This article originally ran in the September/October 2011 issue of Bio-IT World).

“Reevaluating the Role of the Research Librarian” http://www.bio-itworld.com/issues/2011/sept-oct/reevaluating-role-research-librarian.html

by Rya Ben-Shir (Illinois Chapter, Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Division) and Alexander Feng (Cincinnati Chapter, Competitive Intelligence and Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Divisions)

Life science companies’ decisions to reduce research librarians are “penny wise, pound foolish” – impacting the bottom line through inefficient research, longer cycle times, and more obstacles to FDA approval.
 
The Pharmaceutical & Health Technology (PHT) Division of SLA is pleased to announce the recent publication of a guest commentary in Bio-IT World (Sept-Oct 2011) written by Division members. The commentary reviews recent trends in eliminating research librarians and describes the negative impact to life sciences corporations, both as a result of the lack of the human resources and as a result of the increased dependence on free resources.   The impact of these resource changes is especially acute in life science companies, for whom getting faster FDA approval is critical, and for whom unanticipated surprises such as product deficiencies, unanticipated interactions, and FDA warning letters can negatively impact or cripple business.

The full text follows.
 
#########

If your image of a research librarian is the soft-spoken, bespectacled woman politely shushing you when you’re talking in the library, that outdated perception couldn’t be further from the truth. Research librarians are highly skilled data analysts and business experts playing key roles in driving company performance, particularly in life sciences organizations. They ensure the most talented project teams make the right choices, perform at their highest levels, and reach outcomes their companies are striving for.

And yet, many life science organizations—Pfizer and Genentech are just two recent examples—have cut back or eliminated their library research staff, believing the myth that everything is free on the Internet. Many more are experimenting with outsourcing research librarian services to India or China—producing unsatisfactory and low quality work.

Organizations that make these misguided “penny wise, pound foolish” decisions are failing to recognize the vital contributions that these important, skillful team members make in researching business intelligence, patent landscapes, safety signals, tracking competitors and much more.

One newly recruited scientist being introduced to his new employers’ research librarian stated: “When our research librarians were all eliminated, as many departments as could found a way to convert an open position to hang on to at least one of them for their own group. We became the haves and the have nots. A project creating and accessing the competitive landscape for a new compound we were considering in-licensing went from a couple of hours when done by a research librarian to weeks when I was left to do it…I would not work without a research library function again, if I could help it.”

Making the right decisions based on insightful analysis of the most relevant data can make a critical difference in companies whose futures rely on new product development. Adding an expert research librarian/information specialist to your “A-Team” dramatically increases your chance of success in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, where the project, product, and start-up failure rate is high.

A research librarian will ask the right questions—even the ones no one has thought to ask—and knows which databases and resources will yield the most objective and complete information to advance key projects, and place that information into context.

Research librarians bring out the best in the skills of others. They encourage the team to freely share information among themselves, and more importantly, test their ideas and hypotheses against the world of scientific and business information. The ability to draw on the expertise of others and perform detailed research improves your projects’ chances of success. Last but not least, a research librarian improves a company’s bottom line.

The Problem with Free

Of course, anyone can surf the Web’s limitless free information. But that takes time, which for most researchers is in short supply. A research librarian is able to select and expertly research the most authoritative, objective information sources. These are typically commercial databases and rarely easy to search proficiently. They can execute these complex searches in sophisticated databases, where the relevant information is extracted from “noisy” irrelevant content.

In the biopharma world, vast sums of money, perhaps even the company’s survival, depend on critical information research, information that has to be correct and complete, findings that must be placed in context, identifying the positions of your competitors and regulatory hurdles, and where new opportunities exist. The research librarian helps avoid unpleasant, untimely surprises, such as when the FDA spots a misstep early in a submission process and demands you return to stage one and start over.

Serving as both consultant and detective, often possessing a master’s degree in information and library sciences (from a program accredited by the American Library Association), research librarians are proactive, innovative, and inquisitive. A particularly valuable skill set is the reference interview, much like the physician’s history and physical, which enables research librarians to ascertain the real question behind the question. For example, if the original request is, “Tell me everything about disease X,” the research librarian figures that the real question is: “Under which circumstances could there be a false positive for the definitive lab test for disease X?” Looking ahead, the research librarian asks if any of those circumstances are relevant in the current situation. These actions ensure the targeted information is delivered efficiently and effectively.

