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IFLA/U.S. Embassy Libraries Presentation Advocating for the Value of Information Professionals |
Good afternoon! It is a privilege to be here to talk with you today. I would like to thank the U.S. Embassy Libraries for this opportunity to discuss the role of SLA in advocacy on behalf of our members.
Despite the name Special Libraries Association, SLA is an association of individual information professionals, and not libraries. In fact, most of our members do not work in a traditional library. SLA members are the information professionals who provide organizations with the knowledge they need, when they need it, and how they need it, to make effective decisions.
2009 is a special year for SLA--it was 100 years ago, in 1909, that we were founded by a group of librarians who saw the need for a new approach to information. It involved a nontraditional group of customers: people who worked for manufacturers, government agencies, research institutions and other organizations.
Businesses and organizations of every type were beginning to demand specialized information they could use to make their organizations more successful. New technologies, materials, communications methods and transportation options were being introduced every day. Imagine...it was predicted that soon every business and possibly every household might have a telephone!
These changes represented a radical departure for librarians. Their new customers wanted practical information that would help them harness those changes. And they wanted the latest information--even if it would be obsolete in a week or a year.
Working together, librarians and organizations could put knowledge to work. And that's what SLA has been doing for the past 100 years....Putting Information to Work for our members and their employers.
The methods used by special librarians and information professionals keep changing, but the three basic roles that SLA plays have been constant.
First, SLA provides opportunities for members to develop their professional skills. The methods and technologies used in gathering, verifying, analyzing and distributing information, and even the environments in which information professionals work, are constantly changing. We have a deep commitment to support our members' need for continuing professional development.
SLA's second role is to build a global network that our members can use to share information, advice and support. This has always been an important activity of the association, but it grows more significant each year.
Finally, the third role of SLA is advocacy, and advocacy is where I will focus today. Advocacy can take many forms.
- On the public policy front, we are active in efforts to maintain government funding that will allow the public to have access to specialized information. Recently, for example, we successfully worked to keep open libraries of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- We often join with other organizations to advocate a position on issues of common interest. We did this earlier this year, joining IFLA and the International Publishers Association in a statement calling for a more rational, evidence based debate on open access.
- As you might expect, we are often engaged in matters relating to copyright law and intellectual property, both in the U.S. and internationally. SLA has observer status in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). We are constantly looking for opportunities to shape good information policy that will benefit the broad needs of our global society.
There is one advocacy role that stands out above the others. The most important advocacy role that SLA plays is to provide training, networking, and leadership to help our members demonstrate the important role they play within their organizations. And SLA has been working tirelessly to identify the best ways to empower our members. This is the focus of an ambitious two-year effort undertaken by SLA to find the best way to communicate the value of the information profession. Many of the findings are relevant to librarians who fall outside of the "special libraries" sphere.
With so much information available online, and with organizations and governments looking for ways to cut costs, advocacy at the personal level has taken on new urgency.
People outside the library world--and more than a few in it--often have a very narrow view of the capabilities of information professionals and librarians. Without better knowledge, they cannot be expected to see the critical role librarians play in their organizations and even in their communities. Without better knowledge, too many librarians and even whole libraries are becoming victims of budget cuts.
SLA's challenge was to find out how information pros view their own jobs; how those jobs are viewed by executives; which activities performed by info pros are valued most by executives and customers; and what language can be used to effectively communicate the value that information professionals add to the organizations that employ them.
Information professionals demand the best information, and that is what we wanted to provide. We started with in-depth research, in partnership with a top communication consulting agency, a futurist, and an information analytics firm. The first step was to assemble existing data on the information profession. We then held a series of workshops and strategy sessions to determine what we needed to learn and who we needed to ask.
The result was the first phase of our primary research, an international online survey of top executives and professionals in information technology, human resources, marketing and information in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia. We took the findings of the first phase and conducted a second research effort. This time, we used a sophisticated technique called dial testing that allowed us to observe the reactions of each executive and information professional to specific words and phrases. All of the findings are available at our Web site, sla.org.
I would like to share with you the 5 major findings of our project. After that, I will give you 5 tips all librarians can use to become their own advocates, no matter where they work.
1. "Knowledge" is the bridge between information and action. Knowledge implies a deep understanding of information. Information professionals and librarians have that knowledge. Information professionals do more than simply connect people and information; they provide context and analysis that turns information into knowledge and results.
2. Corporate executives acknowledge the value and importance of good information. But information professionals must help executives see the connection between reliable information and their company's strategic goals. Executives want more than information--they want to know how that information will create competitive advantage and benefit the bottom line.
3. Information professionals should promote rather than defend the value they add to information. Language emphasizing that information professionals know how to find information from special sources--rather than language that emphasizes the shortcomings of "do it yourself" research--is more effective.
4. The word "librarian" sends a mixed message. While "librarian" has many positive connotations, it is not associated with the positive attributes that employers value. People like librarians--but they used words such as "dusty" and "antiquated" to describe the profession.
5. Organizations that employ information professionals value the results, accountability, leadership and service that special librarians provide. Saving organizations time and money by providing value-added intelligence that is accurate, reliable and relevant means that information professionals give executives and organizations a competitive advantage and contribute to a company's success.
Now, I would like to take these findings and put them into more general terms--terms that I hope all librarians can use to become their own advocates.
1. First, DO use simple, understandable language. Members of every profession have their own vocabulary, but it is a mistake to assume that the people who make budgetary decisions about your library understand it. Whether you are writing a job description or a report on your activities, avoid professional jargon.
2. DO stress what you accomplish for your customers rather than the functions you perform on their behalf. For example, you are more likely to find support for your efforts to "improve computer literacy" than for the fact that you "taught five computer classes." Our research found strong support for "making information accessible in a timely, convenient and secure manner," but very little support for "managing and disseminating information."
3. DO highlight the analytical skills you bring to your job. In a world suffering from information overload, you have unique abilities guide and assist your customers to the best information. Whether you are helping a child select a book that will spark a passion for reading, or you are guiding a family to the most reliable information on buying a car, your ability to point people in the right direction is extremely valuable.
4. DO connect to your organization's overall strategic goals. As you devise measurements, select your priorities, and make decisions, be sure to work within the framework of your organization's strategic goals.
5. DO demonstrate how you save time money. By combining your knowledge of your organization's goals with your analytical skills, you probably make cost saving decisions and recommendations on a routine basis. You also introduce ways to save your customers time. Highlighting these activities underscores the value you add to your organization.
Finally, do remember that you are your own most effective advocate. While organizations like IFLA and SLA are working hard to enhance the profiles of libraries and the professionals associated with them, what you say and how you say it can be even more important.
No matter where we live or where we work, I think it is fair to say that all of us want to live in a world where decisions are made based on knowledge . . . where information is shared freely and efficiently . . . and where the professionals who work every day to organize information and make it available to people who need it are valued and appreciated. The best way to accomplish this is to become our own best advocates.
Thank you.
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