by Deb Hunt, 2012 SLA President-Elect

I often hear my colleagues discuss how SLA or other professional associations need to do more for members. What I don’t hear so much is how we can do more for ourselves. There are opportunities to learn and expand our skillset and value through SLA, but we need to expend the effort and funds to take advantage of them. As a candidate for SLA President-Elect, I talked to members all over the world. Many are rightly concerned that jobs are going away and that we often feel like we are on a downward path. But, what I also hear are excuses:

• I don’t attend the annual conference, CE courses, local meetings, etc. because my company no longer pays my way;
• I’m unemployed and cannot afford to attend events;
• I don’t have time to develop new skills;
• I cannot do professional development while at work due to firewall issues.

My response is that we cannot afford NOT to attend events and continue learning. If we don’t invest in ourselves, who will? This past year, I invested a substantial sum of money to attend a virtual online course to earn a certification in enterprise content management, an area of work that I’ve moved into over the past few years. Did a client or employer require me to earn this certificate? No, but I recognized that it gave me more credibility with potential clients and was well worth the time, effort and money.

Over my many years in the information profession, I’ve seen us move into areas of work that didn’t even appear on the radar back when I was in graduate school. If we continue to be future ready and agile, we can expand into other careers where there are jobs, money and opportunity. As I’ve added services to my own business, Information Edge, beyond more traditional areas of research and value-added analysis and library design and automation, I’ve leapt off the edge into expanding areas of opportunity. I’ve moved into document and enterprise content management, building on my info pro skillset, always learning, always on the lookout for new opportunities. There is a whole world out there that needs our skills and expertise, but we must be willing to take the leap, ever-learning, ever investing in ourselves and branding what we do as a valuable asset to any organization.

Deb Hunt is Principal of Information Edge which empowers clients to find the information they need to do their work. Information Edge specializes in enterprise content management, knowledge services, professional research, and library design and automation.
Deb has been a member of SLA since 1986 and SLA’s 2012 President-Elect. She served on the SLA Board as a Director from 2008-2010 and is the creator and team leader of SLA’s 23 Things, for which she received the SLA Presidential Award. She is a past President of the San Francisco Bay Region Chapter and a member of the Silicon Valley chapter and the Library Management, KM, and IT divisions. She is an active member in the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) and served on its Board of Directors from 2001-2003.

by Anne Caputo, 2010 President, SLA

People of every generation think they live in a time of dramatic change–change far more revolutionary than any that came before. I try very hard not to be one of those who lament the loss of former times and say the past was better than the present. What I do say, however, is that we are living in a “new normal” state of affairs. Old assumptions and practices are passing away, and what we are left with has become a kind of replacement for what had been normal.

If we want to be Future Ready and thrive in the new normal we need to be mindful of four things:

First, a roadmap is required. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland and many other books of whimsy said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” We don’t want to travel by just any road, but by the best-informed, best-prepared route. I would suggest we look to the Alignment Project and the emerging Future Ready Toolkit, which will offer elements to create our roadmap. The toolkit will provide resume templates and sample cover letters, brand-building suggestions and examples, communication tools, descriptions of best practices, and information about skills we can use to transition to other jobs.

Second, fundamental values matter. Our core competencies of selecting and acquiring the best and most appropriate content, organizing and describing content in ways that make it useful and findable, assisting in choosing the best sources, and teaching others to use our tools have never been more needed and more valued. We need to describe these skills in ways our clients can understand and continually adapt them to meet the needs at hand.

Third, follow the money. By this I mean we must believe in the value we provide, measure and articulate that value in meaningful ways, and create sustainable programs, organizations and services that fit the new normal. We are not, as a profession, skilled at measuring and articulating our return on investment, but the Alignment Toolkit will provide us with suggestions and examples for measuring and demonstrating value within our organizations.

Finally, action trumps inaction. Will Rogers, the American humorist, once said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Holding back and waiting for someone else to take the initiative is not a good strategy at a time when the new normal is being invented. Take action to ensure you, your function, your skills, and your fundamental competencies become part of the new normal.

We must move away from old models that do not work while adopting new models that take advantage of our skills. Changes in information delivery, storage, organization, and acquisition beg for a new normal. We must become the centerpiece in making the new normal a success.

