SLA
members are viewed as leaders and innovators in the information
professional field, but how we present ourselves may influence our
employers and clients more than we think, Anne Caputo, SLA
President-Elect, recently told New Jersey members.
The name Special Libraries Association has been a handicap because "hardly anyone except us knows what it means ... most of us are not librarians ... and what the heck does special mean?" Caputo said. The association's founders chose the name as a placeholder and would be astonished that it's still being used a century later, she said.
SLA members have about 2,000 different job titles, and many of them do not include the word "library." It's important to recognize that "we have a unique set of knowledge and capabilities that no one else has. ... We should be the czars and czarinas, kings and queens of the information world," Caputo said.
Information professionals should not undervalue themselves and their flexibility, Caputo said. She gave two career examples: a recent job listing and the beginning of her career in 1976.
A recent Monster.com posting for eBay/PayPal appeared under the job title "Research" and used that word three times in the posting, though not "library" or "librarian." The job, though not entry-level, calls upon many skills that librarians and information professionals possess, and pays $115K.
Speaking of "Ks" (as in thousands), Caputo noted that she didn't know what the term meant when she graduated from San Jose State University with a library science degree. She began her info pro career in 1976 at Lockheed Martin in California, as a customer service trainer for the Dialog database. The fact that she was "articulate, frank and honest" helped her land the job amid a recession in California. (The other qualifications that impressed her employer: She was a woman who had been a teacher and, in high school, the Oregon state debate champion.) Her starting pay was $10K, and she's had only two employers since then, Dialog and Dow Jones (though both have gone through ownership changes).
Caputo is Dow Jones' Executive Director of Learning & Information Professional Programs, which is a marketing role. She's never worked in a library, though her librarian skills and SLA connections continually help her.
"For the rest of your professional life, you'll never find better friends or mentors (outside SLA)," Caputo told students. "People in competing companies will help each other. It has given me the smartest mentors I've ever known."
Other associations for information professionals (such as in law and medicine) that use the term "library" in their name "may be watching us (SLA)" in order to determine whether changing their name will broaden their appeal. "We are losing jobs and we are losing libraries. We need to attract more people like us."
Caputo called SLA's Alignment Project a $1 million investment and noted that it was funded several years ago using part of the proceeds from the sale of the the association's headquarters in Washington, D.C. (The association moved to a more modern building in Virginia.) The money funded external validation of the association's research.
Part of that research was "dial testing" where executives record their sentiment (positive or negative) throughout a speech or presentation by turning the dial up or down. Caputo and several other SLA representatives scored much higher than an actress when they all spoke the same script about the information profession. The actress received the lowest scores when talking about info pro topics because she lacked passion. "You can be the most passionate deliverers of the message because you believe it," Caputo said.
Caputo was the featured speaker at two SLA meetings on Oct. 7, one for students at Rutgers, and later at the annual joint meeting of the New Jersey and Princeton-Trenton Chapters at IEEE in Piscataway.
(Photos from Ruth Wolfish and Eric Schwarz. Story continues below photos.)
Caputo spoke about the profession in general, and more specifically about SLA's Alignment Project. The Alignment Project is meant to help members demonstrate their value to their clients and organizations.
She spoke on the eve of the SLA Board of Directors' decision to ask members to change the name of the 100-year-old organization to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. (Members will get their say when they vote online, starting Nov. 16 and ending Dec. 9.)The name Special Libraries Association has been a handicap because "hardly anyone except us knows what it means ... most of us are not librarians ... and what the heck does special mean?" Caputo said. The association's founders chose the name as a placeholder and would be astonished that it's still being used a century later, she said.
SLA members have about 2,000 different job titles, and many of them do not include the word "library." It's important to recognize that "we have a unique set of knowledge and capabilities that no one else has. ... We should be the czars and czarinas, kings and queens of the information world," Caputo said.
Information professionals should not undervalue themselves and their flexibility, Caputo said. She gave two career examples: a recent job listing and the beginning of her career in 1976.
A recent Monster.com posting for eBay/PayPal appeared under the job title "Research" and used that word three times in the posting, though not "library" or "librarian." The job, though not entry-level, calls upon many skills that librarians and information professionals possess, and pays $115K.
Speaking of "Ks" (as in thousands), Caputo noted that she didn't know what the term meant when she graduated from San Jose State University with a library science degree. She began her info pro career in 1976 at Lockheed Martin in California, as a customer service trainer for the Dialog database. The fact that she was "articulate, frank and honest" helped her land the job amid a recession in California. (The other qualifications that impressed her employer: She was a woman who had been a teacher and, in high school, the Oregon state debate champion.) Her starting pay was $10K, and she's had only two employers since then, Dialog and Dow Jones (though both have gone through ownership changes).
Caputo is Dow Jones' Executive Director of Learning & Information Professional Programs, which is a marketing role. She's never worked in a library, though her librarian skills and SLA connections continually help her.
"For the rest of your professional life, you'll never find better friends or mentors (outside SLA)," Caputo told students. "People in competing companies will help each other. It has given me the smartest mentors I've ever known."
Other associations for information professionals (such as in law and medicine) that use the term "library" in their name "may be watching us (SLA)" in order to determine whether changing their name will broaden their appeal. "We are losing jobs and we are losing libraries. We need to attract more people like us."
Caputo called SLA's Alignment Project a $1 million investment and noted that it was funded several years ago using part of the proceeds from the sale of the the association's headquarters in Washington, D.C. (The association moved to a more modern building in Virginia.) The money funded external validation of the association's research.
Part of that research was "dial testing" where executives record their sentiment (positive or negative) throughout a speech or presentation by turning the dial up or down. Caputo and several other SLA representatives scored much higher than an actress when they all spoke the same script about the information profession. The actress received the lowest scores when talking about info pro topics because she lacked passion. "You can be the most passionate deliverers of the message because you believe it," Caputo said.
In Caputo's presentation below, some of the images on the SlideShare presentation include light scratch marks that did
not display on the original file. For an alternative download please go
to http://bit.ly/2OQfpQ.
Alignment Njsla Caputo102009 Rev
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