by Lorri Zipperer, Rio Grande Chapter, Leadership & Management Division

Learning from failure is a key element of the systems thinker.¹

As my colleague and SLA Board member Sara Tompson and I have touted, systems thinking sensibilities illustrate an opportunity for librarians and the organizations they serve². To build onto the element of learning from failure that Edmondson³, Shumaker⁴ and others have stated it is important for an organization to learn, I’d like to suggest a new special librarian: the failure librarian.

Organizations need to have a strategy in place to learn from their mistakes. Whether the mistakes are one at a time – as in health care – or affect a huge customer base (i.e. Netflix) the understanding of how information, evidence and knowledge can be brought to bear to understand what happened is critical. This approach looks at evidence to inform direction, identify risks, strategize new approaches, and gain from employee/participant experiences to enrich the decision making process. Who better to help with that then the special librarian, as:

• We understand networking.
• We understand the value of information and how to find it.
• We understand what evidence will be most applicable where, when and for whom.
• We understand our leadership and what makes them tick.
• We understand how biases can affect decision making which enables us to seek to counteract them with good information and evidence⁵.
• We understand the boundaries and silos in our organizations and how to navigate them successfully to connect knowledge workers to enable innovation and problem solving.
• We understand that both explicit and tacit knowledge are important for decision making and seek to find both types of knowledge and respect the conduit no matter where it may exist in the organizational hierarchy.
• We understand that blame-free exploration into what went wrong is the only way to move improvement forward.
• We understand that mental models can both have negative and positive effects and seek to reveal those when they affect decision making and action amongst our staff, our peers and our management.
• We understand that a commitment to generating evidence-based solutions will enable them to be sustainable, efficient and effective.
• We understand we too can play a part in failure and seek to improve our own processes and behaviors to counteract those factors.

Or at least we should.

Our future has within its sights the potential as a positive force in many industries if we deeply understand these things and are ready to recognize failure as an opportunity to partner, innovate, and excel.

1. . The Fifth Discipline. New York, NY: Random House; 1990.
2. . “Systems thinking: a new avenue for involvement and growth.” Information Outlook. (December 2006): 16-20. (http://www.sla.org/io/2006/12/) Find Articles has posted the article as well http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_12_10/ai_n27098382/
3. . Strategies for learning from failure. Harvard Business Review. April 2011;89:48-55. Available at: http://hbr.org/2011/04/strategies-for-learning-from-failure/ar/1
4. . ‘Brilliant Mistakes’: Finding Opportunity in Failures. Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2869)
5. . Before you make that big decision… Harvard Business Review. June 2011;89:50-60, 137 Available at: http://hbr.org/2011/06/the-big-idea-before-you-make-that-big-decision/ar/1

Many thanks to my colleagues in the Rio Grande chapter who had a spirited conversation on the Edmondson article that contributed to the thinking that helped to generate this post, and Sara Tompson for editing the draft.

Lorri Zipperer, MA is a cybrarian and the principal at Zipperer Project Management in Albuquerque, NM. Lorri has been in the information field for over two decades, over half of which have been focused on health care. She was a founding staff member of the National Patient Safety Foundation and currently works with clients to provide patient safety information, knowledge sharing, project management and strategic development guidance.  She was recognized with a 2005 Institute for Safe Medication Practices “Cheers” award for her work with librarians, libraries and their involvement in patient safety and her expertise was highlighted in the June 2009 Medical Library Association policy on the role of librarians in patient safety.  Ms. Zipperer contributed chapters on knowledge sharing work for medical librarians and systems thinking as a strategic development approach to core library management publications in early 2011.  She is currently editing two books for Gower Publications, UK on knowledge management (http://www.gowerpublishing.com/isbn/9781409438830) and knowledge evidence information sharing in patient safety (http://www.gowerpublishing.com/isbn/9781409438571).

By Sara Tompson (Southern California Chapter) with input from Lorri Zipperer (Rio Grande Chapter)

Librarians and Information Professionals are missing a unique opportunity to improve their libraries—to become future ready—and the organizations in which they work! A systems thinking perspective and some systems thinking tools can enable us to lend the value of our information expertise to problem-solving and process-improvement efforts.