Anne Caputo is the Executive Director of Dow Jones Learning & Information Professional Programs. Additionally she is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, College of Library and Information Services. She was the 2010 President of SLA and is a history graduate of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Ms Caputo holds advanced degrees in architectural history from the University of Oregon and in library and information science from San Jose State University.

by Julie Bolding, Minnesota Chapter, Transportation Division

The South Dakota Department of Transportation first hired me as a temporary librarian to catalog its technical library collection. When that job was done, I moved on to a permanent management analyst position, where I wrote, edited and organized policy documents. I occasionally wrote and edited our newsletter and press releases as well. Learning how to use the industry standard program for desktop publishing, Adobe InDesign, was a great career help. I started by writing and designing an organizational “fact book” and moved on to create the agency’s first public annual report in decades.

Inexpensive continuing education in my rural location is difficult to obtain. A big help in learning new software programs has been online Ed 2 Go classes offered through my local university extension. I took the Adobe InDesign and Adobe Dreamweaver courses. Courses are part time, six weeks long and are non-college credit (groovy certificate suitable for framing). The instructors were experts in their fields and often published. Interaction with other students and the teacher was through an electronic bulletin board.

I can’t recommend these enough for librarians wishing to learn to program computers or learn a specific software program.  The courses are well organized, teaching quality is high, and the price is modest, just $84. If you’re looking to add skills to be future ready, this is one way to go. You can check out the Ed 2 Go course catalog at: www.ed2go.com.

Julie Bolding joined the Special Libraries Association News Division while at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1992-1994. She now is a member of the Transportation Division. In her off time in the spring and summer, she manages the Capital City Farmers Market in Pierre, South Dakota. In the winter, she drives through the barren expanses of South Dakota, North Dakota and southwestern Minnesota to her son’s high school hockey games.

This week’s posts come from truly gifted professionals of the SLA North Carolina chapter. While each representative has made an effort to keep their topics inline with the central theme of SLA Future Ready 365 blog, you will notice that each post provides a unique perspective and is intended to help a variety of readers that visit the blog. For more information about our members and the North Carolina chapter, be sure to visit ncarolina.sla.org.

The future ready librarian must possess soft skills of marketing and salesmanship as well as the technical knowledge to perform day-to-day duties. In the new normal economy, those who do not provide value that the employers understand will find their employment in peril. Become the best marketer of your skills and value you can be! Here are a few suggestions to survive and be future ready!

• Know your product–You! Know your skills and how an organization can benefit from having you as an asset. Know the size, type, organization, and culture in which you wish to work and market to those employers.
• Demonstrate value–In order to stay employed, you have to understand what the employer values and how to present that information in an understandable way. This is trickier than it sounds. I happen to know of one organization where the information professionals were not allowed to talk to management!
• Hone your skills–Continue your education and tailor the learning to your strengths and the needs of your present and future employers. Take advantage of any educational support because it is a benefit to you, but you must choose to take advantage of it. Just remember, your present and future competition may be improving their skills and acquiring new ones.
• In business, “Location, Location, Location” is a common saying. In the new normal economy, ”Network, Network, Network” should be your personal mantra. Go to conferences, have business cards ready, get involved in your local library groups. Most importantly, take the time to consider which of your contacts you should meet. Being helpful to other networkers pays dividends! Good luck!

Mason is a librarian/information professional from Raleigh, NC. He graduated from Florida State University’s online program with an M.S. in Library and Information Science in 2008. He worked at Strayer University and The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences. Currently he is the Career Chair for the North Carolina Chapter of the Special Libraries Association where he is part of the resume review service development team and acts as a mentor and resume reviewer for new information professionals.

by Cynthia Berglez, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Legal Division

From California’s earliest days of physical and economic upheaval, we Californians have tended to be a little more comfortable with change than citizens of less volatile states. And there is no word that better describes the world today than change.

When I began thinking about this post the economy seemed to be improving, but today the Dow is down again, and who knows what it will be when this is published. How can we be ready for the next curve? Look forward, far forward, where the path is clearer. The terrain seems flatter when seen from a distance. See where you’d like to be in ten years, then pull back to where you are now and plan for it.

Business schools used to teach business planning for 5, 10 or 15 years. But for the past 10 years or so, organizations have been saying, “we can’t plan, it’s hard enough to just hang on for the ride.” Maybe they have forgotten the value of planning. A good plan will help a business change with the times, and it will work just as well for an individual, even a librarian. If you plan what you can but don’t carve it in stone, you can be ready for change. But try to keep that distant focus.

