Notes from the Chair: Exchanging Ideas

Considering there are so many online platforms and outlets these days for communication and socializing, meeting for an in-person conversation seems a comparatively rare and refreshing event. Earlier this month, librarians from the SLA Boston chapter got together for an idea exchange — very much resembling a salon discussion, though more focused and including multiple subjects suggested by attendees.

This was truly some of the most valuable conference programming I’ve ever experienced. The idea for it originated with Journalism That Matters, an organization that travels around the country holding these “convening conversations” for the purpose of sharing ideas and skills. In March, they held one at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to discuss how journalists and librarians could work together.

Other than participants and time, the only other requirements are markers, paper and a video camera if you wish to document the session. Attendees post questions about the top issues facing either their profession or their own work. These are then displayed on the wall, and the audience decides on which topics they want to talk about; those that are similar are combined.

The conversation concludes with a couple of key ideas or conclusions. One person from each discussion then reports the conclusion. Some of the conferences I’ve attended actually had us get up and physically stand with the idea we thought resonated most. And some have even agreed to keep in touch to help put the ideas or goals into place.

It was great to witness the enthusiasm that the SLA Boston president-elect, Khalilah Gambrell, exhibited in hosting this program. Additionally, the date on which it was held was selected so that two special guests could join us: David Cappoli and Deb Hunt, the candidates for president-elect of SLA, who were on the last leg of their East Coast campaign trail – following whistle-stops to visit with SLA members in Washington, DC and New York.

We grabbed our markers and in short order stuck paper slips expressing our concerns and questions on the wall; Khalilah very adeptly sorted them into several categories: Professional Development, Information Overload / Value of the Profession, Transitions / Retirement, Budget issues and Vendor / Publisher concerns. We then broke out into smaller groups to discuss these various topics.

I participated in the Information Overload / Value of the Profession discussion. The latter is a constant issue in our industry as well as others: with the ease of creating information it is difficult for users — even information professionals — to manage it all. It is always interesting to see where these discussions go; our conversation largely centered around cultivating relationships, reaching out to those ‘we don’t always hear from,’ and the value of extending oneself outside of his or her regular routine.

One librarian said she had success in casual conversation ‘just having coffee in the mornings with engineers’ when she was at an engineering firm. Another attendee suggested ‘identifying what’s sexy’; that is, the department in your company with most interest and activity around it. This librarian mentioned she learned this while working at Credit Suisse First Boston when there was a lot of interest in energy markets at the time. I added that interviewing colleagues personally but casually had been successful; that is, finding out what their needs and goals were, and how the librarian might support them with your own recommendations and by developing a kind of informational template around them.

David and Deb circulated to all of our groups, and definitely added some great ideas and success stories from their own experiences.

The time went by quickly and we could definitely have used more of it. A video of the session was made that hasn’t yet been posted; but I will do so once it is live. Here’s another account of our evening by Paula Cohen, another attendee.

We were kindly hosted by Dee Magnoni, the librarian at Olin College of Engineering, at their campus, which also included dinner and a library tour.

It looks likely we’ll do this again in the future; and hopefully this account will give you a sense of the format one might use to host a conversation like this. It’s a great way to get feedback and ideas on questions and concerns you’re seeking solutions for from some very engaged and involved members of the information profession.

— Leigh Montgomery
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Aside Bar – From the Editor

I overheard an editor and reporter the other day discussing coverage of upcoming events in the reporter’s beat. She had looked through all of her materials and couldn’t find a thing going on: “It’s August. Who would want to get out in this heat?”

This is the month when everything slows to a crawl. We’re used to the heat in South Texas, but it’s been brutal even for us. We’re even running out of ways to describe it; I recently saw the phrase “still very hot” on our weather page –after three days of “very hot.”

