It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know

At one time I found this unsettling. It seems wrong that connections could be more important than knowledge, skills, or capabilities. Well, think of it this way - what good are knowledge, skills, or capabilities without connections? Who will use your knowledge, tell others about your skills, or benefit from your capabilities?

The info biz is about nothing if not networking. At some level it's not even about the information, it's about putting the information into the hands of the people who need it. Having a robust network increases the odds of making this happen.

So, what are some options for growing and sustaining your network? For face-to-face relationship building, it's hard to beat the professional associations. You can join those related to your profession (in my case that's AIIP and SLA) or to the industry of your market. The local chamber of commerce or a service club such as Rotary are other options. Of course once you join you will want to volunteer on a committee, write for the association publication, or speak at association events in order to increase your visibility and build deeper relationships.

If you work inside of an organization, be sure to follow the same advice. Raise your profile and make yourself known by volunteering. Getting to know people beyond that casual "hi" in the halls will immediately expand your sphere of influence.

For virtual networks there are a number of options. Some have been discussed in this blog before. Be sure to explore LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook to see if they have potential for you.

For more on networking visit Bootstrapper's 75+ Tips on Becoming a Better Networker, AARP's Value of Networking, and from Searcher Magazine, Online Social Networks, Virtual Communities, and Information Professionals by Reid and Gray.

Remember, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Who do you know?

Analysis and the Executive Summary

Do you create executive summaries for your clients' project reports? First, let's define "executive summary." For purposes of this discussion, we're not talking about my business plan in a nutshell as described by Guy Kawasaki in his blog. We're talking about the summary that brings together research findings to answer a question or series of questions.

If you do not include executive summaries in your research reports, why not? Indeed some clients prefer do all the summarizing on their own, but in my experience they represent the exception rather than the rule. As we all face info glut and data smog, most clients value a nicely written snapshot of the situation with the key questions answered up front.

What is it about info pros that makes us ideally suited to creating an information overview or executive summary? Stephen Abram has been heard to say that info pros are skilled at identifying patterns. I'm pretty sure that's one of the skills that helps us summarize mass quantities of information. I think we also have the ability to pull salient points from text heavy sources and distill the points into a few words. Hopefully we write well.

What other skills are required to create a useful research summary? Your comments are encouraged and most welcome.

Video Fun

Hang with your fellow info pros, and you will surely learn something interesting and useful.

At Internet Librarian 2008 in Monterey CA I had the opportunity to hear from cutting edge info pro Connie Crosby. She shared a bundle of new tools and technologies, and I want you to know about two of them.

Utterli lets you share text, pictures, video, and audio with your friends, even from your mobile phone. You can form groups and post to your entire community. I notice that GreenPeace, Photographers, DancingWithTheStars, and GTD (Getting Things Done) all have Utterli groups. Sadly, as I write this only one group is tagged "libraries." Come on info pros, let's make our Utterli presence felt. Note: Postings to Utterli are called utters.

Ustream is the live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size. Interactive means that viewers can interact directly with whoever is broadcasting. People Ustream everything including speeches, talk shows, music, conference sessions, school and business events, training, sporting events, and special events like weddings, recitals, and parties. As I write there are 1081 live shows streaming. CompTV is up and running with 122 viewers talking about an ongoing talent contest. The one with the most viewers (13105) is the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam.







Cute, but boy can those puppies squeal.

Only 4 Ustream shows are tagged "libraries." Unfortunately they look like beta tests with little to offer. I'm guessing we can improve on that. What can we do that would draw more viewers than Shiba Inu puppies? Hmmmm.

Cindy Shamel

The Experienced Info Pro Speaks Out

Internet Library 2008 offered a full range of learning and networking opportunities to all who attended. According to my observations, it also offered a peek at the variety of people who have influenced and will influence the profession. First the view from an experienced info pro on the brink of retirement.

