Working for an Internet Startup
Have you ever wondered what it's like to work for an Internet startup company? Have you ever visited a web site and wondered who was responsible for its content, organization, and arrangement? Maybe you've even considered changing career paths from traditional special librarian to "Internet librarian," which I am defining for this article as a librarian who edits, categorizes, and organizes web content. That career change is precisely what I experienced when I accepted the position of Director of Content Development for BuyerWeb, Inc. (www.buyerweb.com), a technology company which acts as an intermediary between buyers and sellers on the Internet. This article is about transitioning from a traditional special library setting to a very non-traditional librarian role. My goal in writing this piece is to answer the two-part question people most commonly ask when I tell them I work as a librarian for an Internet company: "What's it like and what exactly do you do?"
My Background
I worked for HarperCollins Publishers in New York as Director of the Information Center/Archives for eleven years. For most of that time I thrived, having a great deal of freedom and loving my work, building a fully functional information center from the ground up. I developed a widely used intranet site and handled archives, records management, and lobby exhibitions. I had taken on a lot, and I was pretty burned out after eleven years; I needed a change. It also didn't help that my salary had reached the maximum the company was willing to pay for that position—I know, because I asked.
While working on the information center intranet site, I started thinking about working for an Internet company. The library literature about the Internet was (and still is) primarily concerned with either critiquing web sites or development of the necessary advanced searching and evaluative skills required to sort through the maze of available information. These articles were fascinating, but I wondered why there was nothing in the literature about librarians working for web companies, not just for search engines and directories, but for e-commerce companies, organizing content and developing hierarchies to be used by consumers and businesses. Where were we? Why were we not part of the Internet infrastructure, building the tools and content by working for the companies who produced them? As Eugenie Prime, Manager of Corporate Libraries at Hewlett-Packard, said in her keynote speech at the Online World '99 Conference, "We have a moral obligation to get involved in the web."
Making the Move
I found the BuyerWeb job posting on an SLA listserv, was intrigued by the job description (see sidebar), and interviewed for the job. At the very least I would learn about the type of work available for librarians in the Internet arena. At the interview, one of the first questions I asked was "Why librarians?" How did they know to interview librarians to research and organize information? That concept doesn't occur to most web company executives. The reason was simple enough: the technical person interviewing me knew about our skills because both his parents are librarians! The interview went well, but I was far from convinced that it was a smart idea to leave my solid, secure position at HarperCollins to work for a company which had few benefits and crowded office space and which might not exist in twelve months (only one out of every ten start-ups survives five years).
The position was unique in that it was neither a search engine, nor web directory organizing and categorizing content, nor a web company marketing a product for information professionals. This was an e-commerce company looking for librarians to research and construct a hierarchy of products and services to be used by merchants and consumers on the web. I'd be building a department which would research these products and services (known as "categories"), determine specifications for each, and create online forms to be used by consumers to specify the details of their request to merchants. We wouldn't be using online and Internet searching skills to perform research for a population of users. Rather than being a service department, the content team would be an integral part of the business, as critical as the technology and business development areas.
I would be taking a huge risk and had no experience in this area. I'd have to start from scratch learning a whole new set of tools in order to apply my librarian skills to this new media. But I was excited by the challenge, and I knew that at the very least the job offered the experience needed to move my career on to the Internet road. The Chief Financial Officer made a generous offer, including a 25% increase in salary at the time, which made up for the loss of benefits, plus stock options. I decided to accept the position and was very excited about what lay ahead.
A New Beginning
I've now been at BuyerWeb for a year and have no regrets about my decision. The change in culture was abrupt, but very pleasant. I found the relaxed, casual atmosphere among the twelve employees at the time a breath of fresh air after working at a large corporation for so many years. Within six weeks I had hired two other librarians, "Content Developers," to join the team. Our office was cramped—for example, for the first eight months I shared a cubicle with one of the other members of the team.
From the beginning, I was made to feel as if my department's efforts were key to making our business successful, but the first six months were very challenging for all of us. Prior to my arrival, content had been researched and created by the tech team. Since they had researched and created forms for several categories before I'd come on board, they had definite ideas about how the content (hierarchy and forms) should be developed and about standards to be used. In some cases we had different ideas. There was a lack of communication between our departments, which led to misunderstandings. Some of the problem stemmed from the lack of an initial orientation, which would have provided us with essential background information.
Our team was second-guessed on many of our decisions on content, standards, form layout, design, vocabulary, and user interface. We felt unappreciated for our skills and knowledge as librarians. The tech team felt as if we didn't value their input and experience. Finally, the Chief Technical Officer and I hashed out a plan for his team to meet with us weekly until we were fed all the information we needed to understand their insights and make informed decisions. Over the course of several months we laid the groundwork for a real team effort. We continue to nurture the communication between our departments, and by now have developed an excellent working relationship.
Our Work
The Content Development department fills some of the company's informational needs by monitoring news stories about our partners and competitors and by working on research projects as needed. We recently hired a fourth librarian to fill these functions as well as to assist the team with the content work. The work includes creating standards for use on BuyerWeb forms, developing lists of products and services (categories) as required by our business partners in hierarchical form, researching the categories, creating and designing the forms using proprietary software, and testing data before it goes live.
We all have high hopes and firmly believe in our business model even though none of us know what the future holds. An entrepreneurial spirit pervades the atmosphere and the work is by its innovative nature creative and fun. Since our office (now with 18 people) is open and small, we often need to use headphones to listen to music in order to concentrate. Business direction can and often does change with the latest e-commerce news or with a new partner relationship. There's risk involved in working for an Internet start-up, but for me, the experience continues to be well worth it. When I left HarperCollins, I sought something outside the traditional special librarian box. I found it on the Internet and will never look back.
Donna Slawsky Leon can be reached at BuyerWeb via email: donnas@buyerweb.com. To view the content team's work on automotive parts & accessories categories, please visit http://www.buyerweb.com/buyers/home.asp.
Further Reading:
1. Murphy, Kate. "Moving from the Card Catalogue to the Internet." The New York Times (January 6, 1997).
2. Rosenberg, Ronald. "Godsend—and a Threat; Northern Light Gets Praise from Users, Criticism from Publishers Threatened by Research-Engine Service." The Boston Globe (June 30, 1999): p. F4.
3. Walker, Leslie. "Wheat.com vs. Chaff.com." Washington Post, (October 28, 1999): p. E01.
4. "The News from the Online World '99 Conference." The Information Advisor, 11, No. 12 (December, 1999).
5. Katz-Stone, Adam. "Web Overturning Image of Book-Filing Librarian." Washington Business Journal (April 3, 2000), http://bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2000/04/03/focus4.html.
6. Ridge, Pamela Sebastian. "Business Bulletin: A Special Background Report On Trends in Industry and Finance." Wall Street Journal (May 4, 2000): p. A1.
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