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What's in a Name:
How Information Professionals can Seize a New Identity |
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John Blossom
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8
June 2003 |
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At this week's
Special Libraries Association conference, the
organization's members are considering a name change that
will reflect the needs that represent the future of their
practices. The SLA is endeavoring to position itself
squarely in the thick of the Web-lead revolution that has
transformed content retrieval and purchasing into a
productivity-leading science. The good news is that
information professionals are well positioned with
human-oriented skills to make even more significant
contributions to providing value in technology-based
content environments. But as with any makeover, some may
find themselves facing a bit of an identity crisis once
they realize the full extent of what it will take to make
the most of these changes. |
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As the
Special Libraries
Association convenes in New York City this week for their
annual conference, change is afoot: the association will be
voting on whether to change their organization's name to
Information Professionals International. Name changes are never
trivial matters, but given the radical changes experienced in
how content is purchased, managed and distributed in today's
organizations, it's probably long overdue. With a huge influx
of new methods to locate, acquire and distribute professional
electronic content and the increasing importance of its
immediate availability in very specific contexts, the world of
the information professional has changed radically, especially
since the introduction of Web technologies. Throw in
downsizings in the face of a worldwide economic downturn and
the integration of many information professionals into other
task-oriented business units, and it's hardly a matter of the
well-planned collection down the hallway anymore.
In the midst of all of this disorienting
change, though, is a lot of good news for info pros. While IT
departments have been allocated the lion's share of funding and
attention over recent years, the focus of getting return on
technology investments falls increasingly on the human-oriented
disciplines that help organizations
to maximize the value of intellectual capital in ways that
contribute to the bottom line. Since understanding how to
maximize content value in a human context is at the core of
information professional disciplines, there would seem to be a
natural alignment of capabilities and requirements for them in
this emerging environment. In some ways, it is a natural fit -
but only if information professionals can shake off their
collection management roots and position themselves as masters
of the content, technology and human-oriented disciplines that
are shaping today's organizations. Here are a few key items on
which information professionals should concentrate to maximize
their organizational value:
- Be the "go-to" professionals for
all people-oriented content issues. In the eyes of most
organizations' IT professionals, human factors in information
creation and use tend to fall into narrow disciplines such as
screen design and technical documentation. Yet most major
advances in content usage in the Internet era have had far
less to do in any fundamental technical breakthroughs than
with breakthroughs in understanding how people can best use
and create content and how its value is best realized in
human terms. Disciplines such as taxonomy creation and
archive management are important elements of this capability,
but in a world where online collaboration and other content
creation disciplines are pushing the frontiers of
professional content forward at a rapid pace, they are not
sufficient to ensure that information professionals will be
able to orchestrate content relevance. Don't fuss as to
whether it's knowledge or information that people seek: focus
on the seekers, and meet them wherever they need to be met.
- Focus less on preserving content
value and more on creating content value. Library
sciences are a fundamentally conservative undertaking -
oftentimes with good reason. As technologists have raced for
years to dispose of yesterday as quickly as possible, someone
has had to think of the historical record as an important
resource. But while maintaining continuity, integrity and
accessibility in content assets is still a vital enterprise,
it is intellectual capital that can be put into a liquid
state that pays the bills. This is one of the reasons that
functions such as CRM, collaboration and competitive
intelligence initiatives oftentimes lead the way in today's
professional content deployments: they focus on creating the
most valuable context for content in terms of concrete market
opportunities. Being able to fulfill a query is important,
but being able to master the context in which it is
generated, and to master the delivery of professional content
in that context proactively at the peak of its value, puts
the "pro" in today's information professionals.
- Be the masters of maximizing return
on purchased content investments in terms of immediate needs.
In a manufacturing operation, methods that ensure a high
degree of efficiency in using all of the resources that go in
to a product are an essential given of the manufacturing
process. In many information operations, eliminating vendor
redundancy and ensuring that content is purchased in a way to
maximize its immediate return on investment is in most
sectors a primitive art at best. If cars were built the way
that professional content is purchased oftentimes, the car
company purchasing agents would be buying huge collections of
assorted nuts and bolts on the possibility that someone might
need one that the purchasing agent thought was really great.
Hmm, don't expect that this happens too often. Look at your
collection costs not just in terms of defensive budget
planning, but also in terms of how you can align it more
perfectly - and proactively - with the opportunities that are
likely to pay its freight. This may require different kinds
of relationships with suppliers than most are used to today,
but in the current economic environment, it's a good
opportunity to examine how radically you can start to change
your relationship with content vendors. Don't expect changes
overnight, but a little creative thinking about business
models could go a long way. Can you say...eBay?
These are exciting times for information
professionals, times that are sure to yield even more
significant changes in their crafts than they've seen in the
past ten years. To those that are concerned that the
technologists have stolen the show for far too long, the good
news for those that know how best to work with content,
technology and people is that your ship may have come in. Not
every one may feel comfortable once they are on board, though,
either with their fellow passengers or the destination. But the
ship is leaving anyway: today's enterprises cannot wait for the
stragglers to figure out how to help them compete. Best
practices are meant to get people to their destination, after
all. Bon voyage, SLA - we'll be waiting to break the champagne
bottle across the bow of your newly named venture.
-
John Blossom
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