“Systems thinking” is a way to view the world, including organizations, from a broad perspective that includes structures, patterns, and events, rather than simply the events. Systems thinking includes:

• Seeing the behavior and the interaction of the parts within the context of the whole
• Building collective thinking for sustained change (AKA being Future Ready!)
• Learning from failure
• Working to dismantle the effects of silo-based activity
• Understanding and respecting how humans can affect the system
• Solving problems in non-linear fashion.

Systems thinking, developed by Peter Senge at MIT and others, draws from engineering process analyses to apply a set of principles for understanding complex-interacting wholes. It is best used to address complex problems where solutions seem elusive as well as problems that reoccur in an organization, especially problems for which past fixes have failed.

Systems thinking can seem, and sometimes be, rather complex, particularly with the use of the discipline’s hallmark loop diagrams – see a library example below from one of Lorri’s and my SLA CE workshops.

On the other hand, basic concepts of systems and the cyclical nature of cycles, and the loop diagrams to represent them, have been grasped by first graders! Check out this video from Systems Thinking in Schools.

Systems thinking enables looking beyond the library – a view that is necessary for survival and success.  As SLA CEO Janice Lachance said in her column in the December 2009 issue of Information Outlook: “…people are not viewed as indispensable based on the function they perform but on the value [my emphasis] they deliver–specifically the clearly understood and essential contributions they make to the success of their organization.”

Employing systems thinking tools, librarians can utilize their time and strategic skills effectively while raising awareness of the importance of their work. Take a look at this “Habits of a Systems Thinker” handout from the Waters Foundation and take just a minute to contemplate how you could incorporate one or more of these habits at work. This could start you on the path of being one of we info pros who employs systems thinking to strategize innovative, sustainable solutions to long term, persistent problems in the workplaces, and thus moves more easily toward the future!

• Tompson and Zipperer recently published a chapter on systems thinking in ABC-Clio’s Best Practices in Corporate Libraries. Portions of the book can be read on Google Books.
• They will be teaching a day-long workshop on systems thinking as part of UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies Friday Forum series on November 4, 2011.
• Systems Thinking Perspective – SLA Biomedical & Life Sciences Division Project
• Zipperer L, Tompson S. “Systems thinking: a new avenue for involvement and growth.” Information Outlook. (December 2006):16-20.
  • Find Articles has posted the article as well.

Sara Tompson is a member of the SLA Board (2011-2013) and of the Southern California Chapter, and has held a number of offices in chapters and divisions.  She is the Head of Library Instruction & Orientation Services at the University of Southern California.  She has worked for years with SLA member Lorri Zipperer on systems thinking in libraries.  For more information on some of their work, please see the links at the bottom of this post.

by Jan Keiser, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Legal and Solo Librarians Divisions

I work in a small company as a solo resource manager, with the title of Senior Informationist. I have been applying excellent research skills to the company’s information needs for eight years.

In the context of my position I see the concept of the “outer brand” as a definition of myself; it’s who I am and the work I represent. We all have a brand–at work, at school, in society–a mark is left whenever we make a personal decision affecting others. The inner brand, however, only I can see and I’m responsible for it. Over the last few months, my inner brand has been suffering and I knew this would eventually affect my outer brand, so I needed to make some changes.

A parallel position for a market analyst was created at my company.  Enter “M,” a recent MBA grad from a local university, smart and ambitious, although young and inexperienced.  Since no clear direction was provided to the company about our positions, the “market research analyst” would receive an information request and turn it over to me (she had neither the skill nor the resources with which to respond). M assumed these requests came to her because that’s how the system worked – and then after I provided her with the research, she’d receive credit for the project–the work was assumed to be hers. This had been going on for months and I was completely jammed up doing the research while she was being invited to planning meetings. But I don’t think it was intentional – the company lacks clear communication. I’ve learned that you can’t always wait for someone else to jump in and save you.

I decided to sit down with M to see if she understood the difference between our roles. I pointed out that M didn’t have an opportunity to analyze our market or use her survey design skills, all the primary research skills etc. that she had studied in her MBA/Marketing program. I suggested this was an opportune time to demonstrate these skills since the company is making a strategy change. I explained that I’d gather the materials to help her analysis. M agreed this was a good idea.

In a series of planning meetings we finally decided to schedule joint capability presentations.  We will begin by clearing delineating our marketing research background. Then we’ll outline the company’s research needs and offer up solutions.

