Keynote address
Librarians, informationists, wizards and sorcerers: The role of the information professional in the new information economy
Mary Ellen Bates
Just as many online information companies are now finding that their competition is not each other but the free Web, so information professionals are being challenged to re-examine what our profession is all about. What 'business' are we in? What truly differentiates our services in the eyes of our clients? How can we continually reinvent ourselves and our information centres to meet the changing needs of our users? Mary Ellen Bates, a librarian, information broker and information industry consultant, will challenge conference participants to take a fresh look at where our profession is headed and what we can do to lead the evolution
Impact of the web
- Moving from the cathedral to the bazaar
- Our clients see us as just another booth in the info bazaar
- We're taking off the white gloves and putting on the boxing gloves
- Information is a commodity
- We have to set ourselves apart
- We have to market ourselves, not the physical or virtual library
- Think of all your competitors:
- Search engines
- Ask-an-expert sites
- The kid down the hall
- Presentation trumps content
- The perception is:
- Company web sites=high value
- Dialog, DJI=low value
- If there's no added value, there's no perceived value
Examining our blind spots
- Who your competitors are
- What your clients want
- How you define yourself
- What you do or what you know
- What your information centre's core strengths are
- Taboos about what you can and can't do
- What your clients' expertise is
Redefining ourselves and our profession
- We are one information source among many, in our clients' eyes
- We need to show that we are information counselors
- We provide needs assessments, audits
- We are not data managers
- We are not information repositories
- We have to push ourselves past the point of comfort
- We have to reinvent ourselves
- Not just lip service but doing things that push our 'comfort boundaries'
Surviving Without Going Crazy
- We learn to thrive on uncertainty
- What's the best source today?
- If I were to build an info centre from the ground up, what would I do?
- Every 6 months, add a new service, revamp an existing one
Survival tactics
- Having a big budget - stability
- You need howls of pain.
- You need User Addiction
Think like entrepreneurs:
- Start with the client and work backward
- Develop market-driven services
- Be first to the market
- Market penetration
- Customer relationship management
- Survival tactics
- Focus on services and a brand, not facilities
- Look like a dot.com
- Amazon.com is a warehouse, but customers don't think about that
- We're not delivering information; we're providing answers.
Five trends to watch
- Continued churn of new information sources
- Continued fragmentation of information sources
- Greater need to market ourselves and our skills
- Greater need to package content, provide added value
- Greater demand for high-end research and analytical skills. Think 'Information Czar.'
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