I wanted to be sure that my story was compelling. I reached out to my Oregon Library Association colleagues and to other state managers from a training cohort. I received dozens of great examples, not just of what data to present, but how to frame it for my audience (in this case, the Oregon Legislature). I also got some great ideas for getting an MBA intern to help with the project, including a sample workplan. By asking one question twice, I had a much clearer path and built a much stronger set of measures than I could have done alone.

Oregon’s library workers have access to a good, old-fashioned email distribution list called Libs-Or. The topics that flow through that list every week are fascinating and the answers that people take the time to provide are insightful, often ingenious, and frequently entertaining. A recent question had to do with libraries maintaining traditional reference desks (and what to call them), a topic that has also been featured on this blog. A constant refrain is “thanks for asking, this helps me, too!”

Networking for your own benefit will almost always benefit your colleagues.

It’s great if you can attend a conference or training, spend some networking time, and learn all kinds of things to take home with you. But there’s nothing like just-in-time collaboration to feel the love of your profession.

The future is all about connections, and being future ready means being ready – and willing – to collaborate.

Robert Hulshof-Schmidt is the Program Manager for Government Research Services at the Oregon State Library, a position he has held since 2005.
Robert is currently the President of the Oregon Library Association and Past President of the Public Management Association of Oregon. A long-time SLA member, he has held leadership roles in the Georgia Chapter and the Gay and Lesbian Issues Caucus. He received his undergraduate degree in English from Willamette University and his Master of Library Science degree from the University of Washington. Robert has worked for a variety of government and research libraries and non-profit organizations ranging from solo library shops to managing member relations for SOLINET (now Lyrasis), all experiences that proved the value of collaboration.

Originally published in 2010′s “Best Practices in Government Libraries”)

by Chris Vestal, Washington, DC Chapter, Government Information, Leadership & Management Divisions

It all started with dinner. I was at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Issues Caucus’s (GLBTIC) annual dinner at the SLA Annual Conference in Denver 2007. I was about nine months into my MLIS program and this was the first conference I’d ever attended–but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. 

I was one of the students enrolled in Drexel University’s iSchool’s totally online program. One of the things that Drexel stressed was that being involved in a professional association was vital to staying on top of trends in the profession, furthering your professional development, and building a support network of colleagues so you could be in a strong position for an uncertain future. We were actually required to pick three different associations to research and then compare and contrast and see which ones could be the best fit for our interests. Most of the students that I talked to agreed that they could benefit from being a part of a professional association. 

What set me apart from most of my classmates though was that I had no library experience. I’d never even shelved a book in my life and because I also worked full-time in an unrelated field I didn’t have the time to take a part-time job or internship that would give me that experience. So to me getting involved in a professional association seemed like the only way to get some real world knowledge about the profession. I knew I was interested in working in a special library so SLA seemed like the right fit. I decided that year I’d attend the SLA conference. 

Like I said we’d already discussed the value of professional associations in one of my classes. Several instructors emphasized the impact that networking opportunities could have on our careers. But what we hadn’t talked about is what a shy person does at a conference where they don’t know anyone. All the faces were unfamiliar and the idea of randomly introducing myself to strangers was unthinkable–until I attended one session called “Networking for Wallflowers” and saw how many people felt the same way I did. After the workshop I did attempt to meet more people but it still felt awkward. 

That changed though when I walked into GLBTIC’s annual business meeting. Here were professionals I felt totally comfortable around. I took advantage of the brief networking opportunities there and promised myself I’d attend the no host dinner later that evening. At the dinner I met more people and told them about my limited experience and asked what I should to position myself for job hunting when I finished library school. The answers varied but all contained one near universal nugget of wisdom–get involved in SLA. 

A year went by where aside from reading Information Outlook I didn’t have time to be active in SLA. But I still had vacation time so I made a point of attending the SLA conference in Seattle. I found that conference was a much easier experience for me in terms of networking. Now thanks to the GLBTIC dinner and other events I recognized several faces and was much less hesitant to introduce myself to new people. I was closer to graduating at that point and was avidly seeking out job leads. At one dinner someone told me that the most valuable thing I could do would be to get involved with my local SLA chapter. 

I took this advice to heart and started attending as many networking and professional development events as possible. I subscribed to the chapter listserve and read each message that came across. 

