How we tried out new tools, worked with lots of people and what we expectedly (and unexpectedly) learned along the way

by Katie Daugert and Lauren Sin, Washington DC Chapter, News Division

NPR’s Digital Media division recently implemented quarterly “Serendipity Days” in order to innovate in likely and unlikely ways. On Serendipity Days, staff is given the opportunity to take an entire day and a half away from their regular duties and develop a project or an idea of their own choosing. There are two simple rules to follow: the project must benefit NPR in some way and participants have to present their findings to each other.

For our Serendipity Days experience, we decided to create a training video to teach our colleagues both near and far how to run a basic search in NPR’s new internal archives and transcripts database. Artemis, named for the goddess of the hunt, contains all 40+ years of NPR’s programming metadata. The metadata has been created by NPR librarians over the years; Artemis, also developed by librarians, just launched in November.

We participated in Serendipity Days partly out of necessity (the video was one small part of our training/marketing strategy for Artemis), and partly out of curiosity. The luxury of having time to play around with a new idea has standout appeal!

A colleague recommended TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio, a screen capture software that allows you to record and edit screencasts and share produced videos. We collaborated to master the use of the software, wrote and edited a script, voiced and recorded the audio, and selected and added music, all within our allotted time.

The result? We now have a two-minute introductory video that allows our users to learn at their own pace, whenever they have time, wherever they work. Based on the overwhelming positive feedback we received from our video, we went on to create five more videos as part of our Artemis launch campaign. Check out our videos posted on Vimeo!

Our first Serendipity Days experience encouraged us to play with ideas and gave us the time and space we needed for creative thinking. The concentrated planning time and quick turnaround paid off – our project evolved into a major stepping stone in our outreach efforts. We collaborated with our clients, librarians and our Digital Media colleagues. We created new roles for ourselves, shifting from information curators to dynamic instructors and video producers. We are taking technology-smart approaches on how to engage our users and explore future methods of content delivery. Perhaps most importantly of all, we were delighted to find out that we can get a lot accomplished in a concentrated and intensive amount of time.

Katie Daugert is a Reference Librarian at NPR and co-leads the library’s training and outreach efforts. She partners with journalists and staff to research story ideas, track down and evaluate facts, audio resources, and public records. Her MSIS is from UT Austin.

 

Lauren Sin is a Broadcast Librarian at NPR, combing NPR’s vast media archive to help journalists create sound-rich content. She also manages the Library’s spoken word resources, a collection consisting of over 60,000 culturally and historically significant recordings. Her MLIS is from UCLA.

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!

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When librarians talk about what it means to be “future ready,” the topic of conversation often turns into a discussion of the latest and greatest technology. In broader terms, though, doesn’t being “future ready” really just mean preparing your library to best serve your users in the future? At the San Diego Zoo Global Library, we’ve spent most of the last year thinking about just this—how to position ourselves in order to provide the best service possible. This has involved assessing our abilities, focusing on what we’re good at and envisioning what we want to achieve (rewriting our mission and vision statements), and, yes, adopting new technologies.

This two-part post will explore both librarians’ perspectives on their work at the San Diego Zoo. Part I comes from Talitha Matlin, Associate Director of Library Services, with Part II authored by Amy Jankowski, Assistant Librarian with responsibilities for the San Diego Zoo’s archives.

Part II — Amy Jankowski, San Diego Chapter, Museums, Arts & Humanities Division

When I graduated with my MLS degree in May 2011, I never could have guessed that within two months I would be moving cross-country for a dream job focusing on the archives collection at the San Diego Zoo Global Library. After the anticipation of relocating, starting anew, and assuming a professional title abated, the reality of my situation gradually sunk in. Like many new information professionals, everything was the “future” to me, and it seemed like quite a lot to feel ready for after going straight from graduate student to solo archivist in one gleeful leap. At the same time, I realized that the future was going to come whether I felt ready for it or not. I just needed to take a few deep breaths and simplify. Before taking on any big projects or making any major decisions, I stepped back to think about how my position fits within my organization and how I may grow to better serve my users.

In contemplating where to start, I looked at two key aspects of the archives that will be vital in remaining viable for the future: collection management and opportunities for use and outreach. First, I analyzed how the archives collections could be best housed and managed to align their organization, description, and accessibility with professional standards. Like many special libraries, the SDZG library and archives have a modest budget in comparison to larger academic and research institutions, yet there are a number of affordable ways that we could move toward optimal archives management. These include gradually setting aside money in our budget for archival quality housing, translating legacy finding aids to comply with current professional standards, and exploring implementation of popular open source archives management software. Together, all of these changes would enable me to provide better archival reference service and help potential researchers explore the contents of what are now relatively hidden collections.

