An interesting find : FutureReady 365 Blog from SLA - Special Libraries Association via @NeridaHart - with a daily blog post over 365 days from SLA Members - focusing on "what being Future Ready means to SLA members".
From the first 6 months, I found many of the posts very insightful as I begin to plan KM activities over the fiscal year 2011-12. Nuggets from my favourite posts which have become part of my KM Learning journey include -
Bethan Ruddock - Questions for the Panel from Ruth Wolfish at SLA 2011
"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?"
Guy St Claire - Create Your Own Job - on KD/KS - Knowledge Development - Knowledge Sharing to being an Organization's Knowledge Thought Leader
"Be Strategic - Matching your organization's strategic information & knowledge needs to your own ambitions & professional abilities - supporting the management of the organization's knowledge domain (content professionals, information professionals, records management, archivists, special librarians) vs Knowledge Strategy ie a management-based rather than collection based strategy. Managing the organization's Knowledge Services - convergence of information management, KM and strategic learning - design & plan knowledge related activities/policy"
- "Be Proactive
- Show Them Your "Extra"
- Be Flexible
- Give your very best service to your patrons
- Be Confident
- Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
- Be Optimistic
- Blaze Your Own Trail"
"Say goodbye to the career I assumed I would have. There was a moment of genuine sadness when I realized that some skills upon which I built my professional identity had no place in my evolving portfolio. Less original cataloging and more marketing, less database design and more SharePoint site building … I remind myself that clinging to fading status quo hurts more than trying to create something new."
Toby Pearlstein on Survival Strategies in Downturns wrote of strategic actions to survival. My take on her thoughts are as follows -
- Need for a SLA Library's vision statement & how it relates to the organziation
- Engage with your stakeholders to ensure their needs as they see it really are identified
- Ensure you have a wholistic view of your organization's knowledge & information requirements
- Create a 360 degree view of the information needs of your organization (understand thoroughly how IS contributes to bottom line success)
- Be aware of different stakeholder categories & their differing needs
Darron Chapman - Connecting Information with Innovation wrote of the concept of ‘responsibilities’ rather than job titles in KIM - Knowledge Information Management
Key insights for me : "There is a clear move towards the core KIM disciplines – information management, records management, library and information services, business analysis, and knowledge management,– coming together or merging. However, some relevant functions — such as Research, Competitive Intelligence and Information Technology – do not generally align themselves with KIM community."
Stephen Abram - What I Wish I Knew Years Ago - Pt.2 following an earlier post Pt.1
- Prefer Action over study and pilot programs
- Get out of your box and embrace Library 2.0
- You can't step in the same river twice - we can't see the future - we have to make the path now with imperfect information
- Have a Vision & Dream Big
- 3 Key Questions
- What Keeps you awake at night
- If you could solve only one problem - what would it be
- If you could change only one thing - what would it be
- Feedback is a gift - not to be shrunk from
- Sacrifice - you may have 100 great ideas but can only work on 5 - so park the other 95
- Build for the future and embrace ambiguity
- Be comfortable with mistakes - learn from them
- Have fun
- What is the business model of the future
- Who are the competitors we haven't even thought of
- Who will be our customers in 10 years - 20 years
- What are the wild cards
"You can become experts in where the best information resides, which questions to ask next, and even who can help answer them. Data is worthless, analysis is king, and insight is golden. As librarians, you can help your colleagues find trend data from the least biased sources and forecasts from the world’s best subject matter experts. You can ask the follow up questions - What does this mean? What information do we need next? What scenarios are suggested by what we are finding?"
"Metrics
How many books/journals does your library hold?
How many people use your services (pick a period of time)?
How many questions did you respond to? (pick a period of time)?
Improve - Look at this information and see where you can improve
Can you improve your presence on the intranet to show your new holdings?
Can you start a blog with items of interest to a work group?
Can you attend staff meetings and introduce yourself and your services?
Can you work with another department that needs help with research or organizing their work?
Promote - Don’t just say what you did - state the benefit
I created an intranet page so that our satellite offices can get the same new information as our main office"
"Since we are experts at evaluating and presenting information, we should utilize these skills to identify future trends and anticipate what our client’s needs and questions will be. We can improve our efficiency by setting up dashboards or alerts on trending topics so that when a request comes our way, we are already knowledgeable about the best and most reliable sources for the information. Having this knowledge allows us to be even more valuable to our clients..... Have you begun incorporating infographics in the presentation of your research results?"
Seth Godin on the Future of Libraries - very provocative
- We definitely needed a warehouse to store all this bounty, and more than ever we needed a librarian to help us find what we needed. The library is a house for the librarian.
- Post-Gutenberg, books are finally abundant, hardly scarce, hardly expensive, hardly worth warehousing. Post-Gutenberg, the scarce resource is knowledge and insight, not access to data.
- We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper.
"I work with teams of extremely smart, insightful people working with information who come from a range of backgrounds, not just library. By contrast, I find so often librarians want to hold ourselves apart as “us” versus “them” (librarians versus non-librarians) but really, it should just be “us”. We are all on the same side, working toward the same goals.... We also often forget there are others in the information world, many of whom are also without the MLS degree: researchers, information consultants, information architects, knowledge managers, records managers, user experience specialists, indexers and taxonomists among others. While those with library degrees often excel in these areas, they are not prerequisites for success in the job.... Since leaving the library workplace for consulting, I have come across and worked with so many different types of people, many who (much to my surprise) know an awful lot about information. We do not own this, folks....
