This morning’s General Synergy Session features Eugenie Prime, Clifford Lynch, and Stephen Abram responding to questions from SLA membership about the future.
All of their responses were thought-provoking, but I’ve only got time to mention a few of them.
In response to a question about how we can convince our business leaders that they need us, Stephen Abram talked about the need to improve our self-esteem and put an end to the culture of victimization.
Another question was “How can I make my OPAC not suck?” Abrams and Lynch put forward some ideas that are worth some thought.
Abrams said we need to stop thinking that our competition is Google. Google sells ads, not search. And there is a reason that Yahoo gets two and a half times the amount of traffic: they’re no good at selling ads, but they know how to reach an audience segment – for instance, Yahooligans for kids. Search engines improve the volume of results. Info pros improve the quality of the question.
Lynch said another argument is that search engines’ great promise, which they always deliver upon, is the idea that “if you see it in your search results, you can have it with only one more click”. No dealing with interlibrary loans, no having to track down the periodical – it’s the promise of instant access, and this is what is so compelling. Search engines are really good at answering the who, what, where, when questions, but special libraries answer the how and why questions.
Next someone asked about how we should address the changing search and learning styles of the younger generations. The best reply to this was Abrams’: there has been no fundamental change in learning styles. There has been a change in the reward structure of using a particular learning style.
When asked what the most important core competency will be in the next five years, Prime said it’s not a technical one, it’s leadership – the ability to be confident and adapt to change; to handle anything new. Abrams said that as a female-dominated profession, we’ve already got the communication skills to be really good at refining questions. Good point!
Abrams had another good point when asked how we can find out what users want, and why do our efforts never work? He said that it’s all about iteration. The first try always fails. He used this analogy: you see a little toddler teetering around. You don’t look at him and say, wow, what a lousy accountant. Give him time!
Next, a question about what SLA should do to help us show our bosses that we are what they need. Prime said wouldn’t it be great if we could run an advertising supplement on information professionals in Business Week? Heck yeah!
Abrams talked about SLA project to “infect the web” with testimonials from our bosses – so that the message is meaningful to other business leaders. They wouldn’t necessarily listen to us, but they’d sure listen to their peers.
More later on today!
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