• Why did you feel that a book on writing a library business plan needed to be written?

The initial idea stemmed from discussions back in the 1980s among medical librarians about whether a library should be managed as a business.  I felt at that time that a number of librarians (including me) were in the field that had no business or management training and that training would be helpful.

The second stimulus came about because I’m really poor at planning (nobody I knew was any good at it either!).   I thought if my library had a well written  (read: simple) business plan to follow then the everyday questions as well as the more strategic issues might be easier to reckon with.  Turns out a business plan made everything much easier.

But it was a frustrating initial experience because it’s so much easier for me to do than to sit and think.  The situation was similar to the initial stages of a PubMed search where I have to think about what I really want to find and identify the words to describe what I’m looking for – then run the search.  Planning made me stop and look and the various issues that affected my library, what our strengths and weaknesses are, and how to overcome the difficulties we were encountering.

The idea of a business plan to me is similar to strategic planning – but on a smaller scale.  The business plan sets the stage for a more successful long-term or strategic plan.

A feature of the book that was an experiment for me was the idea that if a reader were provided with a template or recipe – then given various phrases to adjust and insert into the template – the process might be vastly simplified.  So far responses from readers tell me the experiment is working!

 

• Who should read your book?

Anyone who has to plan an activity, service, staffing issue, any type of a plan – or a whole business plan – can use this book.  The template is easily adjustable for any size issue that needs addressing.   It’s not just for the library world – the templates can be used by any industry or profession – the language of the phrases has to change to suit the field.

 

• What will readers discover from your book?

Planning is a heck of a lot easier than anticipated.  And if the plan is followed and the new activity is monitored and measured to determine if it’s working as hoped for – they’re going to find that planning is a lot more flexible and workable than they considered.  Any plan has to shift – it has to be flexible and respond to current needs.

A plan helps keep track of what’s been done and what will happen next.  Documented information is a lot easier to attach monetary value to than non-documented notes.    This is useful as librarians from different venues have to communicate with their financial offices.  The adage about “true communication is speaking in the language of the listener” is never truer than when talking about money.

 

• What do you consider to be the most important change to the field of librarianship that you have witnessed?

The most important evolution I’ve experienced is the connection of clinical literature and its value to the institution.  It wasn’t until we could prove that a piece of information contributed to the bottom line that libraries began to have real influence in the organization.  Before then it was a “good” thing to have.  Now, it’s an asset.

Learn more about Joy and her book, Creating Your Library’s Business Plan: A How-To-Do-It Manual with Samples on CD-ROM.

You know that having good relationships with the media will benefit your archives or other cultural institution, and perhaps you have even included them in a plan to enhance your the marketing and public relations efforts. After all, media can not only help you spread the word about your programming or achievements, but at times they can also provide bad press. Developing a good relationship with the media is key to helping you weather such storms.

Today’s How-To-Do-It Tip comes from Public Relations and Marketing for Archives: A How-To-Do-It Manual edited by Russell D. James and Peter J. Wosh. The suggestions below can help you foster a strong relationship with the media on behalf of your institution.

Cultivation of the Media

All media outlets report the news, but their methodologies vary. This will have an impact on the ways in which you interact with various news venues. In forging relationships, it is important to think like a public relations professional as well as an archivist and to adopt the primary goals of a public relations professional.

Developing Mutually Beneficial Relationships with the Media

When developing positive relationships, you must combine professional integrity with basic courtesies. “Please” and “thank you” go a long way in fostering mutual respect. Use the following basic principles for effective public relations:

• Use honest communication to maintain credibility.

• Network with media personnel.

• Meet the publishers, editors, and journalists whenever possible.

• Hand out brochures and pamphlets related to the archives.

• If a person is new to the area, give him or her additional information about the community—a little kindness can go a long way!

• Attend events at which the media will be present, such as ribbon cuttings, government meetings, and cultural events.