I therefore have a difficult time understanding the elitist mindset of some librarians. "
"What are some of the characteristics that allow a person to be flexible, to flow with change and even thrive on it? What should we all be cultivating in order to shape our own futures?
- Curiosity & willingness to experiment with new ideas and technologies.
- Sharing, teamwork, and collaboration.
- It’s through engagement that we earn validation.
- Solid foundations and respect for the past.
- Proactivity. When we take responsibility for our own continuous learning and for acquiring the new skills needed to cope with a changing professional environment, we position ourselves to embrace and even make new opportunities.
- A sense of humor and pleasure in accomplishment."
Alan Foster - 17 key points - my favourites are
- ‘Business strategy & culture fit’ – the ability to develop the information service in harmony with the company’s strategic objectives and organisational culture.
- Developing a shrewd political instinct, having sensitive antennae amongst users and senior managers and being adaptive in consequence.
- 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.
- Develop hard nosed negotiation skills with content vendors. And getting harder.
- Ensuring that your information/research/knowledge staff are embedded within business project and work teams.
- Enhancing knowledge management skills (note small rather than capitalised ‘KM’) – knowledge sharing, capturing tacit knowledge, using stories, applying appropriate technologies.
- 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.
- 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.
"Optimism: Before you can make something better, you have to believe that it can be better. Treading water for the sake of survival is not going to cut it anymore. You have dive in ready to swim like a medalist. The first step is to stop saying things like “I think we can” or “Maybe we can”. The mentality is that “we can”,
Activism: Whereas the discussions and strategizings are important, they pale in comparison to the need for real action.
Creativity: There is more to solving a problem than merely having an answer of your own. Creative solutions require open minds and a willingness to see issues from multiple angles"
"Many of us understand that we have moved beyond Web 2.0 and into Web 3.0 – sometimes called the Semantic Web. But what does it all mean, how can librarians become a part of the effort, and can we take it a step further and, ourselves, become Librarian 3.0?
- Get mobile with your services
- Use social media
- Web 3.0 is about personalizing the information experience - People join community networks when their individual needs are met.
- Provide dynamic content - use electronic resources creatively & effectively
- Not only are we utilizing the Semantic Web to categorize resources (journal article, book, person, datasets, etc.) but also relationships (author of, employed by, head of) between resources. These semantic relationships help us filter through the information to identify what we need (i.e., all journal articles written by people employed by University of X)."
'In his book A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink asserts, “When facts become so widely available and instantly accessible, each one becomes less valuable. What begins to matter is the ability to place these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact.”'
- "Embrace Uncertainty
- Take Time to Dream
- Share Ideas with Others
- Collaborate with others considering the future
- Try stuff
- Read widely - blogs, journals on how people are imagining the future
- Be curious
- Perfection isn't possible
- Don't give up your values - use them to assess new tools etc
- See space - the context and not just the object"
"Apart from specialist professional skills, of course, everyone working in the library and information profession needs to be able to answer these questions:
- What’s an information professional for?
- Why should I ask a librarian instead of just searching Google?
- I can find what I need myself, why should I use the information centre?
- Why shouldn’t we just put the sources on everyone’s desktop?
- Surely it’s cheaper to outsource the research service?"
"Take advantage of online and in-person seminars and professional development. You always learn something new and something that can help your patrons, too. Especially note and test new technologies that your patrons may be into so at least you are aware of what they are and how they can be used.
Strive to have a good understanding of the balance between traditional and print media and new technology. Although the medium is different, the basics are the same: delivery of information and, hopefully, knowledge. Know when to use each one for the most effective service to your patron."
"Connecting and integrating is a critical piece in being future ready within your organization and in the delivery and management of your information services. Connecting….
People with knowledge
People with information
People with people
Information with information
Information to innovation, knowledge, development, growth, and learning
Information with social networking tools
Tools such as blogs, wikis, microblogs, virtual worlds, instant messaging, and community tools all provide natural ways for us to embed ourselves into existing communities, create our own communities and networks, and connect ourselves and our services to the organization. "
"Although DAM may not be in your current job description, it is an area worth exploring. As new opportunities for information professionals continue to move away from the traditional research and reference role, it is imperative to understand what skills, both soft and hard, are required of those who handle “everything digital” or “everything media related.” Companies and organizations from all sectors, including web, film, and broadcast media, recognize the tremendous value of their digital assets, and are continuing to ensure that they remain secure, accessible, and preserved over time. "
"Curating and framing information is a powerful way of sense-mapping for your family, community, company, and country. This is a mass communication, co-creation era in which authentic clarity begets authentic clarity.
My job is to frame things for companies and communities so we can look at them anew, and innovate in better and healthier directions, with human empathy engaged."
"Over time, UX will become embedded in librarianship, and all librarians will focus on the user experience if we want to continue to exist and thrive.
The future demands that we create a holistic, user-centered, innovative approach to service design for virtual and physical spaces as well as digital and physical collections. Focus groups, surveys, usability studies, embedded librarianship and ethnographic studies are some of the tools used to gather data and anecdotal information about the user experience. We need to focus on the elephant which is the library website as well as the hundreds of little details that go into making libraries places where people want to go."
The above are an amazing collection of insights for looking to the future from SLA - plenty to consider implementing and refining over the coming fiscal year
