Culture is what makes us what we are-defines us and makes us unique. A list of competencies defines what each of us, individually, is capable of; culture explains where we come from in developing those competencies. Communicating the strength of our culture will have a positive impact on the perceived value of information professionals.
January is a month of back-to-back immersion in the cultures and dilemmas of two major associations for information professionals. The content of conference programs of the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Conference and the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Winter Meeting makes it immediately obvious that the cultures of the two organizations are significantly different. At this year's ALA conference, a proposal for an ambitious long-term media campaign was introduced, with the goal of positioning ALA as the representative of librarians from public, academic, school and "specialized" libraries. After some rather pointed objections by yours truly, ALA representatives insist that it is not their intention to represent members of SLA. The project will require substantial outside funding, significant additional internal staffing, and program development. Assuming that it passes all of those hurdles, its existence will once again blur the image of the special librarian/information professional in the minds of the public. It's more important than ever to find ways to stress the value SLA members bring to their organizations, and to differentiate us from traditional librarians.
"The Documentation and Special Libraries Movements in the United States, 1910-1960," by Robert Williams, in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science, volume 48, no. 9, 1997, examines the "splinter movements" in the information professions. The splintering was due, according to Williams, to "the inability and reluctance of the larger library profession to welcome nontraditional materials, new technologies, and subject-based personnel and approaches to the field," in other words, a culture clash.
The SLA Winter Meeting was dedicated to three categories of activities: board meetings, where significant new strategic directions were set in motion; leadership development training, unique to SLA; and continuous education opportunities. SLA has a commitment to members as constantly improving, continually learning information professionals. A major strength of SLA, a significant part of its culture, is professional development. That one cultural element alone is a story that needs to be told.
What good is all of the culture and uniqueness represented by SLA and its members, if we don't utilize it to enhance the perception of the value we bring to our organizations? We have commitment to continuous learning, service excellence, ethics, teamwork, subject expertise, and a host of other competencies. That is our culture. That has value.
Nick Morgan, editor of the Harvard Communications Update, wrote in the March 1999 issue about corporate culture and the importance of storytelling to strengthen the future of that culture. "It is the job of each generation to tell its best stories to the next…. The groups that tell the most interesting stories to their heirs will thrive…. We call the collection of corporate stories 'culture.' Companies with strong cultures have an easier time recruiting and retaining top-notch employees."
The IDC Knowledge Management Factbook, by Gerry Murray, contains an example of one of the types of "stories" we need to be telling. "Fortune 500 companies will lose $12 billion in 1999, from intellectual rework, substandard performance, and inability to find knowledge resources." Using that example, we should step up and say, "Insuring that you minimize that $12 billion waste is what we are all about, and here is one specific, local example."
Michael Hammer, writing in Information Week for August 9, 1999, says that discussions of knowledge management focus "on the how rather than the why." He continues, "The values of sharing and teamwork…must be instilled throughout the business if people are to behave in the way that a knowledge management process demands." Sharing and teamwork are part of the culture of information professionals, but we have to let our organizations know about it. Tell stories of successful sharing. Describe teamwork that got the job done in half the time and/or under budget.
What stories do you need to tell today, to convey a sense of our culture, to enhance perceived value, or to attract the next generation?
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