Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal October 2006 Volume 4(5)

Branches and Groups: Presidential Address

Google or bust: challenging the profession

Ivor Lloyd begins a focus on Branches and Groups with his Presidential Address given at CILIPS Branch and Group Day, held on 27 Sep at the West Park Centre, Dundee.

The theme of this year’s Branch and Group Day, “Google or bust? Challenging the profession”, requires that we stop, take stock and reflect honestly and critically on our own performance both as professionals and as a profession. We need to ask ourselves hard questions, and have the courage to face the answers. We need to ask ourselves where we need to go and what our role is in the knowledge economy.

I would like to ask a specific question. “Are you, in this audience, the last of the ‘traditional’ librarians, or the first of a new breed equipped to bring the profession to the forefront of the knowledge economy?” In other words, do you consider yourselves to be passive providers, geared up to offering essentially the same services, using similar modes of delivery with small incremental changes, or as change agents, capable and ready of addressing real change – and indeed driving that change?

Never before have the opportunities facing the profession been greater. Information is the new currency in the knowledge economy. Information is driving corporate agendas to generate and secure competitive advantage. Web developers are crying out for the traditional information retrieval skills of the librarian to bring order out of chaos. Information overload and information glut are pressing problems, which frequently overwhelm, frustrate and in a worst-case scenario impede learning, exploration and the creation of new knowledge. We all know that, increasingly, without suitable opportunities to practice and develop information literacy competencies, a sizable number of the population will find themselves isolated both economically and socially. In short, the world needs librarians more than ever.

I believe the librarianship profession needs to take a greater role in shaping the knowledge society and the knowledge economy. We are the information profession. We cannot afford to be sidelined as the information age develops into the knowledge society. We need to shape agendas, not to respond to them! If we cannot meet and address the emerging information requirements, others will transform and re-position themselves to take our roles and ultimately our jobs. This is not just “Google or Bust.” This is change or bust.

We are perfectly capable of turning the threat of change into an opportunity. Building on our core competencies, skills and experiences and adapting these to meet the emerging requirements of the information fuelled economy, is a necessary starting point. The core role of the librarian and information worker is very much fit for purpose. However, how and where we apply these skills to add value and create impact requires a fundamental shift. We need to take ourselves out of our traditional comfort zones into areas where we are perhaps not welcome and / or lack confidence.

Where then do we turn our attention? For those of you who have read my President’s perspective in Information Scotland or have heard me talk at a Branch or Group event, you may be aware of my thoughts, and I’d like to bring some of them together here.

The area which I see has the greatest potential in terms of the profession demonstrating value is in the area of corporate information.

A number of universities are now realising that if they are to effectively manage Freedom of Information, if they are to have portals which actually adds value by enhancing the ease by which users can access information, and if they are to meet our paymasters very detailed requirements for potential students’ access to accurate and comprehensive information about the university and its activities, they will need to have a high quality information architecture. This is a serious opportunity for us.

But it involves utilising and developing our ‘hard’ professional skills. At Abertay for example, questions are being asked as to how information should be organised, presented and indexed to support effective retrieval. Librarians can provide many of these answers, for example by supporting the process of information taxonomy development within corporate intranets and portals.

Most organisations need to manage their knowledge assets better and there’s a greater realisation of the consequences if they don’t. In all our sectors the success of how we do this impacts on efficiency, effectiveness and competitiveness. Librarians can be key to using information management and business intelligence to enhance performance and create new knowledge.

In my opinion the future must be our involvement in taking a lead role in all aspects of corporate information and a central role in knowledge creation. But to do this you really do have to see the bigger picture – the ‘strategic drivers’ – and develop a deep understanding – of your organisation, how it works and where it’s going. This is really challenging, but true in all our sectors – whether it be school, public, special or higher and further education. It’s also very exciting and rewarding, re-affirming our role as professionals in a fast moving environment.

But we need to help our staff see this bigger picture. We must ensure our younger professionals in particular engage with the wider strategic environment in which they work. Otherwise, as a group of professionals, we will not develop the horsepower to shift up the gears and re-invent ourselves. We will cease to be perceived as adding value, never mind as an agent of change and transformation. Can we deliver on this?

As a profession we’ve got a well earned reputation as effective communicators and facilitators. We are highly adept at liaison and team working. Generally we have excellent customer facing skills, we are approachable, flexible and keen to help. All positive and worthy attributes. But in terms of marketing ourselves, has the emphasis on the ‘soft skills’ diminished our reputation as experts in the organisation of knowledge and the management of information?

