Info-entrepreneurs, represented by the Association of Independent Information Professionals, stand out as innovative, forward thinking, and client focused information professionals.  This series of posts delivers future ready solutions and strategies from current and past presidents of AIIP.  As industry thought leaders they have much to share about staying ahead of the curve and delivering cost effective solutions to clients worldwide.  In this insightful series of postings readers will learn how to create a job for life by listening for opportunity, watching for changes, stretching to acquire new skills, finding a balance, planning for the long term, and drawing on your strengths. — C.S.

by Cynthia Hetherington

When I started out in the information business, I was dubbed the Virtual Librarian (virtuallibrarian.com), mostly in part for my assistance to the law enforcement world and security sectors as the go-to source for research assistance and training. That was too many years ago to count, but I still hold the title and a now very stale Web site. As I write this 365 piece from an airport kiosk, I realize that EVERYTHING has changed and NOTHING has changed. I’m still on the road 200+ days a year training in the security industry, and I am a Private Investigator myself as well. However, the material and resources have changed significantly.

Now I am teaching social network investigations and reminding the audience of the oft-missed deep and invisible Web, which is valuable in most criminal and civil cases.

That said, how I teach hasn’t changed. Informing my clients and attendees is done the same way today that it was 15 years ago. I also have been publishing a newsletter for the past 10 years, which has been profitable for at least the last four!

Education and publishing are two things every librarian should embrace and consider as resources to not only spread their name, but to also validate their resourcefulness in their community. The reasoning comes down to diversity. If the only thing you do is sit behind a reference desk answering questions, you’ll never grow professionally. The same chair you sat in as a new librarian will be the same one you leave when you retire.

In our dreadful economy, it is absolutely paramount that the extra skills you can nurture, develop, and sell yourself on will be considered assets to your organization.

Granted, you do not need to be offering full-day seminars in front of thousands of people, but small classes, topic-specific presentations, and articles on the same subject are a great start.

Within AIIP, I am always drawing out of our membership, “what makes you special?” We can all do research, manage archives, and understand information, so what makes you stand out amongst the rest of us? Everyone I’ve asked this question of has since written articles for our Connections journal, has further focused their business marketing, and has seriously considered going more toward a niche and less toward the broad spectrum of information scientist. They are all budding successes who can speak intelligently on their unique skill set.

If you’re lost and aren’t sure what your focus needs to be, then it’s time to sit down and have a conversation to decide where you see yourself down the road. Draw out the map of how you plan on getting there. Don’t be afraid to look for a mentor, such as in AIIP’s mentoring program, or find a coach, as we have a few among our ranks. And, by all means, talk to those who have been out there for years and get the details of their war stories.

Once prepared, stick to your plan, follow your strategy, and always consider that there is a venue waiting to hear your voice and read your informational pearls of wisdom.

Cynthia Hetherington is the current president of the Association of Independent Information Professionals and has more than 17 years of experience in research, investigations and corporate intelligence. She is the founder of Hetherington Group, a consulting, publishing and training firm focusing on intelligence, security, and investigations. A widely-published author, Cynthia authored Business Background Investigations (2007) and the Manual to Online Public Records (2008). She is the publisher of Data2know.com: Internet & Online Intelligence Newsletter and has co-authored articles on steganography, computer forensics, Internet investigations, and other security-focused monographs. She is also recognized for providing corporate security officials, military intelligence units, and federal, state and local agencies with training on online intelligence practices.

Summary, recordings, and editing by Karen Huffman, Past Chair, SLA KM Division

Listen to what leading SLA KM members have to say in these short video recordings on the following KM topics:

KM Role Models: Introductions and Overviews of Roles (6:18 minutes)

Interviews: Patrick Lambe, Denise Chochrek, Dianna Wiggins, Ulla de Stricker, Richard Huffine, Nerida Hart, and Stephanie Jordan.

Description: Selection of ideas shared by knowledge management professionals about who they are and what they do (and love!).

KM Success Stories and Challenges (8:48 minutes)

Interviews: Ulla de Stricker, Mary Talley, Richard Huffine, Nerida Hart, Denise Chochrek, Patrick Lambe, and Dianna Wiggins.

