by Blane Dessy

Federal agencies are constantly looking to new models of how the business of government is conducted and making strides to improve techniques and practices at every level of service. To be future ready, Federal librarians will need to discover forthcoming agency efforts and package their services to serve the project mission. To stay in the forefront of emerging trends, they will need to merge information from various groups and identify information available from external sources.

To define this future, FEDLINK completed an environmental scan of the external factors that may influence the information field. The scan included a review of materials from a variety of organizations including the Special Libraries Association, OCLC, the Pew Internet and American Life Project, and Outsell, a noted research firm that focuses on issues relating to the information industry. FEDLINK also reviewed materials from the federal government on reforming information technology in the federal government, information on transparency in government and samples of resources making use of new technologies.

After a thorough analysis, the environmental scan identified seven major trends that define how Federal libraries can be future ready.

Trend number 1: Demonstrate returns on investment.
Libraries will need data on use and cost savings not just in financial terms, but also in terms of savings in staff efficiency. Librarians will need to use a variety of analytics to document costs and benefits.

Trend number 2: Establish mission critical programs.
Managers will more broadly define processes, standards and policies and explore a variety of options to insure viability.

Trend number 3: Integrate mobile devices, “apps” and dashboards into workflows.
Libraries will need to create tailored apps to access library resources and programs through mobile devices.

Trend number 4: Expand roles as analyst, educator and consultant.
Librarians will need to integrate evaluation tools with the newest software and devices and expand instruction in digital literacy and online searching techniques.

Trend number 5: Cultivate use of the Semantic Web, cloud computing and Web 3.0.
Library use of social collaboration and interactive responsibility will combine with Web 3.0 technologies to create a semantic Web that includes human intelligence combined with data management where content and technology are now one. With increasingly cloud-based sources and tools, librarians will serve as a bridge to share information and support projects that cross agency lines.

Trend number 6: Customize and personalize information to meet the needs of users.
With the proliferation of mobile technologies, the semantic web and other web searching technologies patrons will want information compiled so that it is immediately usable and tailored to meet a specific need.

Trend number 7: Collaborate via knowledge transfer and information sharing.
In tandem with the previous trends, libraries will need to discover forthcoming agency efforts and package their services to serve the project mission.

Librarians also will need to integrate evaluation tools with the newest software and devices and expand instruction in digital literacy and online searching techniques. We must help to make the connections required for knowledge transfer from one generation to the next.

To respond to these future directions, FEDLINK released new competencies for federal librarians and uses them as a centerpiece for developing FEDLINK’s education programming. Our outreach efforts now combine the use of online learning systems, continued efforts on mentoring and the recent creation of NewFeds, a new working group that supports the development and advancement of early career professionals with less than five years of federal service. NewFeds is also concerned with building a sense of community among new FEDLINK members, advocating for new professionals, promoting careers in federal libraries and developing partnerships with other FEDLINK working groups and library professional associations.

With an eye toward trends and professional development, libraries and librarians can make their rich and valuable content compatible with current learning and researching patterns. In doing so, we set the trends and guide our users into the information future. Federal librarians want to be future ready, but just as importantly, they want to shape the future environment for their work.

Blane K. Dessy is the Executive Director of the Federal Library and Information Center Committee and the Federal Library Network at the Library of Congress. Prior to this, he had been Director of Libraries at the United States Department of Justice and the first Executive Director of the National Library of Education. He came to the Federal Government after working as a State Librarian (Alabama), Deputy State Librarian (Ohio), library consultant (Oklahoma), and public library director (Pennsylvania). He is currently also an adjunct instructor in Management and Federal Libraries at the Catholic University of America School of Library and Information Science.

Mr. Dessy received his MLS degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976 and subsequently attended advanced library management training at the School of Business Administration at Miami University (Ohio).

He is the recipient of two John Cotton Dana Awards for library public relations. While at the Department of Justice, he received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the second highest honor in the Department of Justice.