Why make a plan?

• It forces you to take a hard look at your current skills. This is good news. You can always add new skills, which helps your brain to stay active too.
• A plan will show you how much money and time you will need to get where you want to go.
• A plan gives focus and direction, relieving stress, streamlining your actions and eliminating distractions.
• Planning compels you to do your homework on market forces and the business environment. This will keep your skills current, and make you aware of changes as soon as possible.

Now, take the first step. You’re a librarian, which means that while you might not know everything, you know how to find it. Find a plan to take you into the next 10 years. There are loads of business and marketing plans on the Internet. We have relevant books in the libraries to which we belong. I just now looked for business plans and our friend Google said “about 88,500,000 results.” I’m sure there must be one you can use.

Think of your career as a business–YOUR business. Network and build your professional support group, among and beyond your librarian colleagues, and develop best practices for your future. I know you’re busy; you have important things to do. Who is going to invest in your career? You are!

References

Debaise, Colleen. “Why you need a business plan,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 28, 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125391138155241963.html

Wikipedia “Business Plan” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plan

Cynthia received her MSLIS fairly recently from San Jose State University, after spending the previous 12 years using her MBA in International Transportation. She was looking for something more stable. Flexibility and marketing her skills is something that she has learned by necessity. She enjoys helping others to find a comfortable path in the changing world.  She is currently the President of the San Francisco Bay Region Chapter of SLA, and the West Coast Research Librarian for the law firm Ropes & Gray.

Today’s post focuses on Creating Richer Volunteer Experiences to Develop In-Demand Skills. From the new vision posted to Future Ready 365:

“A fulfilled association-vision will depend heavily upon SLA’s volunteer-force—the network that gives the association its strength and relevance. What better incentive to become active in the association than the fact that it will benefit your career down the road? New skills picked up as volunteers in our chapters and divisions may just be the stepping stones to a promotion or achievement at work. Added focus will be placed on creating richer volunteer experiences in the areas of web development (search engine optimization, plug-in development and research), marketing (developing a marketing plan for local events and programs), program management (overseeing budgets, fundraising with local vendor communities), and more. SLA’s volunteers will be powerfully well-rounded in the years to come.“

According to SLA.org, there are a number of existing volunteer opportunities, including:

• Alignment Ambassadors;
• Archivist;
• Bulletin Editors;
• Chapter Presidents & Presidents-Elect;
• Committee Chairs;
• Consultation Chairs;
• Discussion List Owners;
• Division Chairs & Chairs-Elect;
• Ethics Ambassadors;
• Fundraising Chairs;
• Government Relations Chairs;
• Membership Chairs;
• Professional Development Chairs;
• Public Relations Chairs;
• Treasurers; and
• Webmasters.

What I’m hoping to accomplish with today’s post is to hear from you about what volunteer experiences SLA could create, repurpose, or nurture that are closely aligned to in-demand skills in today’s workplace. Using the comments below let’s start a dialog about what those skills might be or what experiences we might create together.

I’ve thought of four to kick things off:

1. Community Managers: working to engage, grow and manage SLA’s online communities
2. Plugin Developer: working to customize and develop plugins for WordPress, the main publishing platform for SLA unit websites
3. Search Engine Optimization Manager: working to improve the visibility of a unit’s website through “organic” search results
4. Knowledge Managers: working to influence SLA’s culture toward improved knowledge sharing, reuse, learning, collaboration and innovation, plus owning the unit’s presence on wiki.sla.org.

Some of you may say, “But we have those roles Daniel. They’re covered by such-and-such position.” Great! Let’s hear about that too. Perhaps it’s time to refresh the roles and responsibilities for those positions and figure out a way to cascade them through the organization. This is about a dialog, so what say you all?

(I wouldn’t be a good librarian unless I included a list of resources!)

LEADERSHIP RESOURCES
(Most are members only so get out your id/password)

• SLA’s Leadership Center
• Why Seek a Leadership Position in SLA?
• Chapter Idea Bank
• Division Idea Bank
• Model Chapter Governing Document
• Model Division Governing Document
• Recommended Practices – Chapters
• Recommended Practices – Divisions
• SLA Leadership Code of Responsibility

Today’s host:

Daniel P. Lee, MLIS.
SLA Director, 2009-2011
KPMG International, Toronto, Ontario.