• Always ask the media for a deadline; if you cannot meet the deadline, explain your reasons and see if an extension is possible.

• Send public service announcements to all local television, radio, and newspaper outlets.

• Think of events as party invitations—they are appreciated even if possible attendees need to decline.

• Overlooking individual outlets can create ill-will.

• Always maintain an open, consistent, and impartial relationship with the media; be sure that all media outlets receive the same press releases and notices of a newsworthy story.

• Fairness of actions will result in reciprocity and goodwill.

• When multiple media representatives are present, be sure to speak to each of them.

• To create personal relationships, contact individuals rather than departments.

• Maintain two-way communication to build relationships.

• Do not wait until you need the media to contact them.

• Formally thank the media for their coverage of an event or publication of a story or photograph.

• Conduct environmental research and evaluation to determine actions or adjustments needed to maintain good working relationships.

• Understand community issues that will benefit and potentially damage the promotion of the archives.

• Maintain professional relationships with the media without showing favoritism.

• When calling a journalist, find out at the beginning of the conversation if he or she needs you to call back or can speak at that moment.

• This is a professional courtesy that makes an impression and lets the reporter know that you understand the constraints placed on him or her.

• After talking with the reporter, have materials ready to send to demonstrate that your public relations department is serious and well organized.

- Excerpted from Public Relations and Marketing for Archivists: A How-To-Do-It Manual, pp. 74-75. © 2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery.

• Why did you decide there was a need for a book like this in the first place?

I never thought of writing a book on this subject at all!  I think it was Pat Schuman who approached me when she heard that I was training nearly all the public service staff of the Chicago Public Library on this topic. That would have been 1998 or 1999. I never even thought of training others on anger, but about 25 years before that, public libraries asked me to help their staffs learn techniques for coping with so-called “problem patrons.” They assumed that I knew about it since I’d worked as a library aide in a mental hospital while in college, and then – in my first professional library position – I was a jail librarian. My angry patrons at that time were inmates and correc­tional officers; both were highly frustrated and quick to anger. By the time I was training staff of the Chicago Public Library, I’d had angry patrons in every library where I’d worked, and I’d been speaking and teaching on the topic for a long time.

Let me say that, though I may have started writing based on my own experiences, the revised edition of Defusing the Angry Patron reflects the comments and experiences of thousands of public and college librarians and paraprofessionals who have attended my workshops, as well as dozens of reference librarians, circulation staff, and other public and academic library workers who responded to a short, informal survey I conducted in 2009. All of those library workers reconfirmed the need for such a book.

• What new ideas and information will readers discover in the revision of Defusing the Angry Patron, Second Edition: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians?

When Charles Harmon asked me to write the revised edition, I initially thought that nothing much had changed since the original book (2000): angry patrons still present serious dilemmas for library staff, and the way libraries are run (among other things) still angers users. They are incensed by antiquated library policies, by their inability to get the materials and computer time they want, and by staff whom they perceive as rude or condescending. Also, they still see the library as a safe place to let off steam. Unfortunately, anger is still contagious – a customer’s angry steam can still cause staff to feel mad, frustrated, victimized, and/or helpless.

I soon realized that at least three things had indeed changed. First, the quantity of difficult encounters in libraries – including the number of incidents with angry patrons – has grown significantly (according to anecdotal evidence; firm statistics are difficult to find). I assume this is the result of a dramatic increase in patrons’ expectations. Options have proliferated in terms of formats and media, as well as expedited delivery methods. Self-service and 24/7 services via websites were novel – and not offered by most libraries — ten years ago. Now those advances are commonplace, and users have developed even higher expectations, especially in terms of speed of access. After all, now customers shun email and phone calls for instant messaging and texting, and e-book readers can download entire books in under a minute. We know that unrealistic expectations yield frustrated users.