Description: Seven leaders in KM from around the globe tell their success stories and challenges.

KM: Skills, Compentencies, and Experiences (6:14 minutes)

Interviews: Patrick Lambe, Denise Chochrek, Ulla de Stricker, Mary Talley, Richard Huffine, Nerida Hart, and Dianna Wiggins.

Description: What skills, competencies and experience do you think are important for your role as a knowledge professional? Learn what leaders in the field have to say.

URL: http://youtu.be/TlxcVR0c6Sk

Reposted with permission from The Strategic Librarian (http://strategiclibrarian.com)

by Nina Platt, Minnesota Chapter, Competitive Intelligence, Information Technology, Knowledge Management, Legal, and Leadership & Management Divisions

My summer has been filled with a new job, new industry, new co-workers, new terminology with an overload of acronyms, and knowledge management all the time. I’m going through a transition that has had plenty of surprises for me and more to come if I’m right.

As someone who has been a director in a public library, technical services librarian in an academic library, information specialist, cataloger, systems librarian, technical services manager, and director in law firm libraries, as well as a couple stints as a consultant, I ‘ve had plenty of opportunity to develop and use the knowledge and skills of a librarian. I love my career. It provides me with challenges and variety of work that few people would expect a librarian to experience.

So why would I set aside the library part of the work to take on a role where I will be working as a knowledge manager without any library duties? In fact, I’m part of the company’s talent development team. It’s probably because it is a challenge I haven’t tackled. I’ve worked in knowledge management during the last 25 years but I always had traditional and not so traditional library duties as well. Knowledge management is what I’ve always said I wanted to do. Why then, is the transition so difficult.

While many new librarians are coming into the profession expecting to do work that isn’t traditional, most of us who have been working as librarians find the change just a tad bit difficult. It’s what keeps us from moving forward beyond the boundaries of what we know and will probably be our undoing. At the same time, it is our future. We have a lot at stake here. It isn’t news that the library and our responsibilities as we know them are changing.

You, like me, have probably taken forays into the unknown by stepping outside your level of comfort while taking on new responsibilities. When we do that we start a transition from what we know and how we operate, to the future knowledge and skills we will gain. The change may be easy, but it’s the transition that may send us heading back to what was if we have the opportunity to do so.

When a change takes place, the transition that follows, according to change management expert, William Bridges**, are three phased:

… transition is very different from change. Change is situational: the reduction in the work force, the shift in the strategy, and the switch in reporting relationships are all “changes.” Transition, on the other hand, is a three phase psychological reorientation process that people go through when they are coming to terms with change. It begins with an ending—with people letting go of their old reality and their old identity. Unless people can make a real ending, they will be unable to make a successful beginning.

He then goes on to describe the next phase, which he calls the neutral zone:

This is a no-man’s land where people are (in Matthew Arnold’s graphic image) “Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be born.” The neutral zone is a time and a state of being in which the old behaviors and attitudes die out, and people go dormant for a while as they prepare to move out in a new direction.

Sounds terrifying, right? Despite the fear it brings, there is hope for a new beginning, which is the final phase:

Only after going through each of these first two phases of transition can people deal successfully with the third phase: beginning over again, with new energy, a new sense of purpose, a new outlook, and a new image of themselves.

While I’ve studied change management and have looked to Bridges as one of the great minds on change process in his focus on the transition instead of the change, when I started this new position, I still stumbled in my recognition of the transition I am in. It wasn’t until this week when I told someone else that I’m going through a transition, that I realized it myself.

I’m not telling my story because I think it is extraordinary. I tell it because I believe we are all going through a transition. We’ve been very focused on helping our users with change but what have we done for ourselves? In past posts, I’ve talked about doing what we need to do to stay relevant. If we want to be here to experience working with users, information, knowledge, and more in the future, we need to focus more on the transition we are going through rather than the change.

How do we make it through all this? We need start by saying goodbye to what we’ve known. This is where I am struggling – you may be struggling with it too. If Bridges is right, we won’t make it if we try to hang on to the past. If we do let go, the neutral zone in the next phase, will be a time when things just don’t seem right and we will probably want to go back to what we’ve known. If we manage to keep moving forward, we will experience times that make changes worth it. Bridges tells us that the neutral zone is a place where innovations and experiments are possible. When we get to our new beginning, we will arrive with new ideas, ready for the future.