An announcement about DC/SLA Young Professional’s and Student’s Happy Hour came across the listserv and I thought it’d be a fun event to attend. One of the attendees there told me about the company she worked for and I remember thinking it sounded like a really interesting job. A few weeks later I saw an announcement over the listserv about a federal government career fair for librarians at the Library of Congress. I went to the career fair and ran into a recruiter for the company I’d heard about at the happy hour earlier. Within days of chatting with the recruiter I’d been hired in my first library related position. 

But that was really just the beginning of my involvement with DC/SLA. A few months later the DC/SLA President contacted me saying she remembered meeting me at function and wanted to know if I was interested in being the chapter Dine Around (networking dinners for members and friends at local area restaurants) Coordinator. I agreed and went to work recruiting volunteers to host the dinners and then marketing them to the chapter. 

I was surprised by the enthusiastic response we received from the chapter. We had 22 Dine Arounds over the course of 2009. I met so many people I might not have otherwise. I got to know people who became friends, people who challenged me, people on the verge of retiring, and people just starting off in their careers–like me. There’s no question that I learned a great deal in library school but I learned so much more about the profession, the association, and about myself by having dinner with all those different people. It turned out that even people I never met at a Dine Around would “meet” me; they’d recognize my name from the promotional emails I sent to the listserv and then approach me at other events. 

One Dine Around attendee told me about the DC/SLA New Members Reception and I decided to attend. There I heard Current SLA President Gloria Zamora and President-Elect Anne Caputo talk about the Alignment Project and what it meant for the profession. Recalling their presentation I signed up to be an Alignment Ambassador later that year. 

As an Alignment Ambassador I responded to member concerns via Twitter, the listserv, Facebook, and at a Town Hall Meeting. While I was doing this I realized something about myself–that I really enjoy public speaking and writing. But maybe even more importantly is that other people noticed me and I was approached to take over the chapter’s newsletter, Chapter Notes. Working on Chapter Notes in many ways has been like an extension of the Dine Arounds–I get to meet many people with different views, experiences, and skills and learn from them all while doing something I enjoy. 

So my point is I can’t possible overstate how important being active in a professional association is to being future ready. You get all the benefits you’d expect like networking and professional development opportunities, but chances are you’ll benefit in countless other ways too. Subscribing to an association listserv provides you with opportunities to get support directly from your peers (especially important for solo librarians) and invaluable information about what’s going on either in your field or location. By taking on different roles in the association there’s a good chance you’ll learn something about yourself–what you enjoy and what you’re strengths are. You can develop skills (like event planning) you might not get to utilize in your paid job which translates into increased marketability when job hunting. The people you get to know can help you grow in ways you’d never expect–like approaching you for opportunities you didn’t even think to look for. Talking with experienced people in the field can prepare you for issues in your work life and keep you from having to reinvent the wheel. For me, informal stories from Dine Around attendees helped me when I transitioned into my first position supervising other professionals. But perhaps most importantly being involved in an association gives others a chance to get to know you and see how you shine. And it can all start with something as simple as having dinner.

Chris Vestal is a Supervisory Patent Researcher with ASRC Management Services on its contract at the US Patent and Trademark Office. Chris is also DC/SLA’s 2011 Communication Secretary.

By James King, Washington DC & Maryland Chapters, Government Information & Information Technology Divisions

What do we need to do in order to survive and thrive in the 21^st Century?  The most successful organizations are those that have come up with innovative ways of doing things, like Amazon, Apple, or Facebook.  Are we part of an innovative organization? What does it take to be innovative? 

“The Innovator’s DNA” (Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen; Harvard Business Review, December 2009 – http://hbr.org/product/the-innovator-s-dna/an/R0912E-PDF-ENG) provides an answer. The authors report on a six year study of the people behind some of the most innovative and disruptive business strategies in the world to see what makes them tick.  What they found are five discovery skills that seem to distinguish these leaders and can serve as a model for others that want to strive for that “critical thinking” that Thomas Friedman challenged us to in his keynote speech at SLA Annual.

The five discovery skills or “Innovator’s DNA” are questioning, observing, experimenting, networking, and associating.  Not only do I agree with their findings about these traits, but I also realize that we can learn and develop these, and that my involvement with SLA helps me strive towards each of them.