Hello from the nation’s capital!  DC/SLA is excited to be contributing all of this week’s FutureReady365 posts (thanks to our future-thinking Communications Secretary, Chris Vestal).  We are a diverse community of 800+ information professionals, with members from D.C., Maryland, Virginia, as well as 30 other U.S. states and 12 countries.  You’ll see this diversity reflected in the range of future ready ideas presented in posts throughout the week.  We hope our posts will spark some thought and conversation and, of course, your comments. Most of all, we want to help keep the spark of the FutureReady blog alive  – a spark that’s become a fire, gathering us around it to brainstorm our way into the future. — Mary Talley, DC/SLA President (2011)

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

I grew up with the Indiana Jones franchise. It was my favorite trilogy as a kid (Temple of Doom was the best), so naturally when the fourth installment came out a few years ago I had to see it. I went expecting whip cracking, snake fearing, action adventure. As an unexpected bonus I got career advice that’s really impacted how I approach being Future Ready. There’s a scene where Indy and his son are peeling through a library on a motorcycle and Indy sees a group of students and tells them if they want to be successful they’ve “got to get out of the library.”

We all know how important it is to network among librarians but what a lot of people forget is that it’s just as important to reach outside library land and network with nonlibrarians. Sure it is part of a library director’s job to network with other departments in the organization, but it’s also the job of everyone who works in the library to represent it to every other person in the organization. Those of us in the front lines are in the perfect environment to reach out and build relationships with people outside the library and be its public face. It doesn’t take much—any time you encounter someone in the hall, the lunch room, even walking in the building is another opportunity to build relationships.

Networking like this can be critical to the success of the library and even the overall organization. If people get to know you and what you’re capable of they’re a lot more likely to seek out your services. They’re also more likely to provide positive feedback or anecdotal stories that can be used to illustrate the value of your services. Sometimes they’re the best people to communicate the library’s ROI to key decision makers since they’re more likely to speak the decision makers’ language and aren’t seen as inherently biased towards the library.

A former coworker of mine had an experience like this. When he was new in the library he made a point to network outside of the library. He developed a strong professional relationship with an internal client when she was new to the organization. Over time they moved past being acquaintances and became friends. Eventually they were both promoted in the organization. His friend became a supervisor to 20 other people and because of her experiences with the library and my coworker she now requires her staff to use the library’s research services before turning in their final work for her to review.

Even in the short time I’ve been active in the profession I’ve had a similar experience. I’m a contractor in an organization with a large library composed of several satellite libraries. When I was first promoted to a supervisor I was transferred to a new satellite library where I didn’t know my new staff or any of our internal clients. When we receive a research request from a client we typically contact them either via email, IM, or phone to do a reference interview. But I actually like to leave the library and meet clients face to face in their office, that way I could put faces with names and get to know them. I try to engage them in small talk too; that way I’m more than just a faceless person to them. I did this one day with a client who’d used the library before but only about 3-4 times a year. He sent in very favorable feedback about the research I’d done for him and right away tripled the number of research requests he sent in. Each time I worked on something for him I made a point to meet him in person and do some small talk. Now he’s one of our regular customers. Whenever any of us do research requests for him he always provides helpful feedback about our value, frequently as a narrative that we can turn around and use to justify and market our existence to key stakeholders. Taking the time to get to know him and to let him get to know me is at least partially responsible for the change.

But I benefited in another way too. One day after we were done talking about his research request we somehow got on the subject of working out and he mentioned that he’d been doing several different martial arts systems for years in addition to traditional gym work outs. He mentioned it so casually I didn’t think anything about it at the time. Then a few months later I noticed signs up in the area advertising self-defense classes teaching a system I’d never heard of. I remembered our conversation about martial arts and called my client and asked him if he knew anything about the system of self-defense the flier talked about. My client laughed and told me he did because it was his flier; he’d just started a self-defense training company.

