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Business Services Industry

Be proactive: communicate your worth to management!

Information Outlook, Jan, 1999 by Lucy Lettis

Have you ever found yourself defending your credentials, expertise, and skill set as an information professional? Why does it seem most people accept that an M.B.A. diploma is more than just a piece of paper, while the person in the office next to you has little appreciation for the credentials of the degreed information professional?

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While many of us have had the good fortune to work in organizations that value and respect the information professional, others must guide their managements up very steep learning curves. The savvy CEO (or Office Managing Partner, Director of Administration, etc.) learned some time ago about the studies that illustrate the direct correlation between increased volume of information center usage and increased revenues to the organization. The even more savvy CEO knows that, as we enter the new millennium, technology will no longer reign supreme. In her keynote address at EBIC'98 (TFPL LTD's European Business Information Conference), Ellen Knapp, vice chairman and chief knowledge officer at (then) Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) predicted: "As organizations sort out their technology and cultural issues they will then realize the true value of information skills - and information specialists are going to get rich very soon." Content will be king, content experts in demand, and technology recognized as a vehicle - albeit essential - for delivery of the new coin of the realm, content.

Many of us, over the course of our careers, have worked with John Doe, Amateur Researcher, deemed "just as good as the information center staff." John, after all, "does research." He even does it competently and he presents his results to management in a format they like. Wouldn't it be logical that John is blended seamlessly into the information center team? Wouldn't the information center staff welcome and embrace John as a fellow information professional? John's a nice guy, he can successfully retrieve company and biographical data, and he has some satisfied customers who will vouch for his work. Let's think about this...

If you're subjected to the notion that an M.L.S. degree is merely a piece of paper, or if your management or constituency is slow to appreciate the body of knowledge and critical skill set signified by your degree, what are your choices? My suggestion: take a deep breath and chalk up their quick judgment to ignorance, not malevolence. You could decide to leave your somewhat regressive organization and seek a position in a more enlightened atmosphere. Or, you can stay put and bide your time until the "perfect" job offer presents itself. Better yet, you can do something about it! Become a change agent, a pioneer, the one who starts the campaign to enlighten management. The process to alter their perception has to start somewhere, so why not with you?

Rest assured this is no easy task. But with a little perseverance, it can be done. First, the broad, sweeping statements you make about the value of your credentials must be backed with strong, solid points about the value of your contributions. Also, you must engage in articulate dialogue - especially since you're dealing with a topic about which you have strong, even passionate, feelings. My aim here is to give you some talking points for such a situation, or material which you may use prophylactically to help prevent the "John Doe, Amateur Researcher" scenario from occurring in your workplace.

On a fairly frequent basis I am asked, "What do you look for when you are interviewing junior level information specialists? What competencies, knowledge, and practical skills do you require?" I give tremendous weight to personal characteristics such as overall attitude, approach to problem solving, work ethic, commitment to quality, political savvy, ability to be a team player, and - above all else - dedication to the principles of providing first-rate customer service. This article does not focus on any of these critical elements. Rather, what I provide here is a checklist of specific intellectual and technical competencies I would expect a talented junior level information specialist to have acquired during her/his first year or two of professional experience in either a corporate or a legal information center.

Taken together, the two lists below - a list of intellectual competencies I expect of someone with a recently completed M.L.S., and a list of technical competencies I'd expect that same person to have gained within a year or two of completing the degree - might help you answer the question, "Why doesn't John Doe, Amateur Researcher, fit your profile of an information center professional?" or "What is it exactly about your requirements that makes you insist that a degreed individual with only a couple of years of work experience is more suitable for your team than our veteran employee, John Doe, Amateur Researcher?" Perhaps my second list can serve as an actual technical skills checklist as you enlarge your staff. And as you educate your management, by all means get a supply of SLA's document, Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century to distribute to key executives in your workplace.

Business Services Industry

Be proactive: communicate your worth to management!

Information Outlook, Jan, 1999 by Lucy Lettis

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