In life sciences organizations, acquiring a competitive edge and bringing an innovative drug or technology to market demands overcoming obstacles and creating or recognizing opportunities. The role of an expert research librarian is easily overlooked, but he or she helps identify what is often unknown and helps the team establish a complete picture of the competitive and scientific landscape—from pipeline through to market.

If your organization is willing to subject all of your investment of time, funding, and hard work to the vagaries of risk and failure, then surfing through oceans of un-vetted information on the Internet is fine. But if you want to vastly improve your chances of success, whether it be identifying a lucrative research area or achieving regulatory approval, then it is time to urgently rethink your stale image of the trusted research librarian.

Written on behalf of the Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Division of the SLA.  Thanks to Andrew Clark, Praveena Raman, Bob Kowalski, Susan Zalenski and Margaret Basket for their contributions to this commentary.  For more information, visit http://bit.ly/my-a-team.

Alex Feng is the Chair-Elect of SLA’s Pharmaceutical & Health Technology Division and writes for the division blog at http://phtd.wordpress.com/.  You can contact him at 513-549-3364 or via email: ahf25du (at) gmail (dot) com.

Rya Ben-Shir was born in Montreal, Canada and received her MLS from McGill University with specialization in Medicine and Marketing Libraries. She has 20 years experience designing, building and growing new community teaching hospital libraries in Canada and the US, and 11+ years designing, building and growing a new virtual (clicks) and physical (bricks) global pharmaceutical library for a top 20 global pharma company.  In mid-2011 she embarked on an entrepreneurial consulting practice endeavor, Shir Solutions (www.shirsolutions.com), working with content creators, aggregators as well as pharma and biotech clients.

Ms. Ben-Shir has been awarded the John Cotton Dana Award for MacNeal Hospital’s Health Answers Service (1990), the Medical Library Association’s Hospital Librarian of the Year (1989), is at the Distinguised Level in the  Medical Library Association’s Academy of Health Information Professionals, and currently serves on the Dialog and Copyright Clearance Center Corporate User Advisory Boards.

By James King, Information Architect, NIH Library (Washington DC Chapter, Government Information Division)

Best Practices for Government Libraries is a collaborative document that is put out annually on a specific topic of interest to government libraries and includes content submitted by government librarians and community leaders with an interest in government libraries. The 2011 edition includes over 70 articles and other submissions provided by more than 60 contributors including librarians in government agencies, courts, and the military, as well as from professional association leaders, and more. Best Practices is edited by Marie Kaddell, Senior Information Professional Consultant; SLA DGI Chair.  If you did not write for this year’s Best Practices, Marie invites you to submit a guest post for the Government Info Pro marie.kaddell@lexisnexis.com.

The information in this article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the National Institutes of Health. Any mention of a product or company name is for clarification and does not constitute an endorsement by NIH or the NIH Library.

When Eugene Garfield envisioned the citation index in 1955, he wanted to improve information retrieval by showing relationships between articles based upon their citation and reference history. A potential side benefit of the index was to monitor the growth and structure of scientific knowledge, but neither the corpus of published data nor sufficient computing power was readily available to effectively do so.

This benefit is now within our grasp due primarily to the work of large-scale indexes like Thomson-Reuter’s Web of Science, Elsevier’s Scopus, and the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) PubMed. In addition, two factors have converged to create a strong need for bibliometrics. First, scientific knowledge has continued to grow and became more specialized, making it harder for a small group of experts to effectively review research proposals without relying on an objective measure, forcing an even greater reliance on computerized methodologies. Second, at the same time that science has become solidly global and collaborative in nature, the pools of research funding around the world have been shrinking. This has increased competition for scarce funds and put additional pressure on funding organizations to show the value of their research expenditures.

A recent large-scale example of how bibliometrics affected science was the 2005 Department of Defense (DOD) Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) review process, which required all DOD research groups to submit aggregated publication and citation counts for written articles that were used in research during a two-year period. These counts were then included in deliberations about which military bases and research labs to close, which to combine, and which to move. U.S. military libraries around the world scrambled to help their military labs respond to these critical data analyses, demonstrating how information professionals could play a role in defining and defending the value of the research organizations in which they serve.

I believe information professionals are in an ideal position to develop a set of valuable services that define and defend the organization’s value. To do this effectively, it requires an understanding of the scientific and business need of their organization, an agreement on the organization’s preferred measures of success, a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the various measures available (including the algorithms that underlie them), and a clear understanding of how the metrics are best applied.