Saying goodbye isn’t easy. The good news is, even if the changes we’re experiencing now and in the future seem troublesome, and the transition to the new beginning is fraught with frustration, we have a lot to look forward to. I say, let’s go for it!

** William Bridges, author of several books on change and transition including:

Kathy Coorsh, Toronto Chapter, Business & Finance, Information Technology, Knowledge Management and Leadership & Management Divisions

As a librarian who has undergone some significant changes over the past year or two, I thought I should share my experiences. Organizational changes brought my library under a new VP who asked all the “hard” questions about library services & facilities, and came to the conclusion, not completely unjustified, nor unexpected, that it was time for a change. We cut our print collection by 2/3, reduced the library footprint by probably more than that & created “archives” on a separate floor. However, I was assured repeatedly that there was still a role required for reduced library services in the organization and, more importantly, that he valued my skills and experience but felt that I could deploy them in other areas of our operations. So now in addition to providing library services, albeit quite curtailed, as you can imagine, I am also responsible for establishing and maintaining our social media presence and am involved in other areas which I had not been previously.

So, after some 20+ years it is quite a change, but, so far so good. I am enjoying most of the changes & new functions & learning a lot! While I do wish I had the luxury of providing the kind of library services I know would be beneficial & useful, the reality of the situation is that greater organizational needs exist elsewhere. I’m just grateful that my professional skills and all the continuing ed. courses, conferences & readings helped me keep stay ahead of the curve of new trends, innovations and technology that facilitated my move into this new area.

I should also point out that while our print collection was cut significantly we do still have an active and expanding digital collection. The organization is still committed to a reduced library.

Kathy (Katalin) Coorsh has been a practicing professional librarian for over 30 years. She started at Concordia University (Sir George Williams University) in Montreal as Public Services and Orientation Librarian for over 6 years then worked as librarian for non-profit organizations after moving to Toronto in 1980. She has been Chief Librarian with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business since 1984. She received her MLS from McGill University, Montreal and her BA from Sir George Williams University, Montreal.

Technical communicators face many of the same challenges that confront information professionals when it comes to staying Future Ready in a profession that changes constantly. We reached out to a group of prominent movers and shakers in the profession and asked how they manage their careers, and these are their stories.

by Kurt Stewart, Kuala Kangsar, Malaysia

In December 2010, I knew beyond any lingering doubts that I was ready for a change. My wife and I had just sold our business of 20 plus years, an English nursery school and language institute we had set up in the Atlantic seaboard town of Porto, Portugal. And now the future was staring me right in the eyes. At the tender age of 55, I was in that scary but exciting place where I could dare to ask: now what?

I grew up in Oakland, California, and went to high school outside Portland, Oregon. I’d spent most of my adult life working as a trainer and teacher, first in Paris (my glory years), then later, in Porto with my Portuguese wife (the “mature years”). Along the way, I’d put together a skill set that gave me a few options in the education field.

In other words, all along the way, I’d kept myself Future Ready. Looking back, it seems like I had a plan all along. At the time, some of those moves smacked of fear and desperation. I worked as a consultant in Paris helping companies create language training packages for their employees. I earned further qualifications in “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” (TEFL) by obtaining the Royal Society of Arts diploma, and later, I got a job teaching writing at a private university in Porto.

I also kept up some freelance writing for newspapers in the U.S. and a magazine in Paris. In 2005, I thought I’d add another odd-colored feather in my cap by becoming a certified professional coach. All of these skills had made me Future Ready, but back to a central question: now what? Was I really ready for the future?

At 55, I knew windows were closing fast in areas where some of my skills might still be required. I considered my experience in TEFL and began searching for teaching positions abroad. But not just anywhere–I wanted to realize a lifelong goal of mine–to live in Southeast Asia.

I patiently searched the web for positions in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and southern China, until one day, up popped The Perfect Job. WANTED: mentor/teacher/trainer in rural Malaysia; three-year project, sponsored by the Malaysian Ministry of Education, working with grammar school teachers of English to help them develop new teaching methods. Bingo!