Beyond basic physical and intellectual organization, I also recognize a big opportunity for expanding use of SDZG archival materials. To approach this objective, I analyzed how the archives collection fits within the organization as a whole. The majority of work at the zoo focuses on innovative, forward-thinking animal management, education, and conservation research with little focus on the past. However, the archives lends historical evidence to the organization’s development, progress, and change over time; the collection’s presence is a source of pride documenting the zoo’s legacy, which fuels nostalgia and appreciation among employees and the visiting public alike, who come together through common memories of a shared past.

Historical materials have long been a point of pride for the San Diego Zoo and a popular stop during backstage facility tours, plus they periodically serve as a reference for development and public relations department projects. However, public access to unpublished archival documents at SDZG is extremely limited. Therefore, I recognize a major opportunity to expand our user base by connecting with the public through various social media and digitization outlets. I will soon be working with the zoo’s social media guru to explore incorporating historical themes, facts, and images into regular rotation on the zoo’s Facebook and Twitter feeds. I am additionally considering creative ways by which to employ digitized archival documents on the library’s webpage—for example, creating a dynamic timeline or digital exhibit using an open source web publishing platform.

As time goes by, ideas seem to pop up faster than I can jot them down. Clearly a little momentum seems to be the best preparation I could have asked for in terms of jumping in to meet the needs of my niche position. I am gradually learning that a big part of being “future ready” in a special library means being creative, adaptable, doing the best you can with available resources, and maintaining a vision of the role you seek to play within your larger organization!

Amy Jankowski is the Assistant Librarian at the San Diego Zoo Global Library, where she focuses on managing the archives collection. Amy received her MLS with a specialization in archives and records management from Indiana University in 2011. In addition to the Special Libraries Association, Amy is a member of the Society of American Archivists and Society of California Archivists.

By Mary Talley, Owner, TalleyPartners, 2011 DC/SLA President (DC & Maryland Chapters, B&F, IT, KM, Leadership & Management and Legal Divisions)

Best Practices for Government Libraries is a collaborative document that is put out annually on a specific topic of interest to government libraries and includes content submitted by government librarians and community leaders with an interest in government libraries. The 2011 edition includes over 70 articles and other submissions provided by more than 60 contributors including librarians in government agencies, courts, and the military, as well as from professional association leaders, and more. Best Practices is edited by Marie Kaddell, Senior Information Professional Consultant; SLA DGI Chair.  If you did not write for this year’s Best Practices, Marie invites you to submit a guest post for the Government Info Pro marie.kaddell@lexisnexis.com.

Relationships, relationships, relationships! Like the old adage about the importance of location in real estate, embedded information professionals’ success rests partially on the depth of their relationship with their user groups. The research that I performed in 2009 and 2010 on models of embedded librarianship with my colleague, Dave Shumaker, showed that strong working relationships are often built on frequent interactions, such as face-to-face meetings, hallway chats, and shared meals and social events. Being present in information users’ day-to-day work life helps them to see the information professional as a member of the group and promotes credibility. Social interactions break down barriers and promote trust.  As information users become more comfortable with the information professional, they think of them more often as someone who can solve less traditional information problems.

Being There — Virtually
In a virtual environment, duplicating this level of interaction can be difficult. How can you create and sustain equally strong connections with information users that you may never see? Although you may have to work harder to develop virtual relationships, there is encouraging data from the research, case studies and the literature that shows the way.

In a case study from our research, a knowledge analyst on the East Coast is integrated into a practice group located everywhere around the globe – except the East Coast. The analyst’s strongest supporter is the practice group’s executive manager, who is located on the West Coast. The analyst and the manager rarely meet, and the analyst has never met most of the practice group. Yet, the analyst is one of only two who have full access to all practice group-related emails, which she monitors for both work product (which she captures) and emerging issues (for which she provides preemptive support).

Start at the Top
How did the knowledge analyst do it? Her initial connections with the practice group were made through collaborative work with the senior manager on high-value, departmental work products. In many ways, the analyst worked as an apprentice knowledge manager with the senior manager, learning and building trust. The senior manager encouraged the analyst to expand her subject expertise and take on more challenges. She credits the manager’s support as the single most important factor in her success.

