Janice R. Lachance
Chief Executive Officer, SLA
Information is power; knowledge is empowering. I envision a future where the leadership of every organization fully understands that information professionals and librarians play a role critical to their success.
In this future, information professionals are deeply involved in formulating their organization's strategic plan. They track progress in achieving goals and are urged to provide analysis that will bring about greater efficiency and effectiveness. They are the first to inform their leadership about new developments in their area of endeavor and the activities of competitors, and they are invited to provide their views on the implications and to identify possible actions.
Because info pros and librarians have put in place frameworks to capture and share all the information generated by the organization, every employee has access to the collective work of colleagues. Collaboration across the enterprise is routine, and knowledge is never lost when employees depart. This means that the special skills, experiences and perspectives of every person are harnessed on each endeavor. Employees are productive, committed to others, and highly satisfied with their work, and they recognize that information professionals are a factor in their success.
Tomorrow's information professional will be in continual contact with a worldwide network of peers, ensuring rapid access to advice, experiences and new learning that can be applied to solving emerging problems, proceeding in new directions and even opening new markets.
Beyond their commitment to their own professional development, information professionals will help others plot and achieve their own learning goals and gain the skills the organization will need in the future. In so doing, they are at the center of the knowledge organization.
The marketplace will recognize organizations that fully utilize the skills of information professionals and librarians, because of their consistent performance, record of advantageous decision making and the loyalty of their stakeholders. Such organizations will recognize successful information professionals with increased status, better pay and greater freedom to pursue new tools, technologies and learning opportunities.
This vision of an evolving, more powerful role for information professionals in organizational leadership is not a pipe dream; in fact, it is already occurring. Moreover, with the research done in SLA's Alignment Project, information professionals now have tools they can use to speed that evolution by gaining recognition for both their current work and for the potential their analytical skills present.
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