EXAMPLES

An example of how libraries can utilize existing tools to create useful evaluative reports for stakeholders comes from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) Library. Library staff compiled the number of publications produced and the number of high-impact papers (from the top 50 percent to the top 0.01 percent) published by each WRAIR researcher, plus the number of citations of each researcher’s works. These measures were entered into WRAIR’s balanced scorecard, a strategic planning and management system that provides a framework of financial and performance-based measurements tied to the vision and strategy of the organization. By also comparing the output and average citation count of Army research publications on a discipline or topic, such as malaria vaccine or drug research, to the total output in the discipline, the library is also able to show the impact of its researchers on areas of interest to stakeholders.

Over the past several years, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has been working on another approach to creating useful metrics. By identifying and capturing the metadata of all journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, U.S. patents, and technical reports written by NRL researchers and engineers, they automatically create a number of useful reports. Examples of these reports include a bragging list of the 25 most frequently cited NRL papers of all time, the journals in which NRL papers are most often published, and—with some analysis by a third party—the patents that have cited NRL work. This effort came out of a mandate from the NRL director of research requiring all scientific promotion candidates to submit a publication list with citation counts generated by the research library.

A number of other U.S. government agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), have also pursued the creation of internal databases of all agency-produced materials. In a similar vein, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires that all publications resulting from NIH grant funding be deposited into NLM’s PubMed Central database. Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the former director of NIH, pushed for this mandate specifically so that NIH could have a tool to measure research productivity.

WHICH MEASURES?

In pursuing an effort like this, it is critical to know what to measure and which measures will be of value. The WRAIR example relied upon the institute’s balanced scorecard to tie metrics to the strategic plan, while the NRL tied its effort to a research mandate.

The Bernard Becker Medical Library at Washington University in St. Louis provides a great model for libraries to use to assess the impact of research. Though focused on biomedical research, it can easily be applied to any research setting. The model highlights five key areas to explore when measuring research impact:

• Research output – counting how many publications were made and tracking the various outputs;
• Knowledge transfer – determining if the research was referenced or reused, including counting the number of references to those publications;
• Clinical implementation – identifying whether the research was applied to practice (e.g., used in a patent or a medical protocol);
• Community benefit – assessing whether the research made a difference in efficiency, effectiveness, or quality of life where it was applied; and
• Policy enactment – evaluating the research’s impact on laws, policies, and regulations in the pertinent sphere of influence.

Some organizations, such as NIH, have also been fortunate enough to have the resources to work with index providers to create robust, customized views of their data. One NIH-hosted service that uses customized data is Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT), which is designed to support the extramural research community by providing per-year data on grants as well as disease portfolios. This service allows users to search a repository of intramural and extramural NIH-funded research projects from the past 25 years and access publications (since 1985) and patents resulting from NIH funding. Search results can include the research project number, project title, contact information for the principal investigator, name of the performing organization, fiscal year of funding, NIH administering and funding Institutes and Centers (IC), and the total fiscal year funding provided by each IC.

A second NIH-hosted service, the Electronic Scientific Portfolio Assistant (eSPA), helps the intramural community evaluate the outcomes (including outputs and impact) of NIH funding. It is primarily focused on helping review and analyze portfolios of research projects for program planning and evaluation. By combining research funding with publications, custom portfolios of research can be created to help program managers and administrators track and evaluate their research.

The NIH Library has recently engaged the RePORT and eSPA groups, as well as other groups across NIH, to encourage the addition of bibliometric measures and more researcher-focused reporting in their tools.

CHALLENGE/OPPORTUNITY

Dr. Garfield’s vision was to explore the relationships and networks of scientists so he turned to publications as what is still one of the richest sources of relationships through co-authorships, references, and citations. As a natural step in this evolution and personally one of the most intriguing development efforts to date in this area is a NIH-funded effort to develop a national network of scientists built upon the initial work of Cornell University. This effort, dubbed VIVO (vivoweb.org), is an open source semantic Web project being built by libraries and has the potential of changing the way researchers collaborate by enabling the discovery of research and scholarship across disciplines.

Well-placed information services and resources that specifically meet the needs of our community will continue to make the difference between success and failure, even life and death. However, as distribution costs in the digital world approach zero, we must be willing to rethink the traditional view of library as a place and the traditional services that have been offered. Will today’s information professionals be brave enough to critically evaluate the current slate of services to reduce what is no longer of value in order to free time for new services like the ones described? I believe that exploring new roles like the one described in this article has the potential of opening new doors in the organization and applying our expertise in new ways. If we as a profession are to continue to be relevant in this era, we need to be willing to take risks.