Network:
LinkedIn
Twitter

by Clara Cabrera, New York Chapter, Leadership & Management Division

So how does someone starting her second career and new to the library profession get to the best seat in the house of the SLA annual conference? This is how I got there along with some of my thoughts on being “Future Ready.” Prior to 2009, I was working for a small financial publishing company, having spent 2007-2009 working full time and attending graduate school to obtain my Master’s degree. Scheduling and finances being what they were for me, attending a library conference was difficult to swing. I did hear and read about friends and colleagues attending conferences and knew I was missing out on a great experience.

After being an active officer of the SLA student chapter at Pratt, I became actively involved in roles at SLA-NY. I attended local chapter events; I even organized a few events and meet many fellow information professionals along the way. I was nominated for the 2011 Rising Star award – an award that five new information professionals from across all the chapters receive. For the record, the best part of receiving this award is that I was nominated by people that I have worked alongside as a volunteer. None of the activities I have been a part of could have been successful without the parts played by so many others. The award provides entrance to the full SLA conference and an awards ceremony at the opening events of the conference, and the award winners each take part in a panel of fellow Rising Stars and newly inducted SLA Fellows.

The panel discussed the four pillars of Cindy Romaine’s concept of “Future Ready” – described on the Future Ready Blog as:

Collaboration to accelerate the availability of useful information
Adaptable skill set that anticipates and responds to the evolving marketplace
Alignment with the language and values of the community you serve
Community that connects stakeholders in mutually beneficial relationships

Working with Webb Shaw, Director of Editorial Resources of J.J. Keller – sponsor of the Rising Star Award – each of the Rising Stars were paired with a Fellow and we discussed how the elements of being “Future Ready” relate to our experiences in the profession. Leoma Dunn, of the Kentucky SLA chapter, and I paired up to discuss Collaboration.

Since we discussed how these pillars were part of our professional experience as new and veteran professionals, I’ll briefly mention the comments we made in discussing Collaboration. Since I think my biography reads of my collaboration in this field, it was fairly straightforward for me to discuss how collaboration played a part in my professional development. In my graduate years I found collaboration opportunities in both informal classmate study groups and student associations/groups. Collaboration is evident in my current work place

• in intra-departmental communication and reference tracking tools, such as email and SharePoint;
• in departments within the same branch of our corporate organizational structure (Technical Services, Knowledge Management, Content Management);
• with other firm departments, such as Business Development, Legal Talent recruitment, and Information Technology groups;
• with suppliers/vendors; and, of course,
• with the End User.

In the professional arena my collaboration experience has been in professional associations (SLA and others) and within informal meet-ups of professional people who share the same information professional space, but may differ in the job titles or firm in which we work. It also extends to the professional literature which I see as the “published format of collaboration” in which we follow and find out what other professionals are doing in the field (such as blog commenting or letters to the editors for print publications).

My panel partner Leoma discussed her own unique experience as President of the Kentucky Library Association, which includes public, school media, special, and academic librarians, and how the collaboration of these varied libraries help with each library’s own issues. Leoma works in the academic setting and has found that the nature of academic culture, where you have to present and work with others as part of your job, is more open, inclusive and naturally lends itself to collaboration.

Both Leoma and I referenced a great transcript (found on the CEO’s Corner page of SLA.org) of Janice LaChance’s presentation on collaboration at the ICAL conference in Delhi, India, in 2009. I recommend everyone read this speech. LaChance provides specific examples of collaboration at work in several U.S. library environments that really informed our understanding of collaboration at the larger multi-institutional level.

I enjoyed my participation in the panel on being “Future Ready”: meeting some of the other great new professional talent in the field, and the veteran knowledge workers that I had the honor of sharing the table with. Since the panel took place fairly early on in the course of the multi-day conference, I spent the bulk of my first time conference experience popping in and out of various sessions that piqued my interest, and vendor sponsored events that highlighted some upgrades to their products. Overall, I had a wonderful learning experience, and look forward to future conferences.

I could not have had these great experiences without SLA and J.J. Keller, the award sponsor of the 2011 Rising Star award. I owe a great thanks to SLA New York Chapter for nominating me for the Rising Star award and for also awarding me with a chapter scholarship to attend the SLA Conference. Thank you.

This article was was published in the Fall 2011 Newsletter of the New York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association.

