Librarian of Fortune

WWMEBD, or, where's the info profession heading?

In April, I was invited by the SLA student members of the GSLIS program at Simmons College to host a conversation about where our profession is heading and how to position ourselves most effectively. I had a fabulous time, and met some LIS students who are going to be great assets to their employers.

You can listen to my presentation and the Q&A here. And yes, there were actually signs on the hallways pointing the way to WWMEBD. Obviously, it's time to start ordering wristbands...

See you at SLA!

I'll be giving several presentations at the 2010 SLA Annual Conference next week. I hope to see you there!

Brand You and Web 2.0
Monday, June 14, 2-3:30pm
Convention Center, La Louisiane Ballroom

Negotiating Up: Achieving Your Goals with Internal Clients Tuesday, June 15, 8:00-9:30am
Convention Center, La Louisiane Ballroom

Inherent Knowledge Sharing
Tuesday, June 15, noon-1:30pm
Convention Center, Room R07 (second floor)

How to become a great speaker in one easy step

Standing up on stage in front of a roomful of strangers isn't naturally comfortable for most people. It sure wasn't for me. But I gained an insight a while ago that I think captures how to take your fear and turn it into great speaking. Sounds woo woo, but it sure worked for me. Here goes...

Everyone has adrenaline coursing through their veins before they get up in front of a crowd. It's been hard-wired into us as homo sapiens. You’ve got a range of choices on how you react to that adrenaline..

You can name it Fear, and tell yourself that you’re so frightened that you can hardly talk, or that you’re just a fraud, or that you’re a terrible speaker.

You can name it Creativity, and remind yourself that this energy serves to speed up the thinking processes in our brains. That means that your creative mind is working at warp speed, while you’re talking with mere mortals in human time. You’ll discover new insights as you speak. You’ll welcome questions as a way to explore the idea further. You’ll be a much stronger speaker..

You get to choose what you name the adrenaline – Fear or Creativity..

Likewise, at the end of a presentation, you’re tired and wired at the same time. Your brain is programmed to run through what just happened. Had you been chased by a tiger, your brain would have reviewed what went on, in order to avoid being chased by a tiger again..

How you react to your brain’s programmed behavior is your choice. You can use it to criticize yourself, tell yourself you’re a terrible speaker, and berate yourself for ever having considered speaking publicly..

Or you can use that energy and review your presentation from a creative and kind point of view. “Hmmm, I completely forgot to make that point. How can I change that slide to remind myself next time? Or, hey, it wasn’t that critical to the presentation; maybe I’ll change it to this other point.”.

You get to choose how you look back on the experience and what you learn from it..

And yes, I'm both a speaker and a coach on this kind of stuff...

Going to a conference soon?

As we approach the conference season, it's a good time to read social media consultant Chris Brogan's handy guide of the 27 Things To Do Before a Conference. He emphasizes the collaborative-web aspects, such as review someone's Tweetstream before you meet up with them, strategically tweet about your attending the conference and -- most importantly -- remember to give your family a bit of extra love before leaving for the event. (I hear a huzzah! in the background from my long-suffering partner...)

And, while he mentions using Flickr to see photos of whoever you are meeting at the conference, another use of Flickr in terms of conference prep is just making sure you know what the dress code is (am I wearing Crocs or heels?).

I'm going to print this out as I get ready to attend and speak at Computers in Libraries, Web Search University, and the annual conferences of the Association of Independent Information Professionals and the Special Libraries Association.

Plus ça change...

In 2003, I was asked to give a short talk at the Information Online 2003 conference in Sydney on the role of information professionals in the online environment. I predicted the day when we saw the distinction between librarY and librarIAN, when info pros permeated the workplace, when we were seen as an essential component of every information management function within organizations and institutions.

I re-discovered it when migrating to a new laptop and realized that almost all of what I said then applies just as much today. It's here, on my Extras page. What do you think? Besides the Microsoft Watch, which is now a smartphone, I think it's still applicable today.

An Info Pro Manifesto

I recently gave a talk at the San Diego chapter of SLA, for their Fall Seminar. Great day - every speaker focused on adding value. I put the slide deck for my keynote, "Wanted: Information Revolutionaries - an info pro manifesto", at BatesInfo.com/manifesto.

See you at SLA 2009 Conference

Join me at the SLA Conference, June 13-17

Publish or Perish: the who, what, when, where, why and how of e-newsletter publishing - Ticketed Event #300
Saturday, Jun 13, 2009
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: Convention Center 209A

Information centers and libraries face the never-ending need to communicate their value within the organization. One of the most effective ways of establishing a strong reputation with their various constituencies is to publish e-newsletters. This lively half-day workshop gives participants all the skills they need to produce internal electronic newsletters — how to use them as powerful marketing tools, templates for creating attractive and professional e-newsletters, and best practices from the info pro perspective.
This workshop assumes that you aren’t already a newsletter expert, a writer or a marketing whiz. We will cover topics such as:
-What's the Point? Building brand awareness, promoting internal information resources.
-What Will It Look Like?
-What Will Be In the E-Newsletter?
-What Other Issues Should I Consider?
-How Do I Promote My E-Newsletter?