Questioning – asking questions to dig deeper

Questioning often reveals sacred cows and entrenched traditions that are holding us back from improved ways of serving our customers or streamlining our back office operations.  Having well-researched facts about how other organizations operate and how executives view our profession (as is described in the Alignment report) I can be better prepared to ask questions about why certain practices or processes are still being observed in my organization.

Observing – watching the world around us

By observing and studying our customers and other organizations around us, we can learn many valuable lessons and change our services for the better. Participating in the Annual Conference, local chapter events, reading articles from Information Outlook, following the Twitter posts from the Information Futurist Caucus, or reading blog entries from the Future Ready blog can all help us to monitor the rapidly-changing information industry.

Experimenting – willing to try new things

Experimenting and risk failure is a critical trait of an innovative person.  Involvement in chapters or divisions can encourage experimentation by providing a “safe haven” without a direct risk to your pay or benefits. The article pointed out that one of the most powerful experimentations is to work globally. By having access to a global association like SLA, we are able and encouraged to build collaborations with fellow professionals around the world, which will undoubtedly broaden our perspective. 

Networking – building relationships with peers

Networking is probably one of the hallmarks of participation in conferences or attending local chapter events is the opportunity to build relationships with peers.  Those networks can provide a mentor, a friend, or even a future job prospect.  However, the digital world and social networking have also allowed us to better maintain those initial contacts and develop those relationships.

Associating – creating connections

The final trait of their DNA pulls together the four actions (questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking) and creates connections.  Those mental connections are the spark of innovation and have spawned new business processes and changed the world.  Though this is ultimately a personal exercise, learning from others who have made unconventional associations to create new services for our customers will help and encourage us to do likewise.

Building a culture that allows and encourages these innovative traits at both the manager level and employee level will challenge traditional leadership and traditional librarianship but will result in a more relevant and innovative organization.  Whether we have the support where we are or not, are we taking advantage of the opportunities available to us through SLA to build these innovative traits or simply running the treadmill to retirement?

James King, SLA Fellow, was the 2010 President of the Washington, DC Chapter and is the long-time convener of the Information Futurists Caucus. He is currently serving at the national level as an Alignment Ambassador, chair of the Nominating Committee, and was on the 2011 Annual Conference Planning Council. View a fuller bio at http://about.me/edit/cmndr_king.

by Kathy Kelly, Washington, DC Chapter, Government Information Division

When Cindy Romaine visited the DC SLA chapter for our holiday lunch cruise during late 2010, she challenged all of us to gear up to post on the FutureReady blog. I told her I would have to do so from the standpoint of an unemployed librarian. So let me share my view of why we’re in a great profession in which to handle the challenges of joblessness or underemployment with resiliency. First, librarians are instinctive networkers. We are always learning, communicating, and sharing knowledge with our peers, via the many events and learning opportunities that are constantly pushed out to us by our collaborative networks. And we’ve all learned how critical networking is to landing jobs in challenging times.

Second, our companions in this profession are doing a great deal to address employment issues for both new and seasoned info pros. The DC SLA chapter is soon to launch an employment portal on its web site; this chapter provides discounts to unemployed members for its programs; and its long-term members are generous with mentoring those who are seeking jobs and in transition. In addition, SLA at the association level provides a reduced membership rate for the unemployed.

Third, info pros are used to juggling multiple priorities and using time well. What a bonus it can be to have ample time to attend free trainings on Thomas, Legal Research, and Business Research at the Library of Congress; Fedlink trainings at the same institution; database and legislative history trainings at the DOI Library; online trainings while at home; and the usual slate of intriguing DC SLA programs, book clubs, happy hours, and dinearounds. We really have an embarrassment of riches in terms of opportunities for staying active in our field.

Because of financial constraints, I had not been out of the DC area for a long time when I decided that the investment in attending the SLA 2011 conference in Philadelphia would be well worth it, and I was not disappointed. But even when we may not be able to travel to conferences, unemployment or underemployment cannot stop any of us from serving on various boards, doing volunteer work for chapters and other groups, and writing for our profession’s publications and blogs.

During an earlier period of unemployment years ago, I was attending a DC SLA dinearound when a librarian asked for my contact info in case her institution had any openings in the future. She assumed I did not have a business card since I was in between jobs, but I carried a personal business card, and pulled one out pronto. Within a few weeks, her library had an opening, and I had a job. I still carry those cards, and always keep ‘Librarian/Certified Archivist’ in my email signature block, no matter what my job status.