Clara Cabrera is a Research and Reference Specialist for the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr. Clara received her MLIS from Pratt Institute in 2009. An active member of the SLA–New York chapter, she has previously held the Library School Liaison and Joblog Coordinator positions. Clara was awarded the 2011 Rising Star award by SLA.

by Pierina Parise, Director, Oregon Distance Education Program, Emporia State University, School of Library & Information Management (Oregon Chapter)

I am often asked about the qualities/characteristics that are essential for admission into our MLS program.  I usually reply with the list that appears on our Web site:

• Fluency in oral and written communication;
• An assertive personality, one that is sensitive and responsive to the needs of others;
• Emotional maturity and stability;
• An ability to articulate personal goals;
• Intellectual curiosity and flexibility necessary for creative problem solving and application of theory to practice;
• An appreciation for large and small group participation;
• Awareness of change, ambiguity and risk taking;
• A positive attitude toward utilization of technology; and
• Strong interest in contributing to SLIM, the information profession, and to society.

We still do think the above traits will help one be successful in our program, but I would like to turn this around and ask what qualities – as opposed to skills – will enable someone to be successful in our profession?

The reason I ask this question is that I think in our current economic environment – when an agency will often receive hundreds of highly (maybe overly) skilled applicants for a job opening – it is often certain attitudes and personality characteristics that will be the deciding points in the final selection. I also suspect that we do not openly acknowledge or perhaps even realize that we are basing our choice on traits that are so difficult to assess or quantify.

If you are on a search committee, what “qualities” do you look for in an applicant? And how would you try to ascertain these characteristics?

Pierina Parise has been the Director of the Oregon Distance Education Program for Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Management for the past twelve years.  Before that she was the Instruction Librarian and Head of Reference at Marylhurst University.  She received her MLS from the University of Hawaii and worked in Hawaii at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and was also branch head of a combined school and public library on the Big Island.

by Dr. Sandra Hirsh, Silicon Valley Chapter, Leadership & Management Division

Tomorrow’s information professionals, who are in graduate school today, need to be ready for the rapid changes facing our profession. When they complete their degrees, will they be prepared to enter a profession that’s evolving so quickly? I encourage students (and those who mentor them) to start thinking creatively and flexibly about future career opportunities as early as possible in their graduate program.

Today’s MLIS students need to think broadly about their skillset and how they can apply their knowledge to a wide range of career pathways. LIS professionals have valuable and unique skills that are in growing demand, yet many of today’s students don’t recognize the value of an MLIS degree. During their MLIS program, students should take the time to network with faculty members, practitioners, and industry leaders, who can inspire them to think more broadly about the range of career opportunities for tomorrow’s LIS professionals.

Students need to be strategic as they choose their courses, thinking about how the knowledge they gain in graduate school can help them pursue tomorrow’s jobs. They should take advantage of their program’s academic advising and career development tools, and read blogs about emerging trends for LIS jobs. As our field is quite broad, before selecting courses, students need to understand the relevance of specific electives to potential career pathways they may want to pursue. Students should also complete an internship, where they can make connections with practitioners, gain real-world experience, and see how their skills can be applied in a variety of professional settings.

I also think it’s critical for today’s MLIS students to be comfortable exploring and adapting to new technology, as technology will continue to play an important role in our profession. Students should seek out opportunities to use technology in their learning activities. For example, students should be comfortable using web conferencing, blogs, wikis, and social networking sites. They should make it a priority to explore how technology is impacting our profession so they emerge from graduate school ready to share their ideas with their employers.

Today’s MLIS students also need to develop a lifelong learning community, made up of a diverse group of colleagues, who are eager to collaborate and explore solutions to changing priorities. While still in school, students should take time to build their professional network. One way this can be accomplished is through participation in professional associations, including student chapters based at their university.

In the past, attending professional conferences has posed challenges because of difficulties getting time off work and affording travel expenses. However, many professional conferences are now offered virtually, opening up new opportunities to get involved in conference planning, presentations, and networking. For example, the upcoming Library 2.011 worldwide virtual conference in November will bring together a global audience to explore how the digital age is impacting the roles libraries and librarians play in how we learn and consume information. These types of conferences provide excellent venues for students to get involved in the professional community and learn about new trends in our field.

It’s an exciting time to be preparing tomorrow’s information professionals. I look forward to feedback from any of you who would like to engage in further dialogue about how MLIS programs can help today’s students be future ready.