Second, we are living in a new digital landscape. In addition to traditional face to face reference, most libraries now offer virtual reference by email, instant message, texting, or chat. The anonymous, faceless nature of VRS presents unique challenges.  Meanwhile, Web 2.0 and social media — both recent phenomena — allow easy, instant interactions between users and libraries as well as among library users. Many libraries are harnessing the power of social media to promote their services, and to make the library accessible to more and different users. The downside is that complaints, angry comments, and misinformation spread quickly: one unsatisfied user can broadcast complaints to millions of people world-wide with a few clicks on a computer keyboard. Libraries are still figuring out how to respond to this new breed of “difficult situation.”

The third change is in how libraries respond to angry patrons now. Three examples are:

1. In the past ten years, many more libraries have created procedures to enforce behavior policies. Libraries, for example, are codifying what a staff person should do – step by step – about a user who has broken the rule against excessive noise as compared to a patron who has ignored the policy on limited renewals.

2. Libraries are invoking stiffer penalties with people whose anger blows out of control. These penalties are, of course, directly related to both policies and procedures. And fortunately, libraries are being more proactive in educating the public about their policies.

3. Many more public libraries, as well as academic and special libraries, employ private security guards, though (again) it is difficult to find any statistics on how many libraries do – and on whether having them alleviates angry incidents. But just this week I read that the Boulder (CO) Public Library has reported a “sharp decline in security problems” since it began hiring private security guards three years ago, and has numbers to back up their claim.

• Who should read your book?

It was written primarily for frontline staff – anyone who works directly with customers –  and their supervisors and managers. (Already that covers most library staff.) I was addressing all staff members who are sick and tired of being yelled at by patrons; angry themselves because they feel dumped on by the public; unsure what to do when someone looks upset; frightened by the unexpected high emotion some customers show over a simple library transaction; and, frustrated by their own behavior under pressure. But in the end, the book is for everyone, since the techniques I offer in the book work with any human beings (including colleagues and family members).

• What one thing do you most want them to know?

How about two things? First, I want everyone to realize that they do not need to feel powerless in the face of anger, even if the person’s natural first reaction is paralysis. Second, it’s essential that you avoid fighting fire with fire, even if your natural first reaction is to retaliate. Usually, the patron isn’t the whole problem (which is why I don’t use the term “problem patron”). Rather, the problem is in the interaction among the library as an institution with its rules and procedures, the user’s expectations of the library and personal style of communication, and the staff member’s expectations of customers and personal style of communication. If we change something about any of those things, usually we can “fix” the problem. And often the easiest thing to change is our own way of responding to the customer.

• Please tell us a little bit about your consulting business – why you started it and the kinds of training you do.

I became an independent library consultant in 1980 because I didn’t want to continue as a library director. To be frank, I disliked the human resources aspects of the job, and I also wanted to give up the 60 hour work week so I could have time for a baby. I was fortunate to have had a number of small consulting jobs and staff workshop offers already, so I felt I might be able to make the leap into consulting.

From the beginning, my consultancy has specialized in extending public library services to people who do not use them in traditional ways or places. In other words, I have worked with people most public librarians never see. So my focus has been on the people aspects of librarianship as compared to technology or collections or buildings. I’ve pretty much split my time between consulting and training.  On the consulting side, I’ve concentrated on planning, assessment, and the establishment of new library services. For example, helping libraries plan for and provide services for people with disabilities has been a major focus. Another has been assisting libraries who want to measure the impact of services on users.

On the training side, I’ve done everything from lunchtime lectures to multi-day workshops and college courses, usually in the same areas on which I consult. My most popular workshops are on customer service, outcome measurement, serving people with disabilities, and defusing anger. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work in over 40 states, training more than 10,000 professionals and paraprofessionals.

• In addition to consulting and training, you‘ve written 13 books and numerous reports and articles.  How does your writing relate to your work?

The two are intertwined. The books allow me to extend what I know to many more people than I’ll ever actually meet; they also serve as the only PR for my consulting and training. Everything I learn while preparing to write, I also use in my work; and anything I learn from my consulting and training, I use in my writing.