Note: The author wishes to thank Gali Halevi, account development manager for Elsevier, who provided tremendous support in the creation of this program and in the writing of this article.

James King is an information architect at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, working for the NIH Library in the Office of Research Services. He is the immediate past president of SLA’s Washington, D.C., Chapter and now serves as the chapter’s Webmaster and as convener of the association’s Information Futurist Caucus. He recently helped Gali Halevi of Elsevier to coordinate a one-day seminar, Impact and Productivity Measurements in a Changing Research Environment, at which speakers shared their perspectives on various research metrics. The presentations from the seminar, which was hosted by Elsevier, are available free online at http://rainingdesk.elsevier.com/bibliometrics2010?utm_source=ECU001&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&bid=PJFG62F:VLGVS1F.

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.

Today we, Future Ready 365 and On Firmer Ground, are posting the same piece to demonstrate the collaboration we both highly value. Both blogs strive to share proactive solutions and innovative ideas to illustrate how to keep information professionals vital, ready for the future and on firmer ground.

by Joan Thomas, Heart of America Chapter, Legal Division

Newsletters are an effective tool to communicate information to users while promoting the library’s value. How do you make a newsletter Future Ready? At Bryan Cave LLP, the library staff struggled to consistently produce office specific newsletters. It became increasingly more difficult to find the time and enthusiasm to create content for subsequent issues. We needed a streamlined collaboration that evenly distributed the work between several offices. We needed to connect with attorneys and staff at offices with no library staff presence. We also wanted to drive users to the library’s page on eCave2, the firm’s Intranet. Our challenge was to determine how we could join forces to collaborate on a firmwide e-newsletter to highlight new subscriptions and interesting legal news.

In early 2010, we formed a committee to organize the work flow, design the template, and determine how to connect the newsletter to the library’s page. We wanted news blurbs that were short bursts of information. We decided to publish the newsletter every 3 weeks. Each reference librarian and library manager is responsible for contributing articles on a rotating basis. The team for each issue consists of three librarians. One of the three librarians serves as the editor. We posted a schedule to eCave2. The schedule ensures that we share responsibility.

Committee members worked with Creative Services to design the template. We wanted the newsletter to look modern and to reflect the firm’s design aesthetic. We wanted the contents inside the body of the email (no more attached PDFs). Our library’s logo is included. The library staff voted to determine the favorite, which we continue to use today.

Finally, how should we connect the newsletter to the library’s page? A Future Ready newsletter should be connected to the library’s online presence. The firm’s Intranet operates on SharePoint. As the library staff experimented with SharePoint in 2009, they started adding news posts to a section of the library’s page which is very similar to an internal blog. This seemed like a natural place to post the articles. During each three week period, the designated authors create content to post to the blog which we named L&RS News. The editor then selects 4-6 articles to include in the newsletter which is distributed to the entire firm. The newsletter includes links back to L&RS News on the library’s page. We named the newsletter in the KNOW which is a natural extension of our Just Say KNOW branding.

Measuring success is an ongoing endeavor. We continue to receive positive comments which sometimes include reference requests. The newsletter increased the library’s profile in offices with no library presence. The library is doing a solid job broadcasting information to our users. Our next Future Ready task is to shift from broadcasting information to initiating conversations with users. What can we do besides face to face communication? We are exploring how to use social media tools to engage with attorneys and staff.

Joan serves as the Manager of Library and Research Services for Bryan Cave LLP’s Kansas City office. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kansas and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Missouri.  She can be found on twitter (@msjoanthomas).

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 David Cappoli, Southern California Chapter, Academic, Business & Finance, Information Technology, Leadership & Management Divisions

Even if I have just awoken from a long sleep; consumed a rich, dark chocolate bar followed by a Mountain Dew; and, had the din of my daughter’s anime videos assaulting my ears, when one of my cats melts on my lap in a curl of fur and legs, I am in a near perfect zone of comfort. Nothing can keep the warmth, soft fur, and purring, from combining to be a harmless but powerful narcotic lulling me into a contented state. At home and professionally, we all have our different comfort zones. And we generally wish to stay right where we are when we are feeling, well, nice and comfortable.