Sandra Hirsh is Professor and Director of the School of Library and Information Science at San José State University. Prior to joining the School as Director, she worked in the Silicon Valley for more than a decade at major technology companies: Hewlett Packard and Microsoft. As an industry user experience researcher, leader, and manager, she contributed to R&D research projects and influenced the user experience of web, mobile, and TV consumer products resulting in 5 U.S. patents. She was previously an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, and has taught courses for San José State University and the University of Washington.

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 Laura Soto-Barra, Washington, DC Chapter, News Division

Three years ago, I attended a presentation at the Knight Digital Media Center; Prof. Ernest J. Wilson III, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California welcomed us, NPR leaders attending a seminar in his campus on planning our digital future. Dean Wilson’s main idea was to encourage us to prepare for the future by understanding the digital environment and transform ourselves to accept the disruption. It was then that I learned that that there is a capacity gap in e-leadership that needs to be closed. He said e-leaders are the innovators and early adopters that spread new technologies in their communities and organizations and that e-leaders are scarce. According to Dean Wilson, it is not easy to find the right kind of talent to provide e-leadership and he lists the competencies needed in this new environment as SAKE: Skills, Attitude, Knowledge and Experience.

Translating these competencies for the library field, I believe that there is enough talent among information professionals that makes us e-leaders in our organizations; I’m afraid that we have not been able to unleash that talent because we don’t want to fail or because we don’t have enough confidence in our skills. In this digital workplace there is space for failure. Do a search on “failure:” and you will see how much these days people are talking about it. “Fail fast,” they say and you will learn. Let’s take a look at SAKE.

For Future Ready, we need communications Skills that go beyond a reference transaction or a training session; we need to share ideas and concepts and listen and be able to change our behavior after capturing what we have heard. Librarians know how to do this but we need more flexibility in our concepts. How many times do we alter our procedures when a new librarian arrives in the team and suggests new ideas? We need political skills to navigate an organization to put words into action. This is what we have heard from Steve Abram for decades: work without a desk and walk and talk; Laurence Pruzak told us once in an SLA conference, that librarians engender trust and that we should take advantage of that talent by talking to people.

The Attitudes competence Dean Wilson describes is the description of a librarian: we are passionate, have empathy, our intellectual curiosity has no limits and we know about tenacity in face of opposition and failure; we are constantly asking for inclusion. But something difficult for us is to have high tolerance for ambiguity. Our training is based on rigid concepts and our practices demand consistent accuracy and rigor in applying rules and standards. Can we keep standards and accept ambiguity? We have to take risks and accept that all around us, the environment is inconsistent, contradictory, unstructured and unexpected.

Our professional training gives us Knowledge: we know theories and concepts and have a deep understanding of how to translate and migrate manual practices to digital workflows. We have adopted technologies for decades but now everyone searches, tags content and creates metadata. Go beyond the comfortable and understand web development. Continue traveling as a hobby and participate in multicultural networks that allow you to know people different than you. Cultivate networks outside your library world and apply the new knowledge in your library.

Finally Dean Wilson mentions Experience as a requirement to fill the capacity gap; this experience is obtained by working in different environments, organizations and settings. We should not apply ourselves the label: “academic,” “legal,” “public,” “special”; we are information professionals whose training is transferable. Experience is obtained by taking risks, by moving to work in different cities and different organizations.

If you are a library manager you have tools to prepare your staff to be Future Ready. Prepare budgets that allow travel so that your staff go to conferences and get training; sacrifice collections or furniture for your staff’s training; be creative, inclusive and transparent by designing meaningful jobs that reflect your team’s skills and give them autonomy to modify your practices. Predicate and advocate for SAKE and read John Berry’s article who recommends seeking out the new librarians. That column impressed me and I understood that the new librarians are better prepared than me to close the capacity gaps in e-leadership in the very near future.

LS-B is NPR’s Senior Librarian. She is a Chilean-Canadian-American librarian who has worked in many library settings. She has first hand experience in that information science skills are transferable and highly valuable, that libraries are libraries are libraries, and that you have to re-locate to find the best jobs. Her last two jobs have been in newspapers in Jacksonville, Florida and in Syracuse, New York; in both newsrooms –as well as at NPR–she worked with highly competent and smart librarians, obtained strong management support, job satisfaction and professional rewards.