• This is your 4^th book for Neal-Schuman. Any comments?

Actually, it’s my 6^th book for Pat Schuman.  My first book, Using Bibliotherapy: A Guide to Theory and Practice, was written at the request of ALA Publishing (now called ALA Editions). But when I submitted the manuscript, it was rejected because the editor thought my ideas were too radical (i.e. they didn’t conform to an earlier book ALA had published on the topic) and my style too academic. A mutual friend, Kathleen Weibel, urged me to take the manuscript to Pat who had a “Neal-Schuman Professional Books” imprint under Oryx Press. Pat liked the book, and devoted a good deal of time (an unusually large amount, I now know) to editing it. She taught me that readers trust authors and don’t question the source of every comment and the provenance of every idea. (Basically, we cut out most of the many footnotes.)

Using Bibliotherapy and The Bibliotherapy Sourcebook, a companion volume Pat requested, went on to win ALA’s Shaw Award for Library Literature in 1980. The award says, in part, “Her work points us in new, useful directions.” Pat and I were both jubilant – I was a first-time author who couldn’t believe her book was so well received, and she was a smart and hard-working editor who saw the irony (and enjoyed sharing it with her publishing colleagues): the American Library Association’s awards committee recognized my ideas as new and useful, while ALA Publishing had found them “radical,” unacceptable, and unpublishable.

Since then, I’ve written books for 6 other publishers, but have returned to Neal-Schuman the most often — whenever possible. I have enjoyed working with the Neal-Schuman team, and am sorry that Pat and Jack’s retirement means that Neal-Schuman will soon become an imprint of (you know it’s coming…) ALA Editions. Still, I’ll always be grateful to Kathleen and to Pat for making me an author.

Learn more about Defusing the Angry Patron: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, Second Edition on the book’s Web page.

From the press release:

An Evaluation of the Benefits and Value of Libraries, to be released in North America by Neal-Schuman Publishers on March 10, 2012, offers practical guidance on gauging library performance through clear, understandable economic methods.

Library consultant Viveca Nyström and e-channels librarian Linnéa Sjögren offer authoritative guidance on conducting benefits assessments in a way that assumes no prior knowledge of economics. The first three chapters provide an introduction to performance analysis and benefits assessment that can be applied to any library setting. Other topics include the financial benefit assessment, cost-benefit analysis on one-time investments, and customer surveys. The authors also describe the persona method, which uses personas of fictional library users to generate data, and the balanced scorecard method, which is used for systematic follow-up. The book is packed with practical examples and numerous sample customer surveys.

Click here to find out more about this and other titles in Neal-Schuman’s press release database.

Without a careful plan that includes a clear goal, consistent message, and targeted audience, a library’s efforts to produce a newsletter, develop a brochure, or create a website can fall short of quality public relations, and even do more harm than good. Bringing  the same enthusiasm to the planning of the project, and not just the project itself, can ensure that your library’s outreach efforts are successful. Identifying a clear goal for the project can be a good first step in the planning process.

Library Public Relations, Promotions, and Communications, Second Edition: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians by Lisa A. Wolfe walks you through four key questions that can help you identify and flesh out this goal.

You probably have some idea–no matter how vague–of what you want to achieve with your public relations efforts. Answering the following questions in the next section may help you to clarify your public relations goal.