However, I don’t think it ever gets truly “slow” for any of us anymore. It just means that perhaps we have a chance to get to all the tasks we had been putting off while the daily workload was heavy. Now, we just have to remember what all those tasks were…

Go through your task list. Or more likely, excavate the pile of stuff on your desk or in your to-do bin. Confront your inner procrastinator by doing the one thing you’ve been putting off the longest. Check your Favorites on your Internet browser and look at some blogs or websites you haven’t visited in a while. See what they are talking about.

Navel-gazing has its benefits. We can become more efficient, troubleshoot problems, find a new resource, analyze our methods and more… if we would take a moment and do it. Of course, if you have the attention span of a gnat, like I do, try not to get too distracted (or click on too many unrelated links).

Since we’re not getting out in the heat, curl up with your circular fan and contemplate! Let the whirring of the blades become your white noise against all the distractions and pressures of your worklife.

Or call up a colleague at another library — one you haven’t talked to in awhile or would like to know better. Have a virtual back-porch-swing chat (some iced sweet tea might help too). Talk about a project or problem that’s been at the back of your mind but which you’ve been too busy to tackle. Let the conversation take you where it takes you. Perhaps you’ll learn a few things or solve some additional problems.

–Julie Domel

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Forbes editor’s ode to news research

In a new blog entry, Forbes editor Tim Ferguson praises the skills of news researcher Susan Radlauer, who has recently been promoted to director of research services.

He goes on to discuss how invaluable she is, how she can’t be replaced by Wikipedia or Google, and even links to Michelle Quigley’s list of News library layoffs and buyouts.

Well put!

–Julie Domel
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2011 Conference Planner’s Report from Philadelphia

Via NewsLib

For SLA 2011, the News Division held or co-sponsored 12 events, on- and off-site. There were 2 tours during the weekend: one of the Philadelphia Inquirer, led by Michael Panzer, and the other of the Rosenbach Museum and Library, organized by Kathryn Pease. We also held our regularly scheduled events: a meeting of the executive board & the annual business meeting. There was also the News Division Open House and Silent Auction, held in the Philadelphia Convention Center Marriott.

As we have moved away from offering a CE course, this year’s ticketed session was held Monday morning, and was led by the Division’s Derek Willis, on the top of linked data and newsroom archives. There were 10 tickets sold as of the week before the conference and attendance was over that.

We had four other topical sessions that were well-attended — two required either breaking down airwalls or shifting the set-up of the room to accommodate more chairs. Those sessions, and their co-sponsors, if any, were:

  • Intentional Misinformation on the Internet (co-sponsored by the Advertising and Market Division)
  • Researching Privately-Held Data (co-sponsored by the Competitive Intelligence Division)
    Taxonomies and News (co-sponsored by the Taxonomy Division)
  • Opening Up the Special Library
  • In addition, News was one of a number of co-sponsors of a Spotlight Session: Creating Your Future the Peter Drucker Way.

There was also the delightful News Division Awards Reception, held at the College of Physicians (which also holds the famous Mütter Museum of medical curiosities): award recepients included Peter Johnson, Kee Malesky, Shira Kavon, Amy Disch (in absentia), Michelle Quigley (in absentia), and Donna Scheeder. The reception was well-organized by Kathryn Pease.

Thanks especially to Leigh Montgomery, Kathryn Pease and Catherine Kitchell for providing incredible amounts of support, thanks to all of the presenters, and thanks to all of you, those who were able to attend the conference and those cheering on from home. Next year’s conference will be in Chicago, IL, and I hope to see many of you there.

Eli Edwards
News Division 2011 Conference Planner

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SLA Session — Using the Internet to Research Private Companies

Using the Internet to Research Private Companies
Presented by August Jackson of Verizon
august (at) augustjackson (dot) net
Tuesday, 14 June 2011, 8 a.m.

Practical tips for finding info about private companies

Slides (complete with appendix and additional resource links) for this presentation can be found at augustjackson.net

This was an informative useful session and August was an entertaining speaker. Twenty minutes into this session, the walls came down! The session was packed; they had to add the adjacent room!

The tools for private company research August Jackson showed the SLA attendees were tools we could use right away and those that were free and easy to access.

