by Nancy Stimson
This was one of the best SLA annual conferences that I've ever attended. These were some of the highlights for me:
"Future Shock! Libraries for Next-Gen Science and Scientists."
I sat at a table where we talked about interdisciplinary sciences. Some of the useful things that came out of that session were:
- Sometimes interdisciplinary programs fall between the cracks because there isn't a liaison specifically for that area
- It's hard to identify all your clientele, in various departments, so that you can promote to them
- It might be a good idea to create a web portal(s) for people working in interdisciplinary topics.
- We could fill out a worksheet when we talk to faculty and put that information in an internal database
- In the sciences, figure out who is editing which journals. Gather that information and then communicate with those editors.
- Get to people through the labs
- Hand-deliver search results
- Get on the agenda for training new researchers
- Give people the information they want first; then show them how you got it. Don't hide the fact that the information was hard to find -- don't make it look easy.
- Assign an "Information Advisor" to each graduate student or new client
Mary Ellen Bates on "How to Convince Your Clients They Desperately Need You."
- Call your users "clients" not "patrons"
- There is a difference between what your clients say they want and what they use
- Label new services "beta" - if no one chooses them, drop those services and offer others
- Find the people in your organization for whom information translates directly into revenue - those are the people you need to cultivate and provide extra special services for
- "Let's Do Lunch" - Everybody go out with their favorite three clients and ask them
(1) "What do you do when you can't find information?" or
(2) "Describe when you couldn't find an answer - describe the situation" or
(3) "Are there political reasons why your group doesn't use the library more?" or
(4) "Can we show you how to find information more efficiently?"
Don't pitch the library - you're just gathering information.
- Brainstorm with your staff to identify clients with the most difficult information needs, identify their ongoing information needs, and provide excellent service.
- Now, talk to them! Develop half-hour learning sessions. Think of fun sexy titles such as "How to find the information that Google can't find” or “Things our competitors probably know already." Make it a brown bag, lunch ‘n’ learn, or Friday happy hour with wine.
- Consider using podcasts since lots of adult learners learn by hearing.
- Teach them on the web - in their language, from their perspective - what they need; questions they have. An example is located at http://snurl.com/cxex
- Build CD or web-based tutorials - to establish that you are the information expert
- Send out a monthly "Did you know?" e-bulletin, put your brand on it. Make them want to read it: include how to search within podcasts, three cool quick-answer tools, etc.
- Maintain an electronic rolodex of experts - find, use, manage, share information
- People like something other than text. Graphically represent the information. Fee-based services have useful features to support this: Dialog - user defined output formats, report format, tabular databases, use Dialog's RANK to identify trends and experts
- Tips and strategies: (1) Find "information dense" sources; (2) Focus on sources your client doesn't have; (3) Consider data visualization tools (4) Highlight the good stuff -you're not just giving them information but the answer; (5) Extract the good stuff --use Excel to generate charts and graphs; (6) Always write a cover memo, TOC, and executive summary; (7) Learn to write SWOTs (http://snurl.com/18w46),
- Share prolifically everything you learn, where you got your information, your sources, etc. You're not giving away your secrets since it's how you use the sources that matters
- Scalability - Don't be afraid of success. If you need to scale back on other things, do.
* Mary Ellen Bates has a blog at http://www.librarianoffortune.com/
She also offers two free email bulletins: "Search Tip of the Month" and "Info-Entrepreneur Tip of the Month." Email <[email protected]> to sign up.
The Biomedical and Life Sciences Division’s Medical Section sponsored a talk by Michael Leonard on patient safety:
- The patient literacy problem is huge
- There is an introduction to health literacy kit (title?) available from AMA for $30
- 21% of the American public can't read headlines of a newspaper
- 40-60% can't decipher messages with words and numbers, e.g., instructions about a bus schedule
- Many are shamed and go to great lengths to hide the problem ("I left my glasses at home"); a huge percentage even hide the problem from their spouse
- Patients should be taught to ask three questions: What is my main problem? What do I need to do for my main problem? Why is it important for me to do this?
- Check the family's understanding of these three questions
- "Teach Back" - "You're heard us talk about this. Please take a minute and tell me how you are going to explain this to your family."
The Synergy General Session was a panel discussion about the future of the profession. Panelists included Eugenie Prime, Cliff Lynch, and Stephen Abram. Eugenie Prime said that to convince business leaders about our value we need to believe it ourselves, deliver the results, and then communicate the results that we deliver. We need real life STORIES that add flesh to our statistics. Stephen Abram said that we should let people know the effort it took to get the results we gave them, and why it's important, different than Google, etc. Cliff Lynch agrees with the value of stories. One of the panelists fielded a question about how we can deal with different learning and searching techniques of our colleagues under age 35. They said that there is no change in learning styles over the generations but there has been a change in the reward structure. Stephen Abram said that pictures and sound are important for non-visual learners. He also said that the best way to find out what our users need is to watch them and see what they're doing. He said that our behaviors don't match those of the people we serve; they're not like us.
Eugenie Prime was asked what SLA should do to promote our value to top management. She said that business leaders are not inclined to think of us as crucial. We have to go where the business leaders are. She suggested that SLA develop a special INFORMATION OUTLOOK insert to go in BUSINESSWEEK - a pull-out section for business leaders. Stephen Abram said that SLA is going to create a "learning laboratory" with places for individuals, chapters, divisions, etc. - a "sandbox." It will allow SLA members to play with Web 2.0 software in a risk free environment. Cliff Lynch said we should think about information competencies in larger organizations: Don't just narrowly focus on the case for an information center - Where do these skills fit into the needs of the organization of the 21st century?
Roy Tennant gave us "The Only Constant in Digital Services is Change."
Tennant talked about five trends: Demise of the local catalog, mass digitization, better linking, refocusing on user needs, and amazing new interfaces. http://techessence.info/blog/1
Nancy Stimson is Outreach Librarian at the UCSD Biomedical Library
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