But professionally, while we all have comfort zones in which we prefer to work, we need to take on challenges that push at those boundaries of easy contentment. I am not advocating that we work in environments in which we are ill at ease. I am, though, promoting that we take chances when we might otherwise shy away from them because they represent the untried and unknown.  To be ready for the future, we need to drop that wariness and embrace a confidence that makes us willing to investigate options, broaden our skills, and constantly learn new approaches to solving problems. When asked to take on something new, yes, we can fret, but then we need to get beyond any dismay and start moving forward.

As librarians and information professionals, we have a strong service orientation that does not always bleed into a personal assurance when confronted with the untested. The inclination may be to say, “No, I’ve too much to handle at this time.”  Or, “That’s not my responsibility.” Whereas, we show our worth by responding, “I don’t know much about that, but let me do some exploring, and I’ll get back to you.” With this answer we’ve stated that we are not well-versed in the topic put to us, but we are more than willing to take up the challenge.

While we can search the literature and browse web sites in search of answers, we have our professional networks that can offer insight as to the best way to advance.  And we have SLA’s 23 Things, vast libraries at our disposal, webinars, continuing education opportunities, etc., all of which can make us better.

Moving out of our comfort zones not only enhances our own abilities, but our value as well.  And it is the only way to thrive in an ever-changing present and future.

David Cappoli is the digital resources librarian at the UCLA department of Information Studies. He is former president of the SLA Southern California chapter (2008) and was the chapter’s treasurer from 2004 – 2006. David was a member of the 2009 Centennial Commission of SLA, and a member of the 2009 Conference Planning Committee. Prior to coming to UCLA, he was a librarian at the LA Times, and was research database coordinator with Glasgow Polytechnic in Scotland.

Amy Affelt, Chair of SLA PR Advisory Council and SLA Alignment Ambassador, Illinois Chapter, Business & Finance and Leadership & Management Divisions

Being Future Ready certainly requires us be nimble and quick…and to maybe even jump over a candlestick.  In a corporate information environment, Future Ready really is, as SLA President Cindy Romaine has described, “an attitude–to be more adaptable and flexible.”  That nimbleness and quickness means that we need to respond to requestors’ needs with value-added information deliverables whenever and wherever they are needed, and although it can seem inconvenient, oftentimes this is outside the hours of the traditional workday.

We bring value when we address and fill stakeholders’ information gaps and pain points, and these gaps and pain points become more pronounced in emergent situations.  It may require additional staffing, staggered scheduling, or a willingness on the part of information professionals to answer urgent requests that are sent via Blackberry at times when we are “off the clock.”  But it is at those times, when we receive that “3 a.m. phone call” (hat tip Hillary Clinton), that the importance of having information professionals at the ready becomes most apparent.

It is a cliché that those who survive are not the smartest or fastest but those most adaptable to change, but in an era where budgets are slashed and every department is being scrutinized, it is imperative that information professionals adapt to changing work environments and changing stakeholder needs.  We need to be up for what will be the biggest challenge of our careers—the Challenge to Change.  We are at our most valuable when we bring stellar research skills to the exact moment of requestor need.  We need to meet that challenge by mapping out team staffing pathways to make that happen.

Amy Affelt is Director of Database Research at Compass Lexecon, where she creates information and knowledge deliverables for PhD economists who testify in litigation.  She is also a writer and speaker on issues of interest to the information industry such as evaluating information integrity and quality, adding value to information, and marketing of information services.  She was awarded a 2011 SLA Presidential Citation for her leadership and work on the Future Ready Toolkit.

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.

by Thomas Sullivan

Loyalty expert James Kane gave a remarkable talk on the last day of the SLA 2011 in Philadelphia. He emphasized how essential it is for SLA members to build strong relationships with the people who use the information we find.

Mr. Kane took this a step further: He said that we have the strongest relationships with people who understand us. And if we really understand what information users want – including needs they haven’t articulated – we can become deeply valued partners. Mr. Kane said, “You become valuable when you anticipate the needs” of those we work with.

Author Gary Klein offers a great example of how anticipating needs pays huge dividends in his 2009 book, Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making. Mr. Klein describes how, during World War II, a U.S. Navy Captain was studying intercepted Japanese messages, trying to understand where Japan would attack next.

Capt. Rochefort noted that one location, “AF,” was appearing frequently in Japanese messages, and suspected that AF was the next place Japan’s armed forces would strike. But what was AF? Capt. Rochefort had a hunch that AF was Midway Atoll. To test his theory, he arranged for the U.S. base on Midway to broadcast an un-encrypted message stating that the garrison’s water-distillation plant was malfunctioning. Two days later, U.S. forces intercepted a Japanese message that the AF base was having problems with producing drinking water.