So now, here we sit, while the blades of an overhead fan stir the hot, humid air of my little Malaysian terraced house located in a small town on the Sungai Perak. Every day, I drive through thick strips of verdant jungle, past coconut groves and rambutan trees, on my way to the five schools I oversee here. Everything is different, and everything is new.

You need to start by embracing change, but keep going. Go out and grab it. Plan for it, work for it, and stalk it like prey. Just think about what it is you really want from the rest of your time on this planet. Think long and hard if need be, because the sooner you can see it in your dreams, the sooner you can make it happen.

Kurt Stewart grew up in northern California and took his degree in Classical Languages at San Francisco State University. When he realized that there were few people he could speak dead languages with, he moved to Paris where he studied French. While there, he worked as a freelance writer for USA Today and wrote for Paris Passion Magazine. To help pad his income, he started teaching English in companies in France. He liked teaching so much that he obtained a diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and eventually started his own language training institute in Porto, Portugal. He became interested in coaching and mentoring, and in 2005 became a certified professional coach and member of the International Coach Federation. He started his own coaching business, and became a trainer for the International Coach Academy. He currently lives and works in Malaysia where he has the good fortune to apply his passion for teaching and coaching, training and mentoring English primary teachers in rural parts of the country.

Technical communicators face many of the same challenges that confront information professionals when it comes to staying Future Ready in a profession that changes constantly. We reached out to a group of prominent movers and shakers in the profession and asked how they manage their careers, and these are their stories.

by Rachel Houghton

Rachel Houghton is a senior information designer for Sage Business Solutions, a leading software supplier for the construction and real estate industry. She has parlayed her active volunteer activities with her professional organization to keep her career future ready.

My writing career has been a long, constant struggle to make myself future ready. I earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a writing career in mind, and I even dabbled in journalism by writing on the school paper. But I sensed early on that the jobs I was qualified for weren’t going to lead to a satisfying career, and I felt myself drawn to technology. Now, looking back on the last 15 years, I can see how one constant theme has dominated my quest to keep my career relevant — participation in a professional organization.

My first job entailed what we call a “lone writer.” Essentially, I was the entire writing department for a company that created computer chips. I wore a lot of hats there – editor, template designer, trainer, writer, and graphic artist – and I enjoyed those roles immensely. But other tasks – receptionist, scribe, and note-taker – weren’t really up to my professional standards. I tried to move laterally, but my resume wasn’t getting me any interviews. So I began to boost my participation with the local chapter of a professional organization devoted to technical writing. I moved rapidly up the ranks, and soon I won election as the president of the local chapter.

The role of president brought me new skills, including public speaking, managing budgets, directing others, and working with like-minded volunteers. I caught the attention of a few movers and shakers at the annual conference, and they recruited me to help with conference programs, websites, and more. I completed the assigned tasks on time, and suddenly one of my new friends convinced me to run for a position on the board. Along the way, I gained the confidence to start submitting proposals for sessions, and I have now participated as a presenter. I’ve gone from a wall-flower to behind the velvet rope, because I pushed myself to keep up and get ahead of the crowd on topics such as social networking. That professional participation has helped me at work lately, as I was named to a pair of committees the company formed to enhance its own online presence.

Getting involved as an energized volunteer has paid dividends for my career over and over. I like to think I’ve survived layoffs, landed that key interview, been named to coveted committees, and got selected for enviable assignments because I’ve worked so hard to make myself future ready. The specific required skills have come and gone over the years, but one thing never changes — your energy and passion for keeping up with your profession are valuable things. Anything you can do to prove you aren’t afraid of change on a personal or professional level is good, because it shows you think about being Future Ready all the time. Employers like that.

Rachel Houghton is a Senior Information Designer at Sage, a company that specializes in leading-edge construction productivity and real estate solutions. She has more than 14 years of technical communication experience. Rachel is the Secretary for the Society for Technical Communication (STC), past program chair of the STC Technical Communication Summit, and is actively involved in the STC Willamette Valley community and reviews books for the STC journal, Technical Communication. She enjoys photography and Photoshop. Find her on Twitter @rjhoughton.

by Anne Rogers, Minnesota Chapter, Food, Agriculture & Nutrition, Knowledge Management Divisions

The dictionary definition of a value proposition is “a clear statement of the tangible results a customer gets from using your products or services.”  We as information professionals can use value propositions to:

1. Develop a better understanding of our unique skills, expertise and capabilities;
2. Define and articulate how those skills, expertise and capabilities can deliver direct value to the organizations for which we work (have a clear value proposition).