After adjusting the volume on his mike (I had to control myself to keep from saying: “Yes! We can hear you now!”), Jackson logically started with the best place to begin in a CI project:

  1. Start with “requirements”: define the business decision to be supported & choose analytical framework that best matches the business decision (SWOT etc.). Jackson highly recommended this book to help with this: Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods by Craig S. Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan
  2. Plan your research strategy: primary and secondary research. You’ll be collecting information which will take the form of data vs. intel.; facts vs. interpretation/analysis.
  3. Build your secondary research plan: keywords and identify sources.
  4. Execute and evaluate the plan: this where you choose the sources we’re looking at today: Company websites, public records, local and industry news, industry groups, social media, plus any premium sites you might have access to.

Next, why we’re really here, Jackson listed the types of free sources for private company research:

  • Premium sources: Hoovers, BRC, FACTIVA, LexisNexis
  • Company websites: content, meta tags, link analysis
  • Legal filings: jurisdiction specific
  • Local news sources: location specific
  • Social networks: Twitter, Linked in, Slideshare, specialized networks
  • Industry Groups: Associations, trade publications
  • Job sites: general job boards, industry specific job boards
  • Google maps

And then, using Raynor Garage Door of Dixon, IL as a use case, he went over what each resource would offer.

  1. Hoovers – Jackson views Hoovers as a good starting point, providing searchers with a ball park of what kind of company you are dealing with in terms of revenues, employees, history etc. Some audience members suggested info pros check the private company databases on Gale or LexisNexis.
  2. Mining the company site can yield a lot of information about the private company being researched, such as descriptions, office locations, partners executives, job postings, press releases, sales channels and corporate histories. Jackson also recommends checking the source codes of company pages. Here meta tags show the key words the company uses to describe itself, or hopes to be associated with. Dates in the code could indicate a company’s interest in its web presence.
  3. Jackson also recommends using link analysis tools like Yahoo! Site Explorer or the link command in Google to find out about a company’s online presence. Find partners, former employees, fans, critics, bloggers, user forums, newscoverage and philanthropic ventures.
  4. Legal and regulatory filings, can also be of use, yielding regulatory filings, environmental information, permits (building, export), shipping records, legal filings and decisions, patents and trademarks, securities, government contracts and proposals. Jackson cautioned the time commitment to search these sources needs to be weighed vs. the actual results you might get. Keep in mind these sources are jurisdiction specific, you might need to search on national/state or local levels and not all legal info is internet-accessible.
    • Jackson will search Google for this kind of information using commands like:
      • jurisdiction
      • “public records”
      • probate
      • “legal records”
    • One SLA participant suggested Free Public Records Search Directory, which aggregates links to free public record searches in every state and county in the United States.
    • Other public records sources include patent searches using resources like the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and an audience member also suggested Free Patents Online.
    • For product pricing strategy or ballpark numbers, Jackson suggested turning to sources providing information on state and government contracts and proposals. On a federal level try the GSA and start with State and Local Government on the Net at the state/local level.
    • And don’t forget to check the Federal Election Commission for campaign contribution information.

