Our thanks to Sarah Bicknell, who kindly accepted to offer a review of the event “Corporate Information Professionals: Building on the past and preparing for the future” that took place on 31 March in London. Sarah is working as a Research Librarian Assistant at Baker Tilly and she is currently attending a course for a Masters degree in Information Science at City University.
On 31st March I went along to the CB Resourcing sponsored SLA event Corporate Information Professionals: Building on the past and preparing for the future. The evening began with an opportunity to mingle with the other attendees – a range of Information professionals from various sectors, including some vendors, as well as some students currently studying for their Masters at UCL and City.
Based on their contributions to the recently published “A Handbook for Corporate Information Professionals” Dr. Katharine Schopflin (also the editor of the title) and Andrew Grave were the speakers for the evening.
Katharine began her presentation “Building on the Past” with an overview of the role of Corporate Information Services, who they can help and the main types of information they deal with. Before quizzing her audience with a picture of John Cotton Dana (the first President of SLA) and going into the historic beginnings for specialised collections, the subsequent development of the Special Librarian that worked with them, and the Professional Associations whose inceptions marked the growing presence of the role.
Katharine took us on a brief journey through time showing the effect that developments, such as online databases, have had on the information available and its accessibility and how these changes have impacted on the expectations for the information professional. She highlighted some of the current trends we are dealing with as: ensuring good information provision following Disintermediation; Aligning the Information Services priorities with those of the organisation it serves; limiting Information Overload; Embedding Information Professionals within departments; and the often mentioned task of doing “more with less”.
Andrew’s talk dealt with the scary idea of change within an organisation, where it impacts on the provision of information services. He highlighted some causation factors he had come across from his research and interviews with Professionals in the field who have been through this. He, also, went over some tips on how to prevent unnecessary change and how to deal with it when it did happen.
(photo by Caroline Marwein-Smith)
He used the mnemonic, complete with picture, “P MUNCHERS” to highlight some important ideas, such as the value of Marketing the information service within the firm and Understanding the drivers and goals of the business, and how the information service can fit in with these. Moreover, Andrew took us through the “Change Curve” – a graph based on a psychiatric understanding of how people process and adapt to change, and the practical ways that a manager could support team members as they go through these stages.
The following Q&A brought up some thought provoking questions and statements regarding the future for the “Information Professional” – the areas that the role can cover these days and the engagement of the next generation of professionals with the issues that need to be addressed by the profession. Needless to say these topics could have evenings of their own and discussions continued into the refreshments and networking session that followed.
I, personally, found the evening pertinent and stimulating, both to my work and studies. The historical overview and summation of how the role has changed and developed over time was informative – and personally I find the history of our profession enjoyable. Andrew’s presentation was interesting in a more practical way as it led me to consider some of the issues surrounding change from the perspective of a managerial role, but, also, how important it is that the whole team are on board with the P MUNCHERS ideas.
*Katharine Schopflin’s presentation slides: The Corporate Information Professional-building on the past
*Andrew Grave’s presentation slides: Successfully Managing your Team through Change
Thank you.