I believe that, as a profession, we have a tendency to focus on the traditional and too frequently overlook or undervalue our most unique and transferable abilities. During a project to evaluate scientific reference service, I had a key client, a chemical engineer, tell me that one of the most valuable services we provided was to help him refine and express clearly the research/business problem he was trying to solve. We’d been thinking about reference interview skills as a means to an end, not a value added capability in itself. And guess what? The ability to work with individuals or teams to facilitate creation of a clear, actionable problem statement is a critical skill applicable in many areas. I’ve used my reference interview skills over when working with teams to create business project charters and in defining challenges for innovation idea campaigns (a ‘wisdom of the crowd’/collective intelligence activity). In a recent Future Ready 365 Blog post by Amy Maule,Extreme-Embedded-Librarian, she points out that employers are looking for adaptable people and she is “appreciated most for my adaptability, constantly inventing and re-inventing my job. The skills that make you a good librarian could help you to stand out elsewhere in your organization–you just need to reinvent your job in a way that lets you shine.”

Thinking about your skills, expertise and capabilities from a ‘value proposition’ approach can help you understand and communicate where you add value in your organization, as well as potentially help identify new opportunities where you can leverage your abilities.

Anne Rogers is Director, Research & Knowledge Services at Cargill, leading a team of business and technical information specialists providing information research and analysis services. She is also responsible for a global idea management service, as well as knowledge capture and sharing initiatives to support Cargill’s Research and Development organization.  Prior to joining Cargill, Anne spent twenty years at The Dow Chemical Company, where she held various positions in knowledge and information management.

Anne was born and raised in Nashville, Indiana, obtaining a B.S. in Chemistry from nearby Indiana University, Bloomington, followed by a Masters in Library Science with a specialization in Chemical Information, also from Indiana.

by Dru Frykberg, senior librarian for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Minnesota Chapter, Advertising & Marketing, Business & Finance, Government Information Divisions

Warnings of a possible new recession surfaced this month amidst unimpressive job growth, declining consumer spending and a tanking stock market. Meanwhile, I recently returned to work after a three-week layoff, the result of Minnesota’s government shutdown.

I really didn’t need more reasons to take this Future Ready stuff seriously – I was already a convert.

I made what I considered a smart move to librarianship in the mid-1990s – when the Internet was soaring and so was our economy. I left journalism for a career offering more regular hours, better pay (really), and plenty of job openings.

Today, I still believe library work was the right choice, especially when I see news jobs and organizations disappearing. In fact, a recent issue of my alumni magazine devoted itself to how journalists can better prepare for mid-career transitions.

Information professionals should be planning and preparing for career changes, too, whether that means adapting to new demands in our current jobs, making ourselves more indispensable within our organizations, or considering transitions to related and high-demand fields.

A U.S. Department of Labor tool, mySkills myFuture at www.myskillsmyfuture.org, aims to help by providing a bridge to new careers based on a job seeker’s work history.

mySkills myFuture is about to celebrate its first anniversary. The Obama administration encouraged its development to prevent a double-dip recession by helping those in low-demand or vanishing professions find new jobs.

Here’s how mySkills myFuture works: Enter your current or past job and you’re presented with occupations requiring comparable skills. Submit “librarian” and these matches with especially bright outlooks are suggested:

• Market research analysts
• Public relations specialists
• Personnel recruiters
• Training and development specialists
• Instructional coordinators
• Employment interviewers

From there, you can learn about the recommended careers, find job openings and discover how to prepare for these new opportunities.

I’m not saying we all should become market research analysts. But perhaps some of us can use mySkills myFuture, and similar resources, to get ideas for additional training to make ourselves more marketable.

I work with market research analysts and this information makes me want to pick their brains even more to learn how I can boost my analytical skills. Not only would this help me provide clients better results and insights, but it would increase my value within my organization and in the job market. In this climate of doing more with less, I might just keep my job by working as both an information professional and analyst.