There has been a great deal of interest in this joint “road show.” In three days we will present to the entire Marketing and Sales departments. With customized examples of marketing and sales dilemmas, we’ll explain how to apply our independent expertise to provide solutions.  And, we’ll work together as a team – or a pair?

This struggle looks so simple on paper. I think everyone has experienced a similar problem. We don’t want to cause further friction so we say nothing – but then begin to feel anxiety and ill will (and that’s being polite!) towards the other party. I’m glad I spoke up – wish us luck.

*****

UPDATE

The presentation went very well. As I said, I have done this many times. I was more comfortable; I inject humor into my presentation and was thanked over and over for my efforts. Even my partner said, “Well. You shined.”

My partner also delivered interesting information, although she failed to do simple things, such as stand up during her presentation. She sounded bored and shrugged a lot, as if to say, “Well, whatever…”  I don’t know if feedback was provided or not to her or not. Since that meeting we have presented twice more and will present again next week. I have noticed she is enthusiastic and really seems to know her stuff. She still doesn’t stand up though, so that’s her style. I was lucky, working in a corporation years ago I was sent to “presentation school,” where you actually have to write a presentation and deliver it before your peers. You are taught how to handle latecomers, people who fall asleep or don’t listen and the entire performance is videotaped and then critiqued. It is excruciating.

So far, we are moving forward as a team. Lessons learned:

• Confront the issue honestly without taking it personally – swallow your paranoia
• Design some plan of attack to seriously alter the issue
• Have this plan complete before you open your mouth
• Rehearse as you would a presentation – you don’t really know how the other person will react
• If it doesn’t work, you have a documented effort to put forward to your boss, if necessary.

Jan Keiser has been providing business intelligence to clients for over twenty years.  She has held research positions in corporations such as Foote, Cone & Belding, Pacific Telesis Group, Telesis Healthcare Marketing Group, and SBC, Inc., doing everything from developing customized information products to managing architecture and content for corporate–wide websites. At one point she operated an independent marketing business in San Francisco.

Jan has a B.S. degree from the University of San Francisco in Organizational Behavior and a Master’s Degree from San Jose State University in Library and Information Services.  She will be joining a Graduate Program in Healthcare Informatics next year. Jan is an active participant in marketing and information industry associations, writing newsletters and mentoring newcomers.

by Sandy Malloy, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, News Division

David Meerman Scott, a marketing strategist whose work I see all the time, wrote a post on his WebInkNow blog, “Apple Is Not Different,” in which he opines that no product or company matters outside the context of the problems they solve for the user.  Says Scott, “What your buyers do care about are themselves and they care a great deal about solving their problems (and are always on the lookout for a company that can help them do so.)”

Substitute “patrons” or “customers” or “clients” or “users” for “buyers” in this statement and “librarian” for “company” and you have a situation that we librarians should take to heart.

Scott cites Apple as an example of a company whose products are considered cool.  But even the coolest products are only as good as the problems they solve.  Sleek design?  That solves the problem of “ho, hum, I have a computer on my desk”; in other words, boredom.  The “it-factor” of being a member of the Apple tribe?  That solves the problem of needing to feel a sense of community or belonging.  Lack of viruses?  Congratulations, you’ve saved the trouble of buying and maintaining a lot of external virus detection software.

Do you believe you should create a brand for yourself?  Remake your image?  Market your library?  SLA’s Alignment Project gives you tools to do all these things, and they are important, but mean nothing outside the context of understanding your clients and how you are going to solve their problems.

So, it’s not “my library.”  It’s YOUR library (you, my client) and I’m going to do my best to understand how you want to use it.  Do you want it on your desktop?  In your pocket?  Would a regular email newsletter help you do your job?  What about tweets of new articles that are available?  A spreadsheet of leads?  What can I do to help you get new business, or satisfy regulators, or help you look good to your boss?

Even the language barrier cited by SLA alignment research speaks to connecting with our clients.  When we use their language, we say that we understand the organization’s business or at least enough of it to be on their wavelength when it comes to solving problems for them.