Dan Lester retired last week as Head of Network Services in the University Libraries at Boise State University. In an interesting examination of where we have been and were we are going with technology ("Who Moved My Ultrafiche & 8-Tracks? Insights for the Future"), Dan reminded us of how much has changed during his 50 years on the job. Do you remember the 12" video disk, the Apple Lisa, punched cards, 8" floppy disks, and the OCLC impact printer for printing out library cards? These were the bees knees in their day, but technology has continued to develop since then. Dan gave us a good look at the evolution of technology in libraries and when to adopt. You can link to the slides from Dan's talk, including fantastic pictures of the aforementioned technologies and more, at Dan's River of Data web site.

Based on his wealth of experience in library technology, Dan offered the following things to think about:

1. Everything is temporary.
2. Never buy #1 of anything.
3. Be on the leading edge but not the bleeding edge.
4. Even sacred cows can be turned into filet mignon.
5. The" saving money" reason for adopting technology is almost always bogus.
6. Do bad decisions really matter?
7. Be a shark. Keep moving or die.
8. See number one.

Dan also echoed a sentiment found in several other talks I heard at IL2008 - "be willing to fail." More on that in the next posting as we meet info pros who are just launching their careers.

Remember the 23Things? I'm Finished!

Last summer, sometime around July 1st, I started working my way through the Special Library Association's 23Things. It is a remarkable learning opportunity for info pros who want to become familiar with the multitude of Web 2.0 tools that have come on the scene. These tools, including blogs, wiki's, bookmarking, and more are gaining traction in our workspace. Info pros who are not becoming familiar with these tools risk being left behind. (Note: I am blogging this from Internet Librarian in Monterey CA. Information Today President Tom Hogan listed the finalists in last year's contest for what to call a non-Internet Librarian. Winner? Zoe Anderson at the Napa Library. She dubbed the non-Internet Librarian as Librarian 1.0.)

Happily sometime in mid-September I finished the nine week program outlined by SLA, and at some level I am now conversant in the 23 Things. I strongly recommend this program to each and every SLA member. Knowing what these tools do, how they are being used, and how they might be used in your context, is empowering indeed. Our profession needs informed info pro's leading the way. I may not be Librarian 3.0, but I know I'm not a Librarian 1.0!

SLA has hung out the brass ring for you. I strongly suggest you reach for it.

Are You LinkedIn?

LinkedIn has appeared on my radar screen three times in the last three days. I take that as a sign.

Recall that LinkedIn is a social networking tool. If memory serves, I believe it was originally marketed as a recruiting site for headhunters. Individuals can create and post a LinkedIn profile that includes biographical and contact info. The Web site states that "LinkedIn is an online network of more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries."

According to the The Economist, (radar screen appearance #1), LinkedIn is the "Facebook for suits." Gotta love that description. Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn to manage his own network of business contacts. The Economist points out that a "big chunk" of company revenues comes from headhunters and companies who pay to search the database and contact members. The article points out that LinkedIn is benefiting from the upheaval in the financial markets as users step up networking and job-hunting activities.

An association discussion list that I subscribe to recently addressed the topic of Web site development (radar screen appearance #2). A clever colleague pointed out that a short term alternative to a fully developed Web site is to register a domain name and use URL forwarding to point to a LinkedIn profile. Pretty cool, huh? By the way, this clever colleague is writing a book on matters of Web site development. When it's available I'll let you know.

LinkedIn can also be used as a research tool for finding and using information. FUMSI (radar screen appearance #3) recently ran an article by prolific author and extremely knowledgeable researcher Amelia Kassel on using LinkedIn as a research tool. Kassel explains why and how to search LinkedIn, concluding that "Info pros will want to use LinkedIn similarly to other databases for finding answers to a range of questions."

Sounds as though LinkedIn should be on every info pro's radar screen.

Adding Value to the Information You Deliver

Remember rip and ship? There was a day when the value that the info pro brought to the table was access to and the ability to search commercial, subscription based databases. In those days, a professional search yielded otherwise hard to access information. Ripping the results from the dot matrix printer and shipping it to the client was standard practice.

Online searching is no longer novel. The technology is practically ubiquitous and answering the ready reference question or delivering full text articles is no longer a value add service.