Taking a class like that had always appealed to me but I’d always been too nervous about embarrassing myself to try it. But since I knew and trusted the instructor I went ahead and made the leap and now his class is one of my favorite ways of staying active. I’ve noticed I’m not quite as clumsy and much more confident than before. I was sharing my experience with another DC/SLA member one day and she mentioned a group class like that sounded fun. So I talked to DC/SLA’s programming planner and she thought that would make a good program too—now DC/SLA is sponsoring an introduction to self-defense class with my instructor.

If I’d just interviewed my client over the phone I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to get to know him and I would never have known he knew about martial arts. I wouldn’t have thought to ask him about the fliers and I’d really be missing out. So while I’m sure the writers meant Indy’s line to just be a funny one liner making a habit of getting “out of the library” can lead you to all kinds of adventures.

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 Constance Ard, Answer Maven, Candidate for Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect

Knowledge Revolution is the 21st Century version of the Industrial Revolution.  Revolutions evolve. Be “Future Ready” by leading the evolution.

Educate the masses and transform them into your advocates.  Every member of society needs to know information professionals are not just checking out books at the circulation counter. In fact they need to understand the capabilities demonstrated by any information professional that deals with all the nuances of running an organization within an organization.

Publicize the impact of quality information in a quantitative manner.  Express the services provided in numbers that reflect the bottom dollar goals of the supporting organization.

1. Apply a number to the services provided with a factor for the information sources costs and the value of the professional.  In my waning days at the law firm I had begun toying with the idea of not only collecting the qualitative values of our services, but exploring methods of the quantitative one.  For instance: Winning Summary Judgment = Research Time + Information Source.
   Disclaimer: There are more factors that must be evaluated to develop an accurate equation.
2. eDiscovery is a growing industry in this knowledge revolution.  The cost of sanctions, the cost of preparation and the cost of production are all factors.  Using those factors we can quantify our value for the information management component in a significant manner. No knowledge organization should ignore the importance of information management or they will not be future ready enough to avoid costly risk.
3. Competitive Intelligence research is conducted to grow a business or define competitive advantages.  Quantifying this work is another way to discuss the value added services of knowledge professionals in a manner that establishes us as the leaders of the transition.

Statistics are important, and they need to be the right statistics.  Being future ready means embracing the science part of information science beyond technology and database design.

Eliminate the notion that information centers are overhead. Use statistics. Quantify the value of the information. Quantify costs: both those you reduce through good management practices and those that are necessary to complete the work of the organization. Every web developer knows that analytics are critical – every information professional should too.

Future ready requires you sell your value.

Information professionals are not just info pros – they are salespeople and marketers. It is our job to educate the knowledge workers who benefit from our knowledge, experience and services to view us as strategic partners who can innovate, create, and contribute to the overall goals of our organizations.  Embrace and excel at this sales job and the revolution is yours to transform.

Constance Ard is an Independent Information Professional with 14 years experience and expert research skills.  Ms. Ard offers on-demand research and information and content management business consulting services specializing in e-discovery preparation and project management.  You can follow her blog at http://www.answermaven.com and find out more about her services at http://www.answermavensolutions.com.

Constance is an active information professional organization volunteer. She served as the Chair of the Legal Division of the Special Libraries Association for 2010 and is a member of the New Member Outreach Committee for AIIP.  She has served in many leadership roles throughout her career.

Ms. Ard’s latest publication “Legal Research in the Age of Open Law” was published in the September 2010 issue of Online.  In October 2009, Ms. Ard completed her first published book: Next Generation Corporate Libraries and Information Services.

by Regina Mays and Gayle Baker

Today, many libraries find it necessary to demonstrate the impact of what they do and to illustrate how the products and services of the library contribute to the goals of the overarching institution. The future ready librarian must have an array of tools to accomplish this.

Return on Investment (ROI) is an approach that is commonly used in evaluating business investments. In the strictest sense, ROI is a quantitative measure expressed as a ratio of the value returned to the institution for each monetary unit invested in the library.  Since a library is not a business, however, and the value it provides is not always a direct monetary return, some researchers are broadening the conception of ROI to include returns that affect the bottom line downstream and measure inherent values.