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Building Your CI Skills, Part 1: Using the Opaque and "New" Web for Competitive Intelligence Research - Ticketed Event #415
Sunday, Jun 14, 2009
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Convention Center 207B

Strategies and Tools for CI Research on the Web: This lively course will provide fresh approaches, strategies and methodologies to conducting in-depth competitive intelligence research on the web. This session provides tools for searching the invisible and deep web, areas that are not accessible through search engines. It also examines how to "look sideways" to glean new information from sources that do not, on their face, appear to be resources for CI research, including blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, and other Web 2.0 content.

Through discussion and exercises, attendees will creatively perform and apply in-depth competitive intelligence research using these sources, and analyze and synthesize this information into accurate answers and actionable information. This session can be taken as a stand-alone course, or it can be taken in conjunction with Building Your CI Skills, part 2.

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Building Your CI Skills, Part 2: What Do I Do After I Log Off? - Ticketed Event #530
Sunday, Jun 14, 2009
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: Convention Center 207B

Adding Value As A CI Practitioner: the ability to truly create added value and to make that value evident to our clients is something that is learned; it is not intuitive nor is it necessarily a part of many information professionals’ skill set. This workshop will equip SLA members to strengthen their role within their organization, enhance the position and perceived value of the information center as a source of competitive knowledge, and develop their CI skills in order to better meet their organization’s information needs. This session may be taken as a standalone course, or may be taken in conjunction with Building Your CI Skills, part 1.

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Painless (No, really!) Negotiating -
Monday, Jun 15, 2009
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Location: Convention Center 147B

Many more things are negotiable than we may think; in fact, much of life involves negotiation, and the effects of not negotiating can be cumulative. This presentation helps you identify who is "the boss of you," develop your ability to reframe challenging situations, and build tools to enhance your negotiation skills and approach every situation as negotiable.

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Lies, Damned Lies, and Annual Reports: Reading and Interpreting Company Financials -
Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Location: Convention Center 143C

More than just statistics, companies' annual reports and financial statements can be a wealth of information for the business researcher and the CI analyst. Mary Ellen Bates will provide you with the tools to understand financial reports and provide your clients with analysis in addition to just the facts.

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SPOTLIGHT SESSION -- Creating Groupies: How to Add Value, Make Yourself Irreplaceable & Beat the Pants Off Google -
Wednesday, Jun 17, 2009
8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Location: Convention Center 145A

It's no longer enough to efficiently and cost-effectively find the most reliable information available; we also have to ensure that our organization understands the skills we bring to the table. This Spotlight Session looks at practical ways that we can add value to our research products, develop the services that our clients can't find elsewhere and can't imagine living without, and demonstrate that relying on Google (or any other search engine) for making critical decisions is folly.

What I'm talking about

I just pulled together a fresh flier with write-ups of the topics I'm speaking on this year. I'm really looking forward to these presentations; I'm expanding to professional topics beyond "just" web research, and I'm finding a lot of interest in these areas.

I love my job! Even coming up with the titles was fun. And yes, that may indicate that I need a life.

Our Role as Info Revolutionaries

I'm giving a presentation at the annual conference of the Special Libraries Association, on "The Next Information Revolution and Our Role as Revolutionaries."

I'm having a great time developing this workshop -- it's two hours long, so I'm thinking of things that I'd like to see people brainstorm about during the talk. Right now, my issues include:

• Due to abuse and spam, email has ceased to be used as a communication medium. How will you communication with your users? How will you get them on board?
• Your new CTO is enamored of podcasting and wikis. What are the four initiatives you will start that incorporate podcasting and wikis?
• Your company has just bought a Web 2.0 company full of Millennials. In writing a flier to promote the library to these new employees, what are the four bullet points you will use?
• Western Union is in the business of keeping families connected around the world. What business are special librarians in?
• You are asked to develop an RFP to outsource the library.  What would you NOT outsource? What’s the financial justification for that?

I'm really looking forward to this session!

<And insert gripe here that SLA is using "going green" as an excuse for not providing print copies of any presentations to conference attendees. Instead, they're making them available on a web site where people can print them out ahead of time and bring them to the conference. Unless  SLA members are printing stuff off on something other than, you know, paper, this seems like an excuse for being cheap rather than a true effort at going green. And yes, other associations I'm giving talks for are pulling the same stunt.>

Speaking For Fun 'n' Profit

I'm giving a workshop next month (sign up now! spaces are limited!) on "Speaking for Fun and (More Importantly) Profit: How to Build Your Business and Your Bottom Line Through Public Speaking".  This one's being written from scratch, which is always fun, and I'm realizing how much I can say about public speaking.

As I was reading some resources on speaking, I was struck by a tiny little book, All the World's a Podium, by Matthew Cossolotto, a speech writer I knew way back when we both worked at MCI. IMO, the book's overpriced at $12.95, but it's got some great, solid advice. Check it out at  Ovations International.

One of the sections of the workshop is on the actual process of giving a talk. My bulleted list of stuff to consider sounds more woo-woo than even I realized it would:

• Chat with audience before your talk
• Welcome the adrenaline
• During your intro, look at the people in the room
• Pick four people to talk to
• Watch for non-verbal feedback
• Pause, drink water
• Tell stories!
• Speak with joy
• Be present
• Intend to learn something
• Have fun (fake it if necessary)
• Think Wizard of Oz - you need brains, heart, courage and you have them all!
• Be willing to be admired

I think I'm going to enjoy doing this workshop; it's about something I find rewarding and, dare I say it, fun.