I’d say that info pros are not only always ‘employed’, in the sense of being engaged in a lively profession, but they are also always ready for future employment thanks to that present engagement.

Kathy Kelly most recently served as Librarian Project Manager and Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Librarian on the library support services contract at the NOAA Central Library.  Previously she served as a Task Order Manager/Supervisory Librarian at the U.S. EPA’s Pollution Prevention Information Clearinghouse (PPIC), and before that as an Archivist/Delivery Order Manager at the EPA History Office. Prior to serving at EPA, Kathy worked as a Library Technician in the Library of Congress (LC) Music Division and an Archives Technician in the LC Manuscript Division.  She has been a Certified Archivist since 1997, and is currently the 2011 Secretary for the SLA Government Information Division, and 2010-2011 Secretary for the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) Alumni Board.

by Jodi Gregory

As an independent information professional for over 15 years, I’ve stayed successful and future ready by continually “connecting the dots.”  It is important to stay connected and when networking, we should be thinking about how we can bring together the new people we meet with other people we know for mutually beneficial relationships.  Often my connectedness allows me to tap into my network for the expertise I need for that missing piece in satisfying an information request for a client.  No longer should we expect to provide answers to our client’s questions only from online services, the open or invisible web.

Our work is continually defined and re-defined by multiple and varying clients and our responses to them.  Since we are experts at evaluating and presenting information, we should utilize these skills to identify future trends and anticipate what our client’s needs and questions will be.  We can improve our efficiency by setting up dashboards or alerts on trending topics so that when a request comes our way, we are already knowledgeable about the best and most reliable sources for the information.  Having this knowledge allows us to be even more valuable to our clients.  I get a little thrill when I can stay to my clients “I’ve read about that lately and I have already identified some experts and great sources for this information.”

One example of a new trend is the use of infographics.  Have you begun incorporating infographics in the presentation of your research results?  As always, they need to be vetted for their validity and quality but visual and graphic presentation of information is appreciated by my clients.  I’ve taken this one step further by working with a graphic designer to create my own based on the information I’ve assembled in my research.

We are experts at disseminating information so we can and should use our talents to provide research in advance of a client need.  Let us be the ones to connect the dots and provide research and analysis that is future ready!

Jodi Gregory is the principal of Access Information Services.  She has been an independent information professional for over 15 years and is a past president of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (aiip.org). She is also a columnist for Cyberskeptic’s Guide to Internet Research published by Information Today.

by Linda McKell

This is a question I am frequently asked since I work in a library staffing company. It is an interesting question, involving understanding people, organizations and what they need to keep viable.

In the library world, we have for-profit special libraries, non-profit academic and public libraries as well as an entire array of free-lance contract workers/consultants and vendors. While there are differences in funding sources for all of these entities, it still boils down to “where’s the money?”

That is why it is helpful to know about the overall structure, funding sources and directions for any organization, employer or customer that you are trying to work with.

How do you find this out? There are certainly unlimited amounts of information on the web; however, making connections with people inside the company can give you more insight on that and many other aspects of the organization.

Understand the Environment.

First, use your research skills to understand as much about an organization before applying and interviewing. Then you will be able to convey some understanding of their situation rather than just come across like a deer in the headlights.

Some possible questions to research are:

1. How is the organization doing financially? Have they experienced layoffs, downturns and how have they handled them?
2. What achievements, successes and goals do they have?
3. What challenges, obstacles and set-backs have they experienced?
4. Who does the library/dept. serve in the organization?
5. Who does the library/dept. report to?
6. What size staff do they have in the library? Do they have satellites, branches and other locations that they serve?
7. What services are offered by the library/dept.?
8. What is the job description for the advertised position?
9. What other services could be supplied if appropriate skills and resources are available?
10. How can you make a contribution/difference and generally be an asset to the library/dept.?

Get to Know People.