1. What is it that you want to tell people?   This is your message. You need to determine what it is you want people to know or understand. Often your message will have a quality that is more subjective than just conveying information. For instance, you won’t just want people to know about your books-by-mail service–you’ll also want them to believe that it is a valuable community service. At other times, you will just want to convey information, such as how the library’s new overdue policy works. It is important to try to keep your message as simple and focused as possible.
2. Who do you want to tell?   Determining the audience for your message is critical to your success. Think about who needs to know what you are communicating. If your message is preschool storytime hours, then your primary audience is parents of preschoolers and your secondary audience may be day-care providers. Deciding who needs to receive your message will help you determine how to communicate it. Remember to consider your internal audiences. Chapter 5 provides an in-depth discussion of choosing your audience.
3. When do you want to communicate your message?   Timing is everything. Trying to spread the word about school library services is probably more appropriate during the school year than during the summer when families, teachers, and students aren’t focused on school. If you are promoting an event, it is important to communicate your message intensively in a concentrated time period before the event. Sometimes it may take you longer to plan your public relations/communications efforts than to implement them.
4. Why do you want to tell people about this? Do you want them to do anything?   These questions go back to the subjective nature of your message. Once people learn about what you are trying to communicate, do you need them to act? Is this a proactive message? Do you want them to attend an event? Actively support the retention of a library service? Vote for supplemental funding?

Look carefully at the answers to these questions. They should form the foundation of the public relations goal. Remember that a goal should include a statement of what you want to achieve, delineate a time frame for achieving it, and indicate how you are going to measure your success.

 

- Excerpted from Library Public Relations, Promotions, and Communications, Second Edition: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, pp. 17-18. © 2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Remember, there is a practical, new How-To-Do-It Tip from Neal-Schuman’s acclaimed How-To-Do-It Manuals® every two weeks. Make sure you never miss an update by subscribing to our blog feed or signing up for email delivery

Have you given thought to the whole life-cycle of managing a library collection? This is a topic discussed in depth in Making a Collection Count: A Holistic Approach to Library Collection Management, and today co-author Holly Hibner speaks with us about her book. Holly is currently the Adult Services Coordinator at the Plymouth District Library in Plymouth, Michigan. Holly was the recipient of the Michigan Library Association’s Loleta D. Fyan Award in 2007 and is the co-founder of the popular blog Awful Library Books.

• Why did you and your co-author Mary Kelly decide to write Making a Collection Count: A Holistic Approach to Library Collection Management?

Gluttons for punishment? Just kidding. Someone at Chandos contacted us, saying she had seen some of our previously-published articles and presentations on Slideshare. She asked if we had considered writing a book (we hadn’t!). Mary and I are always looking for a new experience, and we love projects that push our skills to the limit and force us to learn new things. A book seemed like the perfect way to share our passion for collection management, while learning something new.

• How does the holistic approach you take differ from other resources on library collection management?

There are plenty of books about collection development. They talk about the selection process and the weeding process, but we hadn’t found anything that looked at the big picture of collection management. Our approach considers every stage in what we call the collection lifecycle, from selection to weeding and everything in between. We believe that a collection is only successful if every stage in the lifecycle is constantly evaluated. A collection has to be managed at every step.

• What will readers discover from your book?

Readers will be inspired to look at the collections they manage from different points of view. They will discover techniques for things like taking a physical inventory and evaluating their collection management workflow. They will find that managing a collection is a challenging and rewarding experience!

• What is the most common challenge facing librarians in collection development?

Keeping up with ever-changing formats is a challenge common to librarians in every type of library. Librarians have to decide what formats will work in their collections, and for their patrons. They also have to plan their budgets accordingly, considering which titles they will purchase in multiple formats. Librarians who started out managing a collection of books may soon find themselves managing a collection of books, e-books, DVDs, BluRays, CD-ROMs, and audio books!

• What do you consider to be the most important change to the field of librarianship that you have witnessed?

Librarians have had to adapt to technology. They have had to keep up with those changing formats I mentioned above, and be able to search more sophisticated catalogs and databases. Librarians have become trainers, teaching our library users how to find and use information in a variety of formats.

Learn more about Making a Collection Count: A Holistic Approach to Library Collection Management on its Web page, and don’t forgot to check out the blog Awful Library Books for more from Holly.

 •  What will readers discover in Practical Open Source Software for Libraries?

 

I hope that in reading Practical Open Source Software for Libraries librarians will learn that open source is about so much more than cost savings and code.  In addition to the theoretical lessons in the book though, they will walk away knowing about at least one new open source tool (hopefully many more) that they can use to provide better services in their libraries today.

