Interviewer: Do you feel that, given the current economic, social, cultural, and technological climate, there is an opportunity for information professionals to enhance their perceived value?
Gloria Zamora: Well, we've seen a closing of libraries, but we are so much more than the facilities we work in. That's what we need to get across to our members and to the people we work with--that we have something of value to provide. If we are able to get that message out and communicate it, we will not have to fear that jobs for information professionals will go away. In fact, I think that they will be an even a greater demand for people with the skills that information professionals have. There will be a huge demand for them in companies in the future.
Holly Fisher: I certainly agree. This is the information economy--information is exploding in our world. Who's going to manage it? Who's going to leverage all that information for organizations? We might need to be more creative and find new services we can provide, but I think it's an opportunity for us to reevaluate and restructure and reposition ourselves.
Gloria Zamora: I'm really heartened to hear someone who will be a new graduate of an information school talk this way. This is what we need to get across, not only to our newer members in the profession but to those of us who have been in the profession for many years. This is an opportunity to seize the moment and move forward. We know how to organize, we know how to provide new services, and we can't be afraid to let companies know that we can do these things.
Interviewer: What trends or milestones or struggles are occurring or have occurred that can inform the future and create opportunities for the profession?
Holly Fisher: Well, I'm concerned that people misunderstand us--they still don't know what we do as information professionals. Many things can contribute to this, but one problem is that we're serving in roles beyond being a custodian of books, and people are wondering how they could have a "librarian" within their organization. I think one thing we can do to help people better understand the services we provide is change our job titles. It's a testy subject, but I really believe that as the places where we work continue to move increasingly to virtual information portals or centers, changing our titles would help people understand that our role within the organization is a lot broader, and the services we can provide are much more diverse, than they associate with a librarian. I think branding is really important, and our titles are a part of that.
Gloria Zamora: I agree one hundred percent with Holly. It's a wonderful profession to be in, and many of us are proud to be librarians. But when the public and our clients do not understand the kind of services we provide, then they don't understand the kinds of skills we can provide. If our name or our image is holding us back, we need to work on that and find a way to get our message across. I believe that the Alignment Project is going to help us do that and give our members the tools they need to explain exactly what they do.
Interviewer: Just to follow up on that, where do you see SLA moving forward in terms of providing support to the profession?
Gloria Zamora: Well, I think SLA is positioning itself to provide its members with the information they need to talk about what we as a profession do. But we're also moving into very much of an advocacy role for the profession, and we're much more strategic than we have ever been in the past. As long as we can bring our members along, I think we have an excellent opportunity to move forward into a very wonderful position for our members.
Interviewer: Holly, you're relatively new to the profession. Knowing that the younger generation in particular has very high expectations that they're going to participate in the organization and vote with their feet if they don't get what they need, what are your expectations moving forward with regard to your participation in SLA?
Holly Fisher: I think one amazing thing about SLA is the network of individual people. I've met many of them and have been inspired by what they're doing. I think there are certain students in library school right now who are looking for a way to get involved and to be inspired and to really just be a part of a network, and I think that's one thing that SLA provides that's unique and special.
Gloria Zamora: You know, what I love about that answer is that our strength throughout the past hundred years has been the networking and the mentoring and bringing newer people along. I'm glad to see that, even as we move forward, we still haven't lost any of that part of what has made us a great association.
Interviewer: To move on to the last question, if you could define the future for the profession and for SLA, what attributes would you include?
Holly Fisher: I truly see information professionals as playing a vital role within organizations. We're in an information economy, and we as information professionals are the experts at leveraging knowledge and information for organizations. What we need to do right now is contribute to and enhance core organizational functions. It's going to take many skills in order to get there, and I think information professionals will really need to be more business-minded in many ways. I think we're already on the right path to get there.
Gloria Zamora: I agree with what Holly has said, and I also think that one attribute we really need to have our members embrace is to be able to say what we do and explain the contribution that we make. We should stamp on the front of everything we do, "This came from information professionals. We're a vital part of the organization, and what we do is so important that the last thing management should think of is closing the information center or getting rid of the information professionals." We have to be strong advocates for what we do, and individually we can do that. What SLA is going to do is give us more of those tools to allow each of us to say how important information is to our organizations.
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