Special libraries are no strangers to ROI. In fact, special libraries have been the frontrunners of this type of research. Griffiths and King performed numerous studies in both corporate and government agency libraries in the 80s and 90s using cost/benefit analysis and ROI. More recent ROI studies in special libraries have found returns of anywhere from 2:1 to 18.6:1 or even higher.

The first thing to ask when beginning to design an ROI study is: what constitutes value? A good place to start is by looking at the goals of your organization and identifying ways that the library might contribute to those goals. For example, two recent studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Tennessee on ROI of academic libraries to the grants process focused on the monetary return of grant funding secured partly through the help of library-provided citations. Another value in that equation is the support of faculty research and productivity in general, which may not have a direct immediate monetary return to the university, but contributes value nonetheless.  In the second study, 94.5% of submitted research proposals included citations obtained through the University of Tennessee Libraries.  Faculty members commented about how access to electronic journals helped them, not only with their research, but also with their teaching.

ROI is one of many approaches to assessment and is most effective as part of a suite of methods. Just as you wouldn’t use a screwdriver to hammer a nail, ROI won’t be the best tool to use in every area. ROI is especially useful when there is an immediate return, for example helping your institution secure grants or contracts. But for those areas in which it is appropriate, it can be a very effective way of measuring the return on invested resources and demonstrating the value of the library’s contribution to the goals of users and to the goals of the organization as a whole.

Finally, these results should be communicated in ways that are meaningful and relatable. Often, putting a human face on the numbers is an effective approach.  For example, adding interviews to accompany the numbers or developing personas of typical uses and users.

Some useful links:

• Cornell University Library: Library value calculations: http://research.library.cornell.edu/value
• Lib-Value Project (IMLS grant # LG-06-0909152-09): Much information, including a free searchable database of over 800 items on value and ROI literature on all types of libraries: http://libvalue.cci.utk.edu/
• NN/LM MidContinental Region: Online tools for evaluating programs and services: http://nnlm.gov/mcr/evaluation/tools.html
• ACRL Value of Academic Libraries Report: A good overview of value research in all types of libraries, including special libraries: http://www.acrl.ala.org/value/

Regina Mays is Program Manager for the IMLS funded study Value, Outcomes, and Return on Investment of Academic Libraries (“Lib-Value”) based at the Center for Information and Communication Studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN.

Gayle Baker is Professor and Electronic Resources Coordinator at The University of Tennessee Libraries in Knoxville, TN, and has worked there since 1990. She is one of the librarians who is participating in the Lib-Value project.

by Allan Foster, Europe Chapter and Business & Finance Division

For more years than I care to remember I have been charting developments in business information use through an annual survey of information managers. This is the Business Information Survey published each March in Sage’s quarterly journal Business Information Review. The focus of the Survey has changed over time, from a concentration on sources of information to key issues in information management.

The methodology has also changed, from an open, widely distributed questionnaire to a series of in-depth interviews with a small number of senior corporate information managers. These are mainly based in the UK but many work for global businesses and have responsibilities for international services. If I was being pretentious(!) I would describe it now as almost ‘ethnographic’, a series of ongoing conversations with trusted colleagues, trying to chart year on year changes in their services, roles within their organisations and strategic priorities. It has only been possible to do this and to get brutal honesty from respondents by honouring a rule of strict confidence and aggregating results so as to avoid disclosing any identities. Most but not all respondents are involved in the Survey each year. In it’s 21^st year, the 2011 Survey¹ included seventeen of the interviewees from the previous year whilst another four were new participants.

Although the respondents represent a range of corporate information, library & research services, across industrial sectors and of varying sizes, I claim no statistical representativeness whatsoever for the Survey. But, given the seniority and frankness of the respondents, the findings provide a rich narrative of current practice and future intentions. It’s the latter which I’m concentrating on here as a contribution to the ‘Future Ready’ discussion.