As a group, we librarians or are a very service-oriented group.  But we can also be proprietary about what we know and the resources to which we have access.  In promoting ourselves and our libraries in terms of resources and our own knowledge, we are, in marketing-speak, touting features.  What we need to be touting are benefits.  To quote Mr. Scott once again, being aware of “what’s in it for me? [the client]“, we are “addressing real problems rather than reverse engineering a benefit based on the feature set. ”

Sandy Malloy is Senior Information Specialist at Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, the San Francisco-based distributor of press releases where she has worked for almost 22 years.  She received her MLS from the University of Southern California and has been an information broker, public librarian, academic librarian, medical librarian and sales representative (though not all at the same time.)

by Amy Degner

A few years ago I left Hoover’s to stay at home with my daughter. When I returned late last year to do some contract work, I was immediately struck by how “future ready” Hoover’s had become. It wasn’t that Hoover’s had suddenly started rolling out forward-thinking innovations; the company had achieved this virtually at its inception, featuring both free advertiser-supported and for-pay premium access to Hoover’s company information during the mid-90’s. But, when I reentered the workplace this time, the electricity in the air was different. Hoover’s had a renewed sense of commitment to its customers and an intense focus on sparking new ideas to make their jobs easier.

We’re all budding visionaries at heart. The key is finding the right time and place to brainstorm. Sometimes it starts in the shower. Other times it’s a rough sketch drawn on the back of a napkin. At Hoover’s we simply refer to it as the “Innovation Lab.”

Late in 2010, Hoover’s launched its first in-house innovation lab, designed to stimulate creative thinking within the context of industry trends, customer needs, and competitor offerings. The mission of the Innovation Lab is to think outside the box, generate project ideas, and use the latest technology to push Hoover’s into its next generation. The lab has a dedicated space and staff who works with internal and external folks representing customer interests. Often our customer-facing folks (sales or customer service) will bring a specific customer issue, either seeking a solution or with a suggestion in hand. The Innovation Lab staff then works with the appropriate product manager to determine how the inventive idea fits into the overall product strategy.

Hoover’s Innovation Lab also sponsors monthly innovation contests, encouraging employees from all departments to submit ideas; the winner then works with the IT staff to bring the concept to fruition.  The lab also hosts an active online ideas community and an internal Innovation Lunch Series.

So far, Hoover’s has completed three monthly innovation contests focusing on wide-ranging areas of our business, from helping our customers to making our internal processes more efficient.

For Hoover’s being “future ready” doesn’t necessarily mean providing the latest and greatest widget. It’s more about keeping our finger on the pulse of our customers—knowing not only what their needs and wants are today, but also anticipating what will be important to them tomorrow…and then focusing Hoover’s talent in that direction. The Innovation Lab is just one way that our teams bring our customers’ future visions to life.

To my fellow librarians, what could you do to foster an “Innovation Lab” in your group, division, or company? How are you keeping a pulse on your customer’s needs today and anticipating their needs for tomorrow?

Amy is a stay-at-home Mom and Librarian in Austin, Texas. During her 10-year professional career, Amy has held a variety of roles including: Research Associate, Librarian, Market Researcher, Competitive Intelligence Analyst, Project Manager, Product Marketing Manager and Consultant. Amy enjoys a challenge and variety in her work (see previous sentence) and dreams of becoming a Children’s Librarian in the future.

by David Meerman Scott

A fascinating convergence is upon us right now bringing a perfect opportunity for open-minded information professionals.

In the world of marketing and public relations, scale and media are no longer the deciding factors. The world works in real-time now. Speed and agility are an organization’s decisive competitive advantage.

The mantra of the day is: communicate quickly. In real-time.

There is an opportunity for information professionals to make the connection between real-time information and the opportunities and threats to an enterprise as a result. This requires agility. The marketing and PR people need your help because they don’t have the skills to interpret data in real-time like a bond-trader.

Sadly, many corporate libraries have reduced or eliminated their staff and that means  talented researchers and information professionals have been laid off. I’ve had a chance to speak with various information professionals recently and many are downcast about career prospects.

At the same time, many organizations — corporations, nonprofits, government agencies, and educational institutions — finally understand the value of creating interesting information online that serves to educate and inform consumers. People in companies now realize web marketing success comes from creating content-rich web sites, videos, podcasts, photos, charts, ebooks, white papers and other valuable content.

