How Much is Your Job Worth?

How Much is Your Job Worth? by Jerry McLaughlin

McLaughlin poses two questions every mercenary should asking themselves...

1. What is the importance to the employer of doing the task you fulfill?
2. How desired/specialized is the skill set you bring to the task?

Embedded librarians have a lock on the second aspect.  We bring a fairly specific skill set information retrieval, dissemination, and organization.  

The first question is a bit more problematic.  My grizzled perspective has lead me to believe that My Masters don't always place a high value on the need I fill for them.  So when I'm feeling really cocky I'll ask, what happens if you don't have someone like me doing what I do?  Can you afford to miss something that I'll uncover for you? 

Your Strength Isn’t Searching

One of the skills I use to differentiate myself for my fellow Corporate Drones is the ability to retrieve relevant information, quickly, and from specialized sources (i.e. anywhere but Google).  In other words: Searching.  Everyone can search Google for movie times and the latest news about Google or the next generation iPad rumors. 

So when my friend The Mercenary Philosopher said in conversation that my strength wasn’t in searching I bristled. 

We were discussing a stable of interns we keep on hand for ad hoc research requests.  Interns often give mixed results when it comes to research.  Some are great.  Some are terrible.  But when he stated that the interns could find information just as well as I could, I started looking nonchalantly for the nearest object I could find to use as a shank. 

I struggled to find anything immediately, which gave my friend the chance to explain.  He went on to say that while librarians are adept at find information, their strength really lies in connecting the information together and to people who can best use it. 

As I reflected on the idea for the rest of the evening, I came to realize there was some wisdom in The Mercenary Philosopher’s words, particularly for special librarians and even more so for embedded librarians.  These two classes of information workers (anecdotally) tend to work with the same people on a regular basis.  Knowing what information is relevant in the context the organization operates in as well as whom in the organization might be able to best use that information is incredibly powerful. 

Creatively Avoiding the Post Conference Trip Report

Going to conferences is one of the few perks I get as a Corporate Drone.  A lot of folks think I sit by the pool with cigars and scotch.  While conferences are far from “relaxing” as a lot of folks assume, I always find them refreshing and intellectually stimulating. 

Conference attendees get so much information, however, it’s very difficult to transmit in a way that’s meaningful to people who can use that information on returning.  Sure I took notes during sessions, but no who the hell wants to read those?  And no one wants to read the trip report either.  Nor do I wish to write it since in all likelihood it won’t be read.

So as I was trying to avoid the work of writing the trip report upon returning from the Consumer Electronics Show in January, I happened on the idea of doing a roundtable discussion for my department and special guests.  No slides, no formal presentation, just a moderated panel of a few of the other Drones who also attended CES.  It turned out to be an easy way for the attendees to spread their knowledge, and, more importantly, an easy way for the audience to absorb it.  Additionally, it helped people in the audience make connections with the speakers and further relationships. 

       

Since it worked for CES, I tried it again when a group from The Company returned from South by Southwest.  I wouldn’t say either event was successful from the perspective of attendance.  Each session had maybe 20-30 people.  (Around 120 were invited.)   But participant and audience engagement and enthusiasm was high.  So I’m counting it as a win. 

I think coordinating events like this is often overlooked as a form of sharing information.  But it seems to me that there is an opportunity here for librarians to stand out.  There are a lot of benefits to this oral information sharing…

1. Sharing the information orally is a low burden activity for everyone involved. No one has to prepare a formal presentation and the audience doesn’t have to suffer through PowerPoint.
2. The session spreads the information a few people have in their head farther into the organization and helps justify the expense of attending the conference.  
3. The experts who attended the conference are connected to people attending the debrief who may not know them thereby enhancing business relationships.  
4. The experts who attended get a chance to interact with each other.  I received numerous “thank yous” from roundtable participants who hadn’t had a chance to connect and share ideas with one another since returning. 
5. The Mercenary Part: It gives you face time in front of an audience (as the host) and you get marks for “collaboration” (again at very little effort on your part). 
6.  Another Mercenary Aspect: Even if you didn’t go to the conference itself, offering to coordinate a debriefing session makes you look like a hero by taking the burden off the returning participants to do so.