•  What do you consider the biggest challenge that you address in your book?

 As with all technologies, there are many preconceived notions about open source software that libraries have.  These notions are often fueled by fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) and not in fact accurate.  In the book I try to dispel these myths and educate librarians about what open source really is and what it really means to use open source software in our libraries.

•  What is the biggest advantage of libraries adopting open source software?

Freedom!  When choosing open source software for your library you’re choosing to be in control and have the freedom over the direction the software takes.  Many people choose open source because it can often offer cost-savings, but the real power and value in open source is the freedom to use, distribute, alter, and study the software for any purpose.

•  Who should read your book?

I’d of course love if everyone read the book.  Barring that the book is geared toward those who make software decisions in the library. This does not limit the audience to administrators and systems librarians, but to those who evaluate software both for the library staff and the patrons they serve.  The book will also interest those looking to learn more about open source in general and find alternate software applications for their home computers.

Learn more about Nicole’s book on its Web page, and don’t forgot to check out her website for more information about open source software.

Having grown up in an increasingly digital environment, many of today’s college students think that they can conduct research by simply Googling a topic. But doing so will not yield fruitful results. Engaging First-Year Students in Meaningful Library Research: A Practical Guide for Teaching Faculty will help academic librarians and other instructors instill successful research skills in the new generation of scholars.

From the press release:

First-year students have had trouble conducting research tasks since the dawn of time, but today’s generation of undergraduates faces the increasingly complex online information environment with too- frequent reliance on Internet tools like Google. Academic librarians and other instructors have the immense challenge of teaching students not only how to conduct research, but often what research really is. Engaging First-Year Students in Meaningful Library Research: A Practical Guide for Teaching Faculty, to be released in North America by Neal-Schuman Publishers on January 20, 2012, discusses the importance of instilling information literacy competencies in first-year students and offers practical strategies for doing so, arming them with skills they will need throughout their college and professional careers.

Click here to find out more about this and other titles in Neal-Schuman’s press release database.

While copyright is an issue that all librarians face, questions about fair use occur frequently in the classroom. Neal-Schuman author Rebecca P. Butler, a Presidential Teaching Professor at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, has written a book that addresses this very complexity. She teaches, researches, and writes in the area of copyright law for K-12 educational institutions, and Copyright for Teachers & Librarians in the 21st Century is her third book with Neal-Schuman on this subject.

•   How did you learn so much about copyright law and education?

I am not a lawyer. Instead, I am a university professor (school libraries and instructional technology), as well as a former school librarian. (I have also worked as a public, special, and medical librarian, and worked in university and college libraries.) As a librarian, I always had an interest in copyright law as it pertains to the borrowing of library materials. About 16 years ago, the university that I was teaching at asked me to study copyright and inform its faculty of issues surrounding it in the university setting. I began studying and researching in this area, and discovered that I really was fascinated with the practicalities and ethics of this particular law and the issues surrounding it. Copyright has been a strong interest of mine ever since.

•  What is it that concerns you most when you consider copyright law?

The fact that many teachers and administrators still feel that as educators they do not need to abide by the law or can claim “fair use” for whatever they copy or borrow.

•   But fair use is part of the law, isn’t it?

Sure it is. However, there are four fair use factors, and often educators assume that all they need to do is follow the factor that says educational use is fair use. This is only one of the factors; the law really wants us to follow all four factors: purpose and character of use (the one educators are most likely to follow), nature of the work, amount to be borrowed, and marketability of the work.

Sample Flowchart from “Copyright for Teachers and Librarians in the 21st Century”

•   Many readers have commented on how helpful the flow charts in your book are. How did these come about?

My husband saw me working with questions and suggested that a flow chart might be beneficial to readers. I started creating them for various questions and this expanded into books.

•   Where do you get the copyright questions that you use as examples in your book?

