de Stricker

What is My Perfect Career Fit? Is "Big Data" in My Future?

Independently of each other, two colleagues recently wrote to me about the challenges of finding the perfect career. I gratefully acknowledge their contribution to the ongoing discussion.

Using the analogy of going to the mall for jeans and finding several pairs with a so-so fit and no pairs with a perfect fit, Laura Chuang (laura.chuang@mail.utoronto.ca), a student at University of Toronto's Faculty of Information, explored the difficulty in establishing a unique skillset - so early in one's career - to match the very specific and detailed requirements set out in job postings. Laura is putting her finger right on a classic dilemma: How do you get job experience when you don't have the experience to get a job? The keen right-out-of-school graduate may indeed be lacking specific experience but does offer - and should (IMHO) position it in applications - a set of capabilities potential employers ought to appreciate. I count among them exposure to current technology, familiarity with social media, skills in "looking into" the latest developments and market offerings, and a flexible attitude with a hefty dose of willingness to go the extra mile. As for gaining, while still in school, the concrete knowledge described in job postings, the challenge is to fit independent learning and research into the existing academic work load. Attending local meetups, bartering favors with colleagues in return for exposure to specific tools, and similar strategies all require time. No doubt about it - it's a serious investment for one's future career.

Taking her point of departure in the current interest "big data" is garnering, Linda Forshaw (inthe@sky.com), a Business Information Systems graduate from Lancaster University in the UK and regular contributor to www.degreejungle.com, wrote to me about the opportunities emerging from the massive gathering of transactional evidence undertaken by businesses and government. Linda comments that the MLS degree is anything but among the "worst degrees for graduates" as it was claimed by Jacquelyn Smith in 2011 (http://onforb.es/I78jDt) but rather is an opportune foundation for working in settings dealing with the immense amounts of data resulting from and driving our businesses and activities. Judging by the results from searching the words librarian big data, there is backup for that view. It is no accident, Linda points out, that leading faculties of information science offer courses to prepare students to work in data science.

Perhaps Laura and Linda - and all their colleagues - wish to discuss the implications of society's reliance on wrestling with astronomical quantities of data for decision making, policy development, and economic measures? In previous blog posts and conference presentations, I have commented how future jobs for information professionals are likely to exist where business and government address challenges in records management, client relations management, and similar endeavors … if we do a good job translating our professional jargon so as to meaningfully convince employers we are right for the task.

It's a New World Indeed: From Proffering Content to Facilitating Action

 

The 14th Internet Librarian International conference held 29-31 October 2012 in London pointed sharply to a refocused direction for the information professions: We are not just "about content availability and tools" … we are "about making it possible for our clients to realize their dreams".

 

The program outline at http://www.internet-librarian.com/2012/ immediately signals the vast variety of topics covered in just two days. Check out #ili2012 for attendee reactions to the 27 dynamic sessions bookended by these keynotes:

 

• David Lankes, Professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies and director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, galvanized attendees with a Stop Lending, Start Sharing impassioned plea for librarians to abandon the "buy stuff for people to borrow" model in favor of a "provide the means by which people can share expertise and collaborate" model. His dynamic talk zeroed in on the need for information professionals to focus less on content custodianship (we can lend you things) and much more on facilitation of interaction and creativity (we can help your team build that project you have been dreaming of).

   

• Roly Keating, CEO at the British Library, engagingly focused his talk on the power of collaborating with other organizations such as the BBC and with citizens who e.g. tag photos with their knowledge of what is in the images in order to proffer content on the internet. He powerfully echoed David Lankes' message that we must all work together to leverage what we have - content, knowledge, skill.

 

I am grateful to the organizers of ILI for giving me the opportunity to present my take on the future of the information professions. Feedback included such comments as … "It was nice to hear someone speak frankly about the future of librarians rather than glaze over the fact that libraries are closing and future careers jeopardised. The reality is that we need to see what the business world needs and ensure our qualifications match that need. However sobering, you delivered advice in a way that inspired hope." (Excerpt from comment posted to my 8 April 2012 blog post.)

 

My readers, please weigh in on the matter of the future of our professions. Why not submit a proposal to present at ILI 2013?

Guest Post: Libraries as Sacred Places - What I Learned from a Librarian (Mom)

By Katheryn Rivas

My mother went to Harvard and then to Simmons College for her library science masters degree, worked at Harvard's Widener Library, then started her own research consulting company once she had her two children. That makes her one of the earliest telecommuters I suppose. I still remember her home office with its shag carpeting, bulky beige hardware with blinking DOS screens, stacks of floppy disks, and reams of paper everywhere. In fact, our entire house was like that: magazines, books, newspapers, and clippings from Goodness-knows-what publication festooning every surface.

I learned to read at an early age, probably just through sheer osmosis from being surrounded by all that reading material. Mom volunteered very actively at the local public library in our suburban New Hampshire town and took us there constantly. We borrowed as many books as we possibly could, maxing out the limit, especially when school was out and the summer reading contests were in full bloom. Little round colored stickers marked our walls to prove how many tote bags full of children's books we had eagerly plowed through.

