Reposted with Permission from SLA Europe

by Sara Batts, Europe Chapter, Business & Finance, Legal, Leadership & Management Divisions

For the second year, SLA Conference brought its new Fellows and Rising Stars together for a round table session. This year’s theme was the four ‘pillars’ of Future Ready: community, collaboration, alignment and adaptable skills. Each pair of Star & Fellow took one topic, and presented their thoughts and perspectives. Webb Shaw from JJ Keller, sponsors of the Rising Star award ably chaired the session.

Kate and Sara from SLA Europe talked about Community. A few of the questions we answered about the value of community were:

• Do you have an “expert community?”
• What method did you use to build it?
• What about social media?
• What are the goals of your most important professional community?
• Have you taken part in a mentoring program, either as a mentor or “mentee”? How has that helped you build community?

It was a fun meeting to take part in. The preparation calls were also interesting, to see the group come together and get a sense of the way the session would pan out. It was particularly nice to get a laugh for one of Sara’s points, and to see a comment being retweeted across the conference, albeit slightly tongue in cheek from some. Other pairings addressed these questions below: what answers would you give, and how would they help you become Future Ready?

Adaptable skills
What are examples of non-tech skills that need to be adaptable?
How do you position yourself and your organization for adaptability?
What do you think is the next adaptation you’ll need to make?

Alignment
How have you gotten to know your users?
What’s an example of how you deliver information in a way you know to be user-friendly?
Have you identified your organization’s short- and long-term goals? How did you go about it?

Collaboration
How do you coordinate with other dept’s to meet goals of your organization?
What is an example of how you use communication and networking with outside groups to build your knowledge base and/or keep it current?

Photos (c) The Photo Group 2011 – All rights reserved

Sara Batts is currently SLA Europe President. She has recently taken on the role Library Services Co-ordinator in the London office of an international law firm. An SLA member since 2009, Sara was one of this year’s Rising Stars.

by Bethan Ruddock, Europe Chapter, Business & Finance, Leadership & Management Divisions

Reposted with permission from SLA Europe blog

SLA Europe board member Bethan Ruddock spoke on a panel on Alternative Uses of the Library Degree at SLA 2011. Here, she shares her thoughts on what it was like to be part of the panel, and what she learned from the experience.

Back in 2010, Dee Magnoni contacted me to ask if I knew someone from SLA Europe who’d be willing to take part in this LMD/Taxonomy panel.  The person specification?  New professional, based outside US/Canada, working in a non-traditional environment.  I put my hand so far in the air that my feet nearly left the ground – but, in the interests of fairness, we decided to open the chance up to SLA Europe members.  When no-one else stepped forward (to my secret delight), I was in.

Not only was I pleased to have the chance to be speaking at all, and wear the coveted ‘speaker’ ribbon, I was also eager to talk about my work at Mimas.  It’s not something I get to talk about very often, as most of my writing and speaking is focussed on wider professional issues, but it’s profoundly important to me – and I really do love my job!

Fast-forward to 2011, and find me preparing for conference in a fairly desultory fashion, with no real idea what I’m going to do for the panel.  Fortunately, moderator Ruth Wolfish had it all under control – she gave us a set of questions of which we could answer all or some, set out the running order, requested a slidedeck and an introduction, and encouraged us to share our planned slides with the other panel members (Jean Fisher, George Plosker, and Kim Dority).  Ruth also did something rather sneaky, which I would recommend to all moderators: after telling us that we had 10 minutes max each, we found out the night before the panel that we actually had 15 minutes.  And yes, we all used them all – in fact, we finished pretty much exactly on time! Definitely a great way to make sure your speakers don’t run over.

Ruth also took us all out for dinner the night before the panel, which I found enormously useful! It was a fantastic opportunity to get to know the other panellists, to learn more about their views and ideas, and to connect with a really amazing bunch of information professionals – not to mention my chance to try Maggiano’s pound cake!

Ruth also asked us to get to the room early and circulate among the audience – chat to them, ask them why they were there, and what they were hoping to get from the session.  I found the thought of this rather terrifying, so decided to look out for people with first-timer ribbons as a) this gave me a great opening gambit and b) they were the only people in that room likely to be as nervous as I was…

I really enjoyed doing my panel slot.  Lots of speaking experience over the last year has helped to get me over the ‘nervous gibbering wreck’ stage, and I’m now starting to feel more comfortable in front of an audience.  The audience were great, too – they listened really well, and laughed in the right places!  I also found that it having spoken to some of the audience in advance did really help, by giving me a few extra familiar faces in the audience.  I’d suggest it as a tactic if you’re a bit nervous about speaking, especially if the alternative is to be stood self-consciously at the front waiting for the session to start.

Having some idea of what my fellow panellists were going to say was a huge boost too.  As we were all talking around the same questions, it’s not surprising that many of the same themes came out, but it was very reassuring to know that I wasn’t about to be flatly contradicted by the next speaker!

The questions Ruth asked us to address were:

• What is the type of individual, with what skills that are currently successful in your Library?
• What personality skills would you look for in an individual?
• How important are technical skills? What specific skills?
• In your opinion, going forward in the Library profession; what type of individual will succeed?
• In hindsight, what would you do differently in your career to succeed? What did you do that was the most beneficial?
• What trends do you see for the future? How will your type of Library change in the future?
• Name 3 things that you continue to do in order to succeed? (ie. public speaking, networking, classes, SLA ……?)
• Will Libraries exist in the future ? Public Libraries? Corporate Libraries?  How will databases or products change in the future?

We all had a slightly different take on these, and some of us (well, me) didn’t answer them all, but there was definitely some cohesion in the answers.  We all spoke about the need to be flexible, open to change, and willing to learn new skills.  The need to get involved in the profession outside your workplace was also identified as being key – unsurprising, given that the advice was coming from active SLA members.  Each panel member mentioned different technical skills, relative to our different environments, but it was clear that technical skills – or at least the willingness to acquire them! – was a must-have.  And the same message kept coming across:

You have the skills to do this!  You’re an information professional: you have learned how to learn.

Something which I don’t think was stated explicitly, but which came through very strongly, was that to work in a non-traditional/non-library environment you must have a keen sense of two things: adventure, and your own worth.  4 years ago I wouldn’t have said I had either.  Now I’m helping others to find theirs.  Whatever else librarianship may be, it’s certainly one heck of a ride.

Bethan Ruddock is an early-career professional, working as Content Development Officer for Library and Archival Services at Mimas, University of Manchester. She is Awards Chair and Early Career Co-Chair for SLA Europe, and Co-Chair of the LMD Marketing Section.  Bethan blogs at http://bethaninfoprof.wordpress.com/, tweets as @bethanar, and is currently editing a New Professional’s Toolkit (http://lisnewprofs.wordpress.com/), due for publication in 2012.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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