So, what's an info pro to do? For an examination of the justification and how-to's for creating value add deliverables, see Amelia Kassel's Value-Added Deliverables: Rungs on the Info Pro's Ladder to Success published in Searcher. Kassel states that a value added deliverable will include organized research results with a summary of findings.

I recommend using the summary of findings as an opportunity to add further value to your report. The summary should answer the questions, but it's also an opportunity to share insights about the findings. We'll take a closer look at this in future postings.

In the meantime, let us know if you include a summary of findings in your deliverables.

Info Pro Employment Picture

Hiring or not hiring? In the last couple of weeks I've heard several perspectives on the employment prospects for info pros. One came from the owner of a library staffing agency. She painted a rather dismal picture, indicating that we're currently experiencing a slow down in hiring. In my own experience I have had a vigorous response to my own search for info pros who have been cast into the job market as a result of layoffs in biotech.

At the same time, we learn that the Environmental Protection Agency will reopen their closed libraries and that each will be staffed with librarians. In the blogs I subscribe to I see an opening posted for an associate librarian at Christie's (attention art historians) and that LibraryThing is hiring (although the current openings are not for info pros.)

So, what's the deal? I'm guessing that indeed the job market is tight overall for info pros. On the other hand, the entrepreneurial sorts that I commune with in AIIP seem to be holding their own. Clearly there is a market for the value added information services that a 21st Century info pro can provide. Perhaps the answer lies in what kind of value we add. (More on that in a future posting.) What kind of value do you add?

Life Support

You're not alone out there in trying stay ahead of the curve and get through the day. For support, wisdom, and guidance, try Lifehacker and DLM:Dumb Little Man.

Lifehacker contains "tips and downloads for getting things done." Recent posts to Lifehacker discuss browser speeds, best layouts for data in Excel, and why goal setting makes you cringe. It's good stuff, and you can set up to receive the info in an RSS feed. That saves you from revisiting the web site to see what's new. Beware, however, that Lifehacker can post 20 or more tips per day.

For a less prolific, but no less useful life support source, try DLM. "Each week we provide a handful of tips that will save you money, increase your productivity, or simply keep you sane." Recent posts include 5 ways to fall asleep quicker and 15 ways to break writer's block (timely, that one.)

Professional Associations - Do You Belong?

Do you work in the info biz? Do you belong to an appropriate professional association? If not, why not? Your comments are welcome and encouraged.

I belong to the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) and to Special Libraries Association (SLA). There are many, many reasons why I belong to these two associations, but the reason du jour is professional development. Today, without leaving my office, I had the opportunity to watch a web based, information packed training session delivered by Ed Vawter, AIIP President and founder of QD Information Services. Ed discussed using podcasts as a source of information for research. Since the vendor was experiencing audio trouble, Ed is going to offer a encore presentation next month, so those who missed it today will get a second chance.

SLA is offering a program called 23 Things. Participants become familiar with wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, picture sharing, podcasting, tagging, RSS feeds and much, much more through actual hands on practice. When proprietary software is required SLA makes it available, so everyone can participate. And, it's free with the SLA membership.

We info pros need to stay a step or two ahead of our clients, and associations such as AIIP and SLA make that possible. Do you belong?

Using Web 2.0 Tools - Wait. What's Web 2.0?

Online collaboration. Wikis. Office 2.0. Enterprise 2.0. GroupSwim, Atlassian Confluence, LinkedIn, Zimbra, and LiquidPlanner. These are just some of the terms being bandied about when the discussion turns to Web 2.0.

According to ReadWriteWeb, Businesses Can't Hide from Web 2.0, and "Today, if you're not staying current with Web 2.0 technologies' impact on business, then you're just not staying current. Period." Go ahead and check out this article, because it gives a really nice overview of the topic including links to more info. ReadWriteWeb is a blog with about seven writers focused on Web technologies. Their archives are chock full of information on products, trends, and predictions for emerging technologies.

Take a look at Businesses Can't Hide from Web 2.0. It will be 10 minutes well spent. Trust me.