Companies I speak with are trying to figure out who will create the content that they need for their online initiatives. Marketers, executives, and entrepreneurs say things like: “David, I need help. If I knew how to create great content, I’d already be doing it.”

At every speech I deliver I say to corporations one of the best ways to create great Web content is to actually hire a journalist or information professional, either full- or part-time, to help identify opportunities (and threats) and actually create information that will serve as what I call “brand journalism.” Journalists and information professionals are great at understanding an audience, researching, and creating content that buyers want to consume—it’s the bread and butter of their skill set.

What this convergence means to you, a smart journalist or information professional:

You went to graduate school to learn how to research, organize and access information. Yes, the employers who traditionally hired your skills are shrinking fast. But there is an entirely new world out there for you to consider: marketing departments and public relations departments. Please keep an open mind about this.

I’m talking about creating content for a corporation, government agency, nonprofit, or educational institution. You’ve probably not seriously considered that there are potential employers outside of traditional library and information centers.

Yes, there are new potential employers. And they need you and your skills. Now.

You’ve learned that you need to collect information on all sides of a story. You wonder how can you be balanced if you work for the “dark side.” I get that. But if you realize that your skills are in demand right now, you’ve got a new and fascinating opportunity.

You don’t need to compromise your integrity. You still provide authoritative research and access to content. You still practice your craft. You still have followers who care about what you do. You still change people’s lives.

The idea of using your research skills should be to educate and inform, not to overtly sell products. While some of you would rather wait tables than work for “the man,” others of you will find the opportunity refreshing.

It may even make you more marketable for traditional gigs with information hungry enterprises, as long as you are dedicated to providing quality content while pioneering this new way of using your skills.

If I had my marketing dream team, I’d fire the marketing staff and hire journalists and information professionals. I can’t emphasize this enough: you have a role in real-time marketing.

David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker, and seminar leader. His book The New Rules of Marketing & PR opened people’s eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in more than 25 languages from Bulgarian to Vietnamese, New Rules is now a modern business classic.  A recovering VP of marketing for two publicly traded information companies, he was also Asia marketing director for Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the world’s largest newspaper and electronic information companies. David’s popular blog and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give him a singular perspective on how businesses are implementing new strategies to reach buyers.

Catch up with David at his blog WebInkNow or download his free ebook Real Time: How Marketing & PR at Speed Drives Measurable Success.

by Deb Schwarz, Southern California Chapter, IT & Legal Divisions

As a working information professional, a consultant, and an entrepreneur in the library space, I come across a lot of my colleagues and peers in a wide variety of jobs and industries during the course of my regular work schedule. The strong level of commitment to the work usually exhibited by most everyone I meet is striking, even when I find out that in reality many aren’t really happy with their current job situation.  That commitment level to the “work” is laudable, and of course entirely appropriate, but perhaps in thinking about Future Ready scenarios on a personal-career level, info-pros ought to reserve some of their energy towards committing to leveraging and repositioning themselves within the organization they serve.

I think many of us believe that sooner or later the print-bound library in many organizations, especially corporations and even law firms, will see its demise. Of course this transition has not reached its conclusion everywhere, but it probably will, and by how much is just a matter of degree.  Is this bad?  Well bibliophiles will have to get their fix elsewhere, but for the working information professional it could be liberating by bringing (or forcing!) opportunities to go forward into the organization, bringing your skills right along with you. Call it embedded or assimilation, but getting out of the physical library and installed as, say, a researcher supporting a business unit, or a knowledge manager handling proprietary work product, or managing content on SharePoint, or developing and refining taxonomies—well, all that sounds pretty exciting and challenging to me!

So how to get there? One way is use your information and reference skills and apply due diligence efforts to position yourself.  That’s all well and good you might say, but how? Every situation is different, of course, but a basic tenet is to understand the organization’s business strategy and study it to determine where there is a fit. For example, most organizations (particularly in this still recovering economy) are spending time and money on finding new customers or clients and retaining existing ones in order to stay competitive and grow. From an  information professional’s vantage point that could mean supporting marketing, business development, and competitive intelligence or being part of an internal strategy group.  Since the value of information in an information-overloaded, social media-blitzed world is golden, then doesn’t it follow that an information professional should have a participatory, if not a key role? A lot of analysts can’t do their jobs without having comprehensive, up-to-date, accurate information to analyze.  Who better to partner with than a knowledgable information guru (er…professional!)?