Whilst massive turbulence in the business and financial environment is the new norm and technologies change so fast, the Survey results suggest that the crucial ‘future ready’ attitudes and skills in the corporate information scene are and will be in the next five years pretty much the same as those exhibited in successful information services now. This may be a disappointment to the ‘everything is changing’ lobby who are looking for new magic bullets and a cookbook formula to succeed in the corporate information/knowledge management world.

The key approaches and skills that define successful information management, now and in the next few years, amongst the 2011 Survey group of senior professionals, are:

1. Access to, and a good relationship with, senior executives, preferably at board level.
2. ‘Business strategy & culture fit’ – the ability to develop the information service in harmony with the company’s strategic objectives and organisational culture.
3. Developing a shrewd political instinct, having sensitive antennae amongst users and senior managers and being adaptive in consequence.
4. Financial nous – contributing to the increased profitability of the company, streamlining processes and services, reducing costs.
5. The ability to work globally with all that this implies – building alliances, harmonising & integrating services – whilst understanding different cultural and business practices which shape the environment.
6. Develop hard nosed negotiation skills with content vendors. And getting harder.
7. Responding to the growing emphasis on compliance work.
8. Managing capacity & workload, with flexibility and responsiveness.
9. Ensuring that your information/research/knowledge staff are embedded within business project and work teams.
10. Continuing to look dispassionately at alternative organisational and delivery models including outsourcing and off-shoring.
11. Embracing and handling internal ‘know-how’ as well as external data.
12. Enhancing knowledge management skills (note small rather than capitalised ‘KM’) – knowledge sharing, capturing tacit knowledge, using stories, applying appropriate technologies.
13. Use social media when appropriate. A number of respondents are somewhat sceptical of the business case for such deployment in terms of their information and research services.
14. More attention should be given to measuring the impact of the information services (including outsourcing/off-shoring), through ROI and other metrics.
15. New IT systems should be implemented in line with technological opportunities and trends but most of all to improve access to content and cost-effectiveness of services.
16. IS/KM staffing – the most important internal resource of all. Improve communications, provide development opportunities, undertake succession planning.
17. There’s no substitute for persistence and hard work.

1. These and other issues are developed much more fully in “Let’s save the company money” – the new orthodoxy. The Business Information Survey 2011. Business Information Review 28 (1), March 2011.

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Allan Foster (allan.foster@gmail.com) is an information industry consultant and writer, previously Director of Information Services at Keele University and a senior information manager at Manchester Business School, Lancashire Polytechnic, Sheffield Polytechnic and the British Institute of Management. He presented these findings at an SLA Europe session, Is your information service ‘Future Ready’?, in Manchester on 22^nd March 2011.

by Ethel M Salonen, Boston Chapter and SLA Past-President

What do I mean by GET INVOLVED? Involved in what? Get involved with your customer’s work program…get involved in their meetings…get involved by attending the meetings, programs, or conferences they attend…basically let them see your commitment to learning as much about their discipline as you can in order to provide the relevant products and services that will meet their needs.

How do I get involved?

• Work programs – Many information professionals are now embedded within their customer organizations. The MITRE Corporation has a group of 16 information professionals who are either physically located with their customers or are assigned to specific centers. They also have their work funded by these centers. Each of these individuals knows the issues and the problems that need solving and by using their research and analysis skills, are able to produce targeted products and services. They are considered as “business partners” or “subject matter experts.” What a terrific recognition of their efforts.
• Meetings – Attend customer meetings, programs or conferences, either in-person or via another communication medium. Customers will notice your attendance and as you contribute to the conversation, they will begin to see you as a business partner and as a valued member of the team.

How do I prove the ROI for this involvement?

Secure feedback from your customers and specifically request stories that demonstrate the value of your involvement. These stories and your reputation for getting involved with your customers work program will be enough to show that you are becoming Future Ready.

Ethel Salonen is the Department Head of Information Services at The MITRE Corporation.