Or indeed, do we still have proficiency in the ‘hard skills’ associated with information management? Personally, I would struggle if asked to devise a facetted classification scheme to organize context within our University portal. I had to think twice the other week when a colleague was discussing the merits of pre and post coordinate indexing as applicable to taxonomy development. Nevertheless, it is these ‘hard skills’, I believe, which are increasingly in demand, and they give us a pivotal role within our organisations, securing and enhancing our professional status and value whichever sector we work in.

We can deliver on this.
But to succeed, we need to recruit and retain staff into the profession who are ambitious, innovative and above all passionate about what they do. Passion is vital as we require champions to persuade colleagues in our libraries to continually re-invent themselves and to ensure that our contribution to adding value is acknowledged – and appreciated!

There is no room for shrinking violets in today’s environment. Managers of librarians and information services must ensure that that passion is harnessed and channelled into turning the threats facing us into opportunities.

Information literacy can also be used as a lever to enhance the role of the librarian in an organisation.

Being heavily involved in academic libraries, information literacy has been high on my agenda for a number of years. In many respects integrating information skills delivery into university programmes and taking a lead role in delivery has legitimised the role of the academic librarian. I would suggest that as a profession we not only use the development of information skills within our own organisations as a route to demonstrating our value, we must drive and develop the information literacy agenda at all levels of society, government and business to help our communities at all levels to successfully enter and engage with the knowledge economy. CILIPS is addressing this issue head on. Looking at the comments passed on in support of the Information Literacy Petition to the Scottish Parliament, it is clear that there is much support for our professional involvement here. Information literacy can be a powerful change agent, a vehicle supporting real economic development and social inclusion.

How best do we approach meeting our challenges? One area which I feel can serve us well is to build on our successes and expertise within the profession for partnership working. We share many common goals, and business processes. Greater collaboration will help us to move forward. It will allow us to do more with less.

I’m involved in two outstanding examples. The Scottish Digital Library Consortium is an example of a successful cross sector venture where University libraries, the National Library of Scotland and other public sector libraries collaborate in building their digital libraries. Similarly, TAFLIN, a partnership consisting of practically every public, university, college, specialist and school library service in Tayside and Fife, greatly enhances training and opportunities for library staff across the area. These collaborative initiatives have enabled us to tap into and share expertise, saved six figure sums and enabled us to provide a significantly better service to our clients.

But we perhaps need to be more imaginative and braver in seeking and developing partnership opportunities – for example in England, the University of Worcester and the local authority have achieved a UK first, an integrated University and public library. This is a truly impressive venture! Why have we not done this here in Dundee I wonder?

As professionals we have a responsibility to assess, plan and develop our own skills-sets on a cyclical basis. The CILIP framework for continuing professional development, although in its infancy, is now available. We cannot legitimately call ourselves professionals where we neglect to maintain and develop our skills-sets. If we are not equipped to provide the information solutions required of the knowledge economy, perhaps sooner rather than later, we will cease to exist as a profession.

It is imperative we have a healthy, dynamic professional organisation as a platform to achieve this. CILIP in Scotland has a crucial role to play here and has been highly effective in responding to the opportunities created by devolution. The Celtic Conference in Cardiff this year demonstrated clearly that the professional bodies in Wales and Ireland are also thriving in this respect. In Scotland, with our largely autonomous status, we are well placed to take advantage of further political change if there is a move towards greater independence after the May election and it is of the utmost importance that the very necessary steps CILIP is taking to address its serious financial position does not adversely affect CILIPS capacity to engage in what is going to be a very exciting and challenging political environment.

Returning to my question. “Are you the last of the ‘traditional’ librarians, or the first of a new breed…?”

I firmly believe that both collectively as a profession, and individually as professionals we have a shared responsibility. A shared responsibility to ensure that the information profession emerges as a proactive force capable of providing leadership and influence, in shaping events as we enter the knowledge economy and society. We are guardians of information both within our own libraries and to the communities and wider elements of society whom we serve. I’ve had a high exposure to the profession in Scotland in my presidential year and have had first hand experience of the impact that librarians have made and continue to make in empowering and enriching lives.

There is a great responsibility on us all to ensure that the profession is in good shape to face the future, so that we can continue to make a difference when we are presented with opportunities. For if we cannot continue to change to meet our challenges, surely Google will bust us!

This Branch and Group Day is a sell out – demonstrating the buzz and engagement in the profession and giving me for one confidence for the future. I’m sure you will all enjoy and profit from today’s programme.

But one last plea – engage even more with CILIP in Scotland – join and participate in the branches and groups who have done so much to make today happen, write articles about the things you are doing or thinking – write letters of outrage and anger to Information Scotland!

Information Scotland Vol. 4(5) October 2006

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