  5. Searching local and industry news sources can provide a myriad of information on a company, such as location, openings, site growth, people, events, issues, employees, employment situation, management changes or company profiles. For industry sources search for trade papers or journals and for associations, organizations or user groups, as well as searching on theproduct or technology. For the latter resources, search the site or use the Google site operator to search for your company. An audience tip was to look for and follow bloggers who follow an industry or company. To find to find home city pubs/industry sites or trade papers, Jackson might search with these kinds of terms +city +newspaper or +industry +journal
  6. Social networks: Jackson uses Twitter.com, LinkedIn.com and Slideshare.com to mine for company information. He suggests checking out his podcast: “CIP 023: Using Social Media for CI Interview with Suki Fuller, CI and Social Media Evangelist.” Direct download
    • LinkedIn can provide locations, organizational chart information, targets for primary research, hints of business initiative, employee skill sets and perspectives of customers. Don’t forget to check the Groups or the company search on LinkedIn.
    • Ning.com is an online platform for people to create their own social networks, similar to the groups onLinkedIn. Good place to look for company or industry specific information.
    • To find other industry specific social networks, Jackson uses Google and the search terms: +industry +”social network”
    • Slideshare.net is sort of like a YouTube for PowerPoint presentations. People often post their business presentations there.
    • On Twitter, Jackson suggests going to the Advanced Search and searching on the company name. You’ll find people to follow, opinions, events, news…and well, whatever else is out there on twitter… 😉 He suggests setting up RSS feeds of your company twitter searches to monitor.
    • Because of the wall coming down, we didn’t specifically get to 7) Job Sites or 8) Google Maps. The job boards, general or industry-specific can indicate changes or products and services being developed by the skillsbeing sought or the numbers of employees being sought. Google maps can offer the CI practitioner a bird’ eye view or street view of the facility: count parking spaces or see expansion, etc.

Great session. I’ll definitely be checking out his blog (augustjackson.net) and podcasts! Thanks August!

–Mari Keefe, Editorial Project Manager, Computerworld
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Notes from the Chair: Ready for the Unpredictable Future

When I was growing up, I had a science book with an illustration that fascinated me: a vision of Paris in the year 2000 from a century ago showing flying streetcars and aerial cafes. At the time, flight and electric trains were cutting-edge technology that fascinated the public in how they would lift the average person off terra firma. This seems a quaint steampunk fantasy to us today.

Credit: Mydelineatedlife.blogspot.com

It’s a reminder that it is natural to always be thinking about what the future might be, and that even with all the reaching, refining and adapting of those ideas, future visions don’t materialize in quite the ways we think they will.

I enjoy reading about futurists’ meetings in which scientists from various disciplines convene and form their predictions; one in particular said that in the future, journalists would have a small camera affixed to a contact lens, and narrate their observations in a hands-free, unfettered, real-time fashion. This didn’t mention anything about an editor, or a filter. Perhaps this gadget was obsolete before being invented, since now there is wide awareness of Twitter.

Now that there are many more observers, reporters and storytellers, it’s said that any every company is a media company — there’s much more information being produced than a person can make sense of. As journalists, we’ve participated in this, and know of the critical need for skills and tools to synthesize meaning from these random units of information. We may talk about the decline of manufacturing, but we’re just making different things — one being information, and lots of it.

The Special Libraries Association has had a ‘Future Ready’ theme which continues this year. Four areas have been identified in order to be future-ready:

  • 1: collaboration;
  • 2: an adaptable skill set;
  • 3: alignment with language and values;
  • 4: building a community.

Thinking specifically about our news library colleagues, they are some of the most adaptable professionals I know, since many perform numerous functions in their constantly evolving companies. Along the way we’ve developed skills that have us well-positioned for the kinds of changes applicable to other industries. We realized years ago that collaboration provides more opportunities, as well as learning and growth, which are also essential, as the workplace has become leaner and changes in technology more rapid.

Alignment is identifying the needs and goals — whether they are content goals or revenue goals — and seeing what’s emerging that might solve some of these problems. It is also awareness of language being used by managers, decision makers and industry leaders. Applying ideas to needs is true innovation.

Lastly, we have a great community of professionals. In a very demanding publishing environment we offer to help someone a world away either with their concerns or by providing an article. With our extensive network we know we can start a conversation or pick up a phone to ask a colleague how they would either approach an issue or make a recommendation. We renew ties at these kinds of face-to-face meetings, at annual and regional events or as one of our members remarked: ‘All year long, no one knows what you do. Then you come here, and everyone knows.’ It’s nice to be able to participate in that, as those who are attending this week’s SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia.

Just like information, change is relentless. We may not yet have video cameras affixed to our eyeballs or be hurtling through space in our jetpacks, monorails and silver unitards, but as professional stewards of information, we’re ready for whatever the future may bring.

–Leigh Montgomery
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