Second, explore your people network. There are more ways to network now than ever before. Now, in addition to just getting to know your immediate neighbors, you can explore the following areas:

1. Get social. Visit Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and other social and professional networking sites like listserves to find people who work where you would like to work. Ask them some of the above questions or others to more fully understand the environment.
2. Get professional. Attend professional meetings. Mingling with people in the profession provides information and direct connections. The programs also give you a heads up on what is currently going on in the field. Getting information virtually is great, but meeting and greeting live provides additional advantages.
3. Broadcast to your local network. Let people know that you are interested in certain organizations, venues or types of jobs. You will be amazed at how even your local network has connections. I once asked the head of an academic library who had worked in a corporate library originally what it was like to work in academia. She told me a few things and then said, “Why, are you interested in working in academic?” I said I would be interested, but now I was working full-time as an engineering librarian in a corporate setting. A few months later she called to ask me if I would like a part-time job in their engineering library while one of the staff worked on a special project somewhere else. I jumped at the chance and learned a lot even though I ended up working both jobs at 12 hour days!
4. Set up informational interviews. Find someone in an environment where you would like to work and ask if you can interview them about their job over coffee or an ice cream cone! Stop by the reference desk at your local library, find a willing person and start talking to them. Don’t monopolize their time, but you can glean a great deal of information from many small interactions over time.
5. Look for problems that need to be solved. See if you can volunteer in an area of interest and do a special project for which there is no funding or no time. This will not only give you a chance to see what the environment is like, but to gain some experience. Who says you have to be paid for work to list it on your resume?

By doing these things before you begin talking to a prospective employer, you will distinguish yourself from others by knowing something rather than little or nothing about them.

Make the Employers’ Job Easier.

You might think that looking for a job is the most stressful situation, but employers are under stress as well. They have to cope with work overloads, staff shortages, budget restrictions while conducting a candidate search. They have to justify their need for a person; handle recruiting activities directly or work with their Human Resources department which can be more of a wall than a door. They then either filter through a mountain of resumes and applications or find that too few qualified people are responding to ads. Lastly, they have to conduct myriad interviews with candidates who either know little or nothing about the job or they are faced with too many qualified candidates making the decision difficult. After making the hiring decision, they have to train and orient the new hire and hope that the person is not only what they seem to be, but, hopefully, better and not worse!

Keep in mind that the employer may be distracted or unskilled in interviewing, as well. You can help them along by creating a friendly atmosphere as you start talking to them. Make them feel comfortable with you. Don’t monopolize the conversation, but be relaxed and try to put yourself in their shoes. Try to make the interview a conversation and not a monologue on either side.

Meanwhile, what employers are really looking for is a person who can not only do the job, but who can bring more to the table, fit in with the work group, and generally make the services rendered the best they can be! They are not looking for people to do the minimum, don’t mix well with the existing work group, and are focused on what’s in it for me versus trying to achieve the goals of the department/organization.

In short, employers are looking for good employees. And that is the best thing you can be!

Linda McKell is President and Founder of AIM Library & Information Staffing headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information about the library job market, visit the company website at www.aimusa.com.

by Jill Hurst-Wahl, SLA Board of Directors

As a faculty member, I interact daily with LIS students.  These students are arriving in their programs feeling ill-prepared for their futures, yet also being future ready in terms of having creativity, energy, enthusiasm and the ability to collaborate and share information in ways foreign to many practitioners.  They have been users of both public and academic libraries, but few have any knowledge of where they might be employed outside the traditional domains.  While LIS programs can introduce students to corporate and embedded librarianship, etc., what makes non-traditional librarianship real for them is interacting with practitioners through panel discussions, one-on-one conversations, internships, and even part-time job opportunities.  In other words, those of us out in the field need to take time to introduce the students to our world where the jobs of the future are being incubated.

Practitioners, consider these ideas for reaching out to LIS students:

• Invite the LIS students in your region to tour your library.  Locate them through the nearest LIS program as well as through announcements on local library discussion lists.  (Place announcements in multiple places to improve your chances of connecting with distance students.)  Show them where you work and the resources you use.  Have 1-2 of your clients talk to them about the benefits of your work.
• Contact an LIS program (e.g., the one closest to you or your alma mater) and offer to guest lecture about your work either in person or via a video conference.
• Contact LIS programs about possible internships or student/group projects.
• Offer to review student resumes and cover letters.  While students do have campus resources for this, they appreciate a practitioner’s perspective.

Students, take these steps to connect with practitioners:

• Use the SLA directory to locate a practitioner in an area that interests you, and then schedule a time to talk with that person either in person or by phone.  Ask the person about his or her background, work, and advice.
• Attend SLA chapter events, even if it means going out of your way to do so.  Then employ some networking strategies to meet and interact with others at the event.  Remember that the people who are there can help you become the professional that you want to be.
• Volunteer to help with events that librarians and knowledge/information professionals will be attending.  Every event could use help and some will allow volunteers to attend the event for free.
• When a practitioner guest lectures in one of your classes, get the person’s contact information and then follow-up with the person to ask more pointed questions as well as seek advice.  If the person is bombarded with follow-up requests (and wouldn’t that be awesome!), offer to coordinate a group meeting.