All copyright issues and questions are based on real-life scenarios posed to me by my students and concerned school librarians, administrators, and teachers.

•   What do you want to write about next?

The next two projects I am interested in are (1) copyright law in the university setting and (2) how to teach/train students, faculty, administrators, and interested others in the verities and practicalities of the law in K-12 schools.

Learn more about Rebecca’s new book, and read some of its rave reivews, on the Web page for Copyright for Teachers & Librarians in the 21st Century.

Ulla De Stricker, co-author of The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create your Success with Jill Hurst-Wahl, shares some of her views about the book and the information profession with us. Ulla is a Knowledge Management Consultant on projects associated with information acquisition, knowledge worker support, and institutional memory. Kim Dority at Infonista compared reading this book to “hanging out with two really smart, experienced, and wise mentors,” so we’re lucky to get to spend more time with the author.

·  What were some key reasons making you and Jill feel the book had to be written?

Jill and I consider ourselves “natural mentors” in that we have offered support to professional colleagues for our entire careers. It was a natural evolution for us to co-author The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create Your Success. In it, we boil down the advice we have shared though the years with colleagues at any stage of their careers. The profession of librarianship—in all its modern variants—is changing ever faster, and the career opportunities go far beyond the standard ones in academic, corporate/government, and public/school libraries. However, it is obvious that many newly minted holders of the Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies/Science, as well as mid-career professionals, may not have had opportunities to think carefully through such questions as “What is my best professional role?” and “What type of work environment would enable me to maximize my education and abilities?”. Similarly, matters such as navigating corporate politics, succeeding in a managerial role, and developing a professional brand may not have been covered in any depth during graduate school. The book is intended to raise a number of questions for readers to stimulate their thinking and encourage them to plan – but give chance a chance when it comes to their careers.

·  What have readers’ reactions been?

It delights me to hear how the book is experienced as refreshingly direct and practical. It is gratifying to find out that it is valuable for others to read about “the way it really is.” Indeed, Jill and I made it a point to speak frankly about our own experiences in order to offer our hard-earned insights. A second feature readers appreciate is the fact that the book has relevance throughout a career—some chapters will be very apropos for students and recent graduates while other chapters will resonate more once some experience has been accumulated. We did intend the book as a permanent career companion as well as a perfect graduation gift!

·  How did you like writing this book, and do you have a favorite chapter or section?

I enjoyed every bit of the writing, yet if I were to point out two areas particularly close to my heart they would be knowing who you are and developing your brand. I’m passionate about encouraging colleagues to shed any shyness and get busy promoting their skills to potential employers—and that is not at all straightforward (quite apart from the fact that some members of our profession express a reluctance to toot their horns). At the same time, I’m down to earth about the need for information professionals to project a polished image commensurate with their competencies and to build a reputation through association work and similar profile-raising activity. Here, I always stress the good news that giving to the profession through volunteering returns benefits many times over… it pays to get involved.

·  If you could achieve one small miracle for the information profession today, what would it be?

I would dearly love to see in my lifetime a dramatic lift in the overall societal understanding of what information professionals do. In some professions, practitioners—say, veterinarians and accountants—do not need to explain their work because their value and functions are well understood by most people. Information professionals, however, very much need to explain to potential employers how their qualifications are applicable to a gamut of roles, for example in client relations, marketing, policy analysis, and more. It would be a major career boost for our profession if private sector managers, government officials, and policy makers were clear on the wisdom of investing in the skills of an information professional. The challenges of information overload, knowledge worker silos, loss of intellectual capital through retirement and attrition, and similar phenomena will not go away… and information professionals can do a lot to ameliorate them. We information professionals must address collectively the challenge of raising awareness about our potential contributions.

Learn more about The Information and Knowledge Professional’s Career Handbook: Define and Create your Success on the book’s Web page, and be sure to keep up with Ulla on her professional blog www.destricker.com, which she updates with recent articles and seminars.