Slow Down and Check the Facts

Whoa nelly! The US Presidential campaigns are in full swing, and the assertions are coming on fast and furious. I say assertions, because some of the information we're seeing is simply not factual. In the interest of political neutrality I will forego the opportunity to give any examples. For now, suffice it to say that we must all check for the facts before passing along or taking seriously what may turn out to be simply rumors.

The #1 site for political fact-checking is Factcheck.org. Sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, they "are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics."

In the interest of seeing the best possible outcome for the November Presidential elections, I encourage all voters to visit this site regularly and get the facts.

Bacronyms

Perhaps you have heard of bacronyms (also spelled backronym) . This word breezed onto my radar screen about a year ago but at the time it didn't stick. I came across the term again this week while I worked on a wiki project.

Bacronym has multiple meanings, but the one I find interesting describes the case where a word is turned into an acronym by creating a phrase out of the letters in the word. Here are two examples.

SOS was chosen as a distress signal because the Morse code is unmistakable and easy to transmit. Three dots, three dashes, and three dots. SOS was never meant to mean save our ship, save our souls, or send out succor. These are bacronyms.

Wiki is a Hawaiian word meaning quick or fast. Wiki has been adopted by web designers to describe a simplified mark up language. It permits anyone who accesses a wiki web site to contribute or modify content. The most prominent example of a wiki in action is Wikipedia. Some have claimed that wiki is an acronym standing for "what I know is." Wiki is a word, "what I know is" represents a bacronym.

Bacronyms are an interesting language phenomenon. If you know of others, feel free to share them here.

Tag Clouds

Tag clouds provide information about information. A tag cloud, also called a word cloud, presents a visual image of words on a Web site or tags used to describe entries on a Web site.

An alphabetical list from Flickr shows us that wedding, london, and travel are very popular categories on this photo sharing site. The larger the word, the more entries there are with that tag.

LibraryThing http://www.librarything.com/tagcloud.php provides an image of the keywords that members have assigned to the books they enter into the Web site. Each word in the cloud is a hyperlink, so you can click on the word and see the related entries.

Info pros can take advantage of tools like this to enhance products and services. Information aggregators such as Factiva deliver tag clouds through Search 2.0. A search on oil prices yielded a word cloud revealing connections to other topics in the news such as tropical storm Fay.

Are you including information about information in your products and services? If so, feel free to share your ideas and views with other Info Biz readers.

Image Generators

Here's a question for info pros who deliver value added research results in the form of electronic documents. Have you ever included content created by an image generator? I've been experimenting with these tools, and it seems like we have an opportunity here.

Since the concept is new to me, I haven't had a chance to try out my idea. I have created a couple of images, and it's really pretty cool. Here's one I made just for fun using Badge Maker at Big Huge Labs http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/


There are other image generators like ImageChef http://www.imagechef.com/
and CustomSignGenerator http://www.customsigngenerator.com/.

Once I've had a chance to use this concept in a client report, I'll post something here and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, for those of you who are one step ahead, how have you used an image generator to enhance a deliverable?

Flickr vs Picassa and Furl vs. Delicious

Over the last few weeks I've been participating in a professional development program called 23Things. The idea is to expose info pros to a wide variety of technologies so that we can adapt them as needed to our various work situations. (SLA members will want to check the organization web site to see what the program offers.)

The program introduces Flickr as a useful image sharing site and Delicious as a social bookmarking tool. This is all well and good. I have learned a lot and dutifully progressed through the prescribed exercises. The trouble is, I had already been using Picassa for images and FURL for bookmarking.

I can't help but feel a bit torn and fragmented. Which is better? Why did the 23Things people pick Flickr over Picassa and Delicious over FURL? Granted, they have different functionality and assorted pros and cons. My beef is that now I have some pictures uploaded to Flickr and others on Picassa. My bookmarks are split between FURL and Delicious.

Ultimately I will pick one and go with it. In the meantime, however, I'm experiencing some kind of multiple personality syndrome.