We should also partner with these types of professionals within our workplaces to learn from them, tout our expertise and services, and together produce good work.

That’s what I try to do with my public relations colleagues. I provide research for our staff writers, and occasionally I research and write articles. But who knows, in the future my agency or the labor market might demand information professionals with public relations skills, and this ongoing experience will help keep me employed.

And let’s take the results from mySkills myFuture a step further and promote SLA to these professionals who have occupational skills and interests similar to our own.

Dru Frykberg, president-elect of SLA’s Minnesota Chapter, is a senior librarian for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. She has spent more than 15 years working in government, academic and public libraries. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and criminal justice, and a master’s in library science from Indiana University in Bloomington. Contact her at dru.frykberg@state.mn.us.

by Jeanne Miller, Michigan Chapter, Leadership & Management, Solo Librarians Divisions

I love the concept of Future Ready and applaud Cindy for coming up with that theme for her presidential year. I’ve been a librarian for a long time: my library school education pre-dated desktop computers and all that has followed.

I have lived through many iterations of feeling the need to be “future ready.” Each version has been a journey into a new aspect of my career, a new way to leverage the skills I developed in library school, a breath of fresh air in my workaday world. SLA helped me along the way. I went to sessions at SLA conferences, listening to people talk about gopher sites, the internet, and the world wide web – wondering if I really understood what those were and what they would mean for the way I did my work. When I attended a web design class in which the instructor discussed usability issues, I thought “Now here’s a no-brainer. Librarians have always thought about how our users will look for the information they want. This is not a new skill for us!”

But at this point in my life, future-ready also means retirement-ready. As much as I have loved my years as a librarian, I am ready to step into something else…something in the future. What will it be? How will I keep up? Will I still be information-savvy if I’m not in the workplace? How am I going to handle this version of future-ready?

Jeanne Miller received her AMLS in 1975 and has been providing information ever since. Throughout her career she has worked in special libraries in academic settings. Currently she serves as Director of Information Services and Publications for the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women. Jeanne is a past chair of Solo Division of SLA, former caucus convenor of the Women’s Issues Caucus (now dissolved) and has been an SLA member for over 20 years.

by Sharon Rivers, Oregon Chapter, Biomedical & Life Sciences Division

Portland is swimming with librarians. If you want to make a joke at a conference of librarians in the Pacific Northwest, just say that you have moved here to find a library job. Thatʼs what I did: I moved here fresh from Pittsburgh last February, was armed with my MLS from the University of Pittsburgh, showed up at the annual Online Northwest Conference and let people know that I was there to network and find a job. The laughs began. And theyʼve continued persistently since. Portland is a hip city and, letʼs face it, being a librarian is pretty darn hip. That is my educated hypothesis on why there is a high ratio of librarians to library jobs here.

This has led me to think outside of the box and turn my Masters degree into a hybrid skill — a skill that I can use to accentuate my basic knowledge of other fields. Here are some of the ways that I have found that I have value as a Library Science grad:

Be a sifter of information: We have all come to realize that the internet is a garbage dump of information. There are some jewels in there, but itʼs important to find a person who can find them. In interviews, I am sure to bring up the fact that in any situation of large amounts of information or data, I can be relied upon to find what is relevant.

Use my customer service skills: Working in a public library for six years has taught me how to be of service to a large array of people. Iʼve learned how to explain difficult procedures to a beginning learner; that many times a person needs to be led with a lot of questions to figure out exactly what they need; and that remembering a personʼs name goes a long way in making a good impression.

Use my passion for continuous education and life-long learning: A prospective employer wants to hear that you are willing to grow in your position. I believe a characteristic of all librarians is a thirst for knowledge. We are curious, ambitious, and intelligent. This all leads to us having the drive to continually be learning more. We have the drive to grow–employers need to hear that.

In my job search, one of the best pieces of advice that Iʼve been given is that I need to think outside of the box. Iʼm certain that I can apply my past experience and skills in ways that I havenʼt thought of yet. If I do this, I am going to be pleasantly surprised.

Sharon Rivers received her Masters Degree in Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 2005.  She is a recent transplant to Portland, Oregon and is currently seeking ways to become part of the network of librarians in Portland.