With the billions of dollars being spent on content it also makes sense to work with an organization’s procurement or purchasing department to support them as they go about negotiating contracts with vendors for subscriptions, site licenses, and other content. It would do your organization and its users of this information a great disservice to have such deals negotiated strictly by the bottom line and outside of the context of information users’ needs. Who knows this better than an information professional?

Are these jobs well-defined and easily found? Not always and not necessarily – although we at LAC often see many of these qualifications and requirements in various job descriptions.  And we have created a lot of these jobs through our consulting efforts and recommendations. Future ready may mean trail blazing.   Maybe getting out of the library but pitching your value, expertise and skills to the COO or the head of marketing is the trail you need to blaze. You may have to take an opportunity and turn it around as well as inside out in order to strategize how to go for it, but do go for it if you want to be a Future Ready information professional in this rapidly-transforming, information-trading environment.

LAC Group is a professional services firm specializing in information management, virtual research, recruiting and outsourcing (www.lac-group.com).  Deborah Schwarz received her MLS from the University of Toronto, and is the owner/founder of LAC Group, serving as its CEO.

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.

—————–—————–

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 Cynthia Eastman, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Engineering and Environmental & Resource Mgmt Divisions

We as individuals need to be future ready but so does our support structure, in other words, SLA. We talk about attracting members from outside our traditional venues but if they don’t see any division or caucus activity that is in their line of work how can we ask them to join? If we want to attract members from non-traditional fields, we need to identify those potential fields and think about what SLA should have in place to attract those people. One approach would be to identify say three fields where we think we can attract new members and then set up a new forum for those fields. Obviously these forums won’t be like divisions but they could grow into divisions over time. Perhaps they are just a few existing members getting together for discussion sessions at the annual meeting. Yes, we already have caucuses that do this but I suggest we do away with the formal caucus formation process for these forums. Perhaps it’s as simple as asking for a few volunteers to lead a discussion and then setting up a web page where discussion notes and other information can be posted.

Switching to the opposite direction, is it time to look at de-structuring some of our current divisions to help us attract and retain active volunteers? At every conference I hear stories about the difficulties some divisions have filling Board positions and supporting conference sessions. On top of that are the burn-out stories where someone steps up to be Division chair and then disappears from volunteer roles after their term ends (or even sooner). Can we come up with a “small division” option with fewer positions to worry about and a lower number of sessions to plan? Yes, I know that divisions aren’t required to fill all positions or to do the maximum number of sessions allowed. But many people are intimidated away before we get them to a point where they understand the option to wrestle things down to a manageable level.

The keynote speaker at this year’s Leadership Summit showed that “Opportunities to Gain Leadership Experience” is not one of the aspects of association membership that is rated high by non-volunteers. If we want to turn those folks into volunteers, we need to think about new options for engagement. Less structure and fewer procedural requirements might be one way to go.

Cynthia is Corporate Librarian at Kennedy Jenks Consultants, an environmental engineering firm in San Francisco. Prior to Kennedy Jenks, Cynthia was Director of Information Services as Keyser Marston Associates, a real estate consulting firm. She is program planner for the Engineering Division for the Philly and Chicago annual conferences and has served as Chair of the Environment and Resource Management Division.

By Gloria Miller, Military Libraries Division

I work in a cubicle. However, most of the people around me are not Librarians. This gives me opportunities to overhear conversations, ask questions, and join in whenever I think I can help. At first, the quizzical looks seem to say, “How can a Librarian help with this?” It doesn’t take long for them to realize the value of an Information Professional.

For me as well as my boss (also a cubicle Librarian), it has meant learning more than we ever expected to learn about Business Case Analysis, Excel, government contracting, SharePoint, and more. Each conversation becomes an opportunity to learn something else, and put it to use for the good of the organization as a whole. And every successful project becomes an advertisement for other teams to seek out the Library staff for input.

So, get out of your chair, leave your comfort zone, and stick your nose into hallway conversations. You’ll be surprised at where you may end up.

Gloria Miller is a Librarian at the Headquarters, U.S. Army Materiel Command, Redstone Arsenal (Huntsville), Alabama. She is currently the Chair-Elect of the Military Libraries Division.