Del.icio.us Becomes Delicious

Well, no sooner do I blog about the virtues of Del.icio.us for social bookmarking than the powers that be implement substantial changes. First, Del.icio.us became Delicious.com. Frankly, that's a good move. It's easier and a whole lot more straight forward.

The Web site looks different and it boasts a faster search function. You can still post, share, and organize bookmarks. Also, you can access your bookmarks from any computer with Internet access. So, if you haven't tried Delicious yet, this looks like just the right time to give it a go.

What's the Deal With Adding Value?

The law librarians talked about it in Portland earlier this month. The specialty librarians talked about it in Seattle last month. The independent info pros talk about it regularly on their association discussion list. So what's the deal with adding value? Information professionals are coming to realize that the old rip and ship model of information delivery is no longer sufficient. Attaching a hodge podge of documents, PDFs, and URLs to an e-mail is not adding value.

In responding to a research request, it is incumbent upon the info pro to deliver answers, not just information. Delivering answers means taking time to create a document that summarizes findings and puts the desired information front and center. Doing this takes time, but it also brings to light our ability to separate the wheat from the chaff, summarize findings, draw conclusions, and provide insights.

Add value. It's good for your organization, your decision-makers, and your career.

Web 2.0 and the Info Pro

Web 2.0 encompasses interactive tools such as RSS feeds, social bookmarking, image sharing, blogs, and wikis. The debate is on about how info pros should/could be using these tools to improve information access and information delivery. To take a peak at the discussion, visit Library 2.0 on Ning.

For those interested in learning more, there are lots of opportunities, including the SLA initiative called 23Things, modeled after the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County's 23Things.

For anyone in San Diego CA on October 3, 2008 the local chapter of SLA is hosting an all day seminar entitled Web Services - Embracing the Web as the Library's Core Service Space. Watch the chapter blog for more information.

The Learning Curve

In order to obtain hands on experience with some of the newer technology options (Web 2.0 tools) I'm taking advantage of a program offered by SLA, the association of specialty librarians. The program is called 23Things. It offers tutorials and guidance so that participants can practice what they learn. This blog is a product of this learning opportunity.

As of today I have finished 7 of the 23 Things including topics such as blogging and social bookmarking. I've still got a ways to go, but it helps to have a structured, step by step opportunity to progress.

Feel the Power

Today I posted a tweet on Twitter, watched an instructional video on YouTube, created this blog entry, delivered a short presentation to a colleague two times zones away using a virtual meeting tool, and saved and tagged several web sites using Del.icio.us. Oh yes, I also sent some e-mails and talked to a client on the telephone, which goes to show that the "old" technologies don't necessarily disappear. The new technologies expand the possibilities.

Taking the new techonologies for a test run doesn't necessarily mean they will become part of the daily routine. It does mean that at least we are familiar with the concept, the jargon, and the functionality. Staying current in your field is important to all professionals, info entrepreneurs included. Feel the power.

Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site for storing URLs on the web. Advantages of doing this include easy accessibility from wherever you are (since it's a Web based tool) and tagging. In this case tagging means adding descriptions or terms to your bookmark entries so that you can later search and sort your bookmarks based on the term you have assigned.

Using Del.icio.us requires registration (easy enough) and the installation of two buttons on your Internet browser toolbar. Del.icio.us makes this easy with very clear instructions, however, in the process I found that the Firefox extensions currently available on the Del.icio.us Web site are not compatible with Firefox 3.0. I'm sure the extension creators will catch up, but in the meantime just use the drag and drop method to put the necessary buttons on your toolbar.

To find other interesting blogs, go to Del.icio.us and enter your the word blog plus subject word in the search box. Blog quilting yielded 337 hits!

Info Pros are on the move

Last month over 5,000 specialty librarians met in Seattle WA for their annual conference. This week the American Library Association is meeting in Anaheim CA, and week after next the American Association of Law Libraries will meet in Portland OR.

• There are more public libraries (a total of 16,549) in the US than McDonald's.
• Reference librarians in the nation's public and academic libraries answer more than 7.2 million questions weekly.
• 85% of companies ranked in the to 100 of the Fortune 500 companies employ an information professional.