It was a sacred place for her, and for us. Her parents were a dirt-poor Irish carpenter and his part-time receptionist wife. Mom would never in a million years have made it to Harvard without the American miracle of public libraries and public schools. (By the way, we - the American commonwealth with its historic respect for knowledge and freedom of public access to information - built that miracle.)

That sense of libraries as sacred places came back to me when I went to college on a research scholarship, when I worked for a publishing company in London and got a pass for the reading room at the British Library so I could dig up out-of-print books, and when I read the Borges short story "The Library of Babel" and marveled at the Internet that had sprung up, in my lifetime before my very eyes, out of the creaky telephone connections Mom used on her Packard Bell PC.

God bless Mom for feeling no shame about plonking us down in a library whenever she had work to do. It was a better babysitter than the TV (though don't get me wrong, we had one of those too and clamored for our Looney Tunes on a regular basis). The library helped me in school, and it keeps me fed today as I write for the Web. I owe so much to her for showing me how to seize and wield the power of knowledge. For us, information was truly a family value.

Katheryn Rivas is a regular contributor to OnlineUniversities.com, a leading student resource for those interested in pursuing a distance education. She welcomes your comments at katherynrivas87@gmail.com.

 

Professional Identity in Society: Looking Ahead

Conference season - with all the delightful opportunities it brings to exchange observations with colleagues in person - is in full swing. I look forward as always - now for a very practical reason: Later on this year, I'll be leading a discussion together with Marydee Ojala at the Internet Librarian International and the Online Information conferences in London UK on aspects of the topic: "Where are we taking our profession?"

I'm stressing the proactive approach - after all, it is our responsibility to take charge. What can and will we all do to secure a strong and positive future for existing practitioners and new professionals just graduating now?

Readers may recall my 2 August 2010 summary of the points Mark Field made in his seminal LinkedIn CILIP group post entitled "The Fragmentation Death of the Information Professions". Conrad Taylor made a compilation of 192 subsequent posts - http://bit.ly/No93ou - and Mark wrote an article for FUMSI - http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/manage/65722). In it, Mark said "no one disagrees that for us, as a set of connected professional communities, something is wrong; that action needs to be taken; that our communities need some form of coherence, of advocacy at every level of society. And it needs a professional definition that is both comprehensive and hospitable, yet offers a clear identity for a diverse genus of practitioners".

A quick reality check: Say you meet someone at a party and learn he or she is a veterinarian or a violinist. You would have a strong sense of his or her profession - regardless of the details. In other words, some people can signal with a single word what they do for a living. We can't. The word "Librarian" (regardless of recognition received … as in the advice "be sure to befriend a research librarian") does not cover the range of our professional activities (think web content management, school or public library management, enterprise search, e-discovery, archives, and everything else we do).

Another quick reality check: At the party, what responses would you get if you said "who has been a transformational leader in social media?" versus "who has been a transformational leader in librarianship?". It's the nature of the beast - we librarians tend to work outside the limelight catching mass media attention.

You might ask, "does it matter whether we get media coverage for being prominent positive society influencers?" I say it matters a great deal. Our positive influence could be so much more powerful if it were commonly accepted how "there must be an information professional on our team" everywhere in business and the public sector.

Should you see me at the conference center … would you offer me your thoughts? If I miss seeing you there, would you offer me your thoughts in an email?

Our Professional Connections - Powerful Assets for Employers - Deserve Investment

My ardent belief in the value of professional associations is no secret, and I support my comments by service on boards of directors, on committees, and in special assignments. As a result of many active roles held over the decades, I have experienced how valuable it is to be but a message away from having doors opened, getting crucial contacts established, and so on.

In previous posts, I have focused in various ways on the gains information professionals achieve by belonging to and being active in the relevant associations. Over and above formal continuing education, our colleagues' willingness to support fellow professionals is gold when it comes to bolstering our skills. The luxury of garnering input from fellow association members is key to our ability to grow as professionals as we solve day to day challenges. But there's more: Our professional connections are assets to our employers - not just bullet points on our resumes - and should be promoted as such.

Of course, our direct clients benefit when we leverage connections on their behalf - for example, when we zero in on unique content in a matter of minutes via the guidance of our peers. In a more general way, our employers benefit when we can build on the professional connections made at last month's conference or during years of service in an association - for example, as we use our peers' insight and experience, shared at meetings and on discussion lists, to inform the activities we undertake.

When expenses and time associated with conference or meeting attendance are legitimately under scrutiny, it is important to build the business case why the investment we make in building professional networks is very much worthwhile: That investment - our contributions in return for the takeaways - is our means of gaining admission to the combined expertise of our professional networks … for the good of the work we do.

The specific business advantage of our collegial networks deserves being featured clearly in our official resumes and social profiles. If we have previously taken networking activities for granted (as in "yes of course I have served in leadership roles in professional groups"), it may be time to articulate explicitly the positive results arising for our employers and clients. The annual performance review could be a good regular occasion - but why not take the opportunity whenever it arises?