Armed with this information, the U.S. Navy moved quickly to bolster Midway’s defenses, and inflicted a major defeat on Japan, a turning point in the war in the Pacific.

Mr. Klein writes: “Rochefort wasn’t waiting for the data to come to him. He wasn’t seeing his job as simply deciphering Japanese messages. His job was to figure out what [Japanese Admiral] Yamamoto was planning.”

(Read: “Streetlights and Shadows,” pages 194-195.)

Thomas D. Sullivan is a business researcher based in New York who is looking for new professional opportunities. He has researched companies and industries in manufacturing, energy, transport for firms including Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, and JPMorgan. He earned an MLS from Queens College CUNY, and a BA in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD, and can be reached atthomasdsullivan@earthlink.net.

by Cherine Whitney, Rhode Island Chapter, Food, Agriculture & Nutrition Division

Inspired by Cindy Romaine to share an idea on 6/12, I am sharing my story. In April 2007 Emily Wild, a geographical librarian at US Geoogical survey presented a Powerpoint on GIS (Geographical Information Systems). Little did I know then that this knowledge would come in handy about 4 years later in ways I could have never anticipated. I was readying myself for my future.

July 7, 2007, my father died in Hospice Care of RI after complications of surgery. This was a significant event. Just as important, is that I used Hospice’s bereavement services for processing my grief.

Two years after his death, I became a Hospice Volunteer. I returned that love that came my way over those years. November 2010 I took a patient to a doctor’s appointment, and also delivered a food basket to him and his fmily. On that delivery, they shared with me that he had just been given 6 months to live. I hugged the wife saying let you find hope and peace for even one hour. April 2011, delivering another food basket (of course in my various seasonal hats ):) I found they had no volunteer to help. In middle May, weeks later, after helping them little, I was asked to find a map of a hiking area the patient had loved. The Hospice social worker wanted him to have meaning and a purpose in his life to help him not think of his impending death. She was planning to use this map for her own hike at a later date. So, using their tip to call the Town Hall, I asked for maps, picked them up May 20. I delivered them to the patient. Talking to him face to face, I found he loved these regular maps. But he needed something else. Using my information interview skills gently, I found out he needed a topographical and/or aerial view map.

After I left to prepare for Penelope Campbells’ talk/stay at my house, I called Town Hall from my car while still on their property. I asked the town clerks if they had this type of map. They said no, but GIS staff might. I called him. He was in. Explaining the urgent need for a Hospice patient, he asked me questions about the map requested. I said I did not know. Then I thought: have him talk to the patient. So, going back into the house, I told them I found someone to help the patient. They spoke. What an excellent, animated interaction!!! We all smiled and laughed! May 23, I picked up the map, a huge 36” by 36” topographical AND aerial. Delivering the information that day, the patient and family were overjoyed. I called the GIS staff person days later to thank him. He was away May 26-June 3! That was meant to be for me to be at that place at that time!

Wait, there is more! Best of all, the GIS guy waived the fee, and said he wanted to help make detailed maps of trails that existed and for non existing maps of trails. This patient’s knowledge, love of life, and nature would be his legacy for the future. He was doing it NOW! He had his purpose. He was making future ready trails! How awesome! I had helped him do this. What a connection!

Many thank yous came from the family, the social worker (who had sought the map for months from another volunteer), and the Volunteer Coordinator. I am honored to have given my skills, knowledge, love, for something that truly is important. The immediate need was met expeditiously. I used all of my skills. I did that EXTRA big time. Thank you SLA, Emily, and Chapter, filling Tony Stankus’, now a Fellow, shoes.

Cherine Whitney received her MLIS from the University of Rhode Island in 1998.  She has had a myriad of library experiences from children’s specialist at Providence Public Library, to special collections cataloger at Boston College, to her current position in Research Services at Providence College.  For more than five years Cherine has volunteered at Hasbro Children’s Hospital as a Childcare coordinator, reading and playing with patients in the Dental Clinic’s waiting area. With Home and Hospice Care of RI, she does vigils and visits with patients, and has worked with Camp Braveheart, for grieving children ages 4-17 (dressed in her marvelous hats, of course!) Cherine is President of the Rhode Island Chapter of SLA and has been so since 2009.