Are there other ways of getting involved? Yes.  Follow your instinct and imagination.  Just keep in mind that it is up to us — practitioners and students alike — to ensure that when the future arrives that we have information professionals ready for it!

Jill Hurst-Wahl is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies.  She is a member of the SLA Board of Directors and several SLA units.  She co-authored The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create Your Success with Ulla de Stricker.

by Robin Dodge, Southern California Chapter

We’re a profession full of people who are ready and willing to help, to teach, and to mentor. Taking advantage of this and all the networking opportunities SLA offers will help you hone those soft skills that are so critical to your professional success. Some view networking as merely a way to find a new job or new clients. This is a big mistake. Nobody likes those people who show up for one event, scout the room for the right prospects, blow off the people they don’t think are useful to them, and then never show up to another event again. Networking offers all kinds of intangible benefits, when approached with the right attitude. If you invest the time in building meaningful relationships, you will grow personally and professionally, and you’ll be ready for that new opportunity when it comes along. 

Spending the last year planning events for our Chapter, I’ve heard a lot of excuses for NOT networking or participating. I get it. You’re the busiest person on the planet. You think you have everything and everyone you need right within your own workplace. You’re not a social butterfly. You don’t have money, time, transportation, etc. You’d rather have a root-canal than drive across town during rush hour, or any hour for that matter. I’ve heard all of this and more, and at one point I was the one making these same excuses. But when you’re the one planning the events you have to go to all of them, and it changed my whole attitude about the importance of networking. Meeting, networking, and partnering with such a wide array of professionals broadened my perspective, increased my empathy and confidence, helped hone my critical thinking skills, and it’s been personally gratifying and fulfilling. Networking events are now much higher in my list of priorities. Your to-do list will still be there tomorrow, your email can wait, and that important meeting to discuss that important project for the gazillionth time probably isn’t really necessary. The monthly happy-hour or professional development seminar are much more rare and unique opportunities, and you should be taking advantage of them. Leave work early, drive across town, maybe even skip dinner with your family, and stop making excuses or waiting for the “next” event. (Yes, I said it. Your family will be there tomorrow, right along with your to-do list.)

If you don’t feel comfortable at networking events, and perhaps you don’t consider yourself to be very social, ask the event-organizer to give you a job to do. Then use that job as an excuse to talk to everyone you can. Or ask a well-networked peer to introduce you to a few others. Better yet, volunteer for a position on the Board of your Chapter or Division, and work your way into positions of increased responsibility. Once you feel comfortable with networking, reach out and help others become more comfortable with it. Remember that everyone has something to offer. You might not become fast friends with everyone you meet, but every single person who crosses paths with you has something to teach you. Making an effort to meet as many people as you can will provide you with all of those intangible benefits I mentioned, and it will lead to amazing opportunities, partnerships, and friendships. Soft skills are a necessity right now, and they are most definitely future-ready.

Robin Dodge is the Special Collections Librarian at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, and President of the SLA Southern California Chapter.

by Paul Henriques, Washington DC Chapter, Government Information Divison

Information professionals by nature work in a dynamic field full of change. This fact is nothing new. However, I don’t believe anything might have prepared me for being laid off twice from two different organizations in one year. While some might look at this negatively, I am viewing this as an opportunity.  

I recognized the previous organizations I worked for provided little opportunity for professional development due to financial constraints. I would have appreciated greater support to attend SLA conferences or study towards certificates. Along with the usual job applications and networking amongst peers by submitting referral applications to organizations, I am spending my time productively, for example, learning new databases where I can and perfecting my foreign language skills.  

A break in ones career must be treated as a chance to increase your value for your next employer. Along with educating myself further, I made a conscious decision to obtain citizenship in the European Union, which was an option open to me through my heritage. While some may say that times are tough in Europe, economic problems are present in almost every corner of the world. Enabling myself to work in 27 other countries is an ability that can only help my career going forward. I am also not limiting myself to specific regions in the United States, however, living in Washington, D.C. affords a lot of opportunities for employment.