Over time, the senior manager has integrated the knowledge analyst as an active participant in all of the practice group’s online communications, meetings and learning opportunities. As a result, the practice group has come to know and trust her capabilities; demand for her work is skyrocketing and other groups are requesting her help as word spreads about her capabilities.

In the successful embedded groups identified in our research, management support is the key to successful integration of the embedded professionals into their information user groups. Relationships between the embedded professional and management are exceptionally strong. In one self-rated highly successful embedded group we identified, ties to user group management include giving both written and verbal reports to group managers.

In a dispersed virtual environment where information professionals may rarely, if ever, come into contact with senior management, reciprocal relationships between management in both the information center management and the information user groups are also instrumental in connecting individual information professionals with organizational groups. In the case of the knowledge analyst (who is an employee of her parent organization’s library), the information center director has cultivated connections with all levels of organizational management, facilitated the collaboration between the analyst and the practice group manager and encouraged the analyst’s alignment with the information user group.

As important as management support is, the information professional can’t just wait for her boss or a senior manager to intervene. To become embedded, a professional in a virtual or physical environment needs to be highly skilled in outreach and relationship-building. Members of the self-rated highly successful embedded group we identified proactively sought management support, including meeting regularly with customer group management to understand their information needs. Likewise, the knowledge analyst seeks continuous feedback from the two senior managers in the practice group she works with.

Subject expertise is imperative to gaining credibility and trust, but it’s not enough if the information users don’t know – and trust – the information professional well enough to call her for extraordinary issues. When senior management advises contacting this person for all information-related issues, chances are the user group will listen. The knowledge analyst in our case study noted that the senior manager endorsed and promoted her work to the group, increasing her credibility.

In a virtual environment, where casual interaction is unlikely, this endorsement from the top is critical. With management support and information savvy, the embedded professional can be as successful in the virtual world as in the physical one.

References

Shumaker, D., & Talley, M. (2010). Models of embedded librarianship: A research summary. Information Outlook, 14(1), 27-27-28, 33-35.

Talley, M. (2011). Success and the Embedded Librarian. Information Outlook, 15(3) http://www.sla.org/io/2011/04/995.cfm

Mary Talley is an information professional and an entrepreneur. She heads TalleyPartners, an information management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, repositioning and embedded information structures for information centers. She was a co-recipient of the 2008 SLA Research Grant to study successful models of embedded librarianship. Mary currently serves as President of DC/SLA.

by David Cappoli, Southern California Chapter

Reputation, content, and convenience – these are the core areas on which I am focused for the near future.  I oversee the Friday Forums for the UCLA Department of Information Studies. The forums are a series of continuing education workshops geared towards the needs of information professionals. With subjects ranging from an overview of competitive intelligence, to movements in youth literature, to understanding the needs of paper conservation, these workshops introduce professionals to emerging ideas and new ways of thinking about ongoing challenges. Nearly all of the workshops are hosted on campus, but my goal is to reach out beyond the confines of UCLA and find new audiences who can benefit from these workshops.

In moving forward to attain this goal, I will utilize the well-regarded reputations of the workshop instructors, and the forums themselves, which have been confirmed by surveys and evaluations. The instructors have been cultivated and identified because of their high levels of expertise; interest in helping people learn; and, preparedness. Their collective ability to engage participants confirms their value. I will also continue to examine the needs and trends in the information profession so as to work with instructors and develop content that is highly sought after, and easily employed in one’s career. And as content is created and developed, I will work on new methods of delivering it, whether it is done by offering virtual workshops or hosting off campus workshops. These options make continuing education more convenient for professionals enabling a higher rate of participation and a wider spread of the benefits gained from attending the workshops. An expectation of broader participation is that the reputations of the workshops will be further enhanced, thus feeding into the expansion of the Friday Forums.

The personal network that I have constructed with instructors as well as workshop participants will aid me in focusing on reputation, content, and convenience, as I seek a broader audience for the workshops. I am also aware a substantial amount of time and effort will need to be invested in order to succeed, but the benefits will be plentiful.

David Cappoli is the Digital Resources Librarian at UCLA. An active member of SLA locally and nationally, David has been president of the Southern California chapter, and a member of SLA’s Annual Conference and  Nominating committees.  He currently serves on SLA’s Public Relations Advisory Council.