By Kristen Shea, SLA-Illinois Chapter

What strategies should new Special Librarians use to achieve success? And can the old pros benefit from the same advice? These two audiences mingled at the March 28 meeting of SLA Illinois Chapter, at the Union League Club in Chicago, to hear the answers from an expert colleague.

In a presentation entitled “Leading the way: Trends and Best Practices in the Information Professional's Role,” Patricia Currie of Thomson/Dialog explored some of the challenges and trends that librarians in any professional setting faces daily.

Money Talks

Currie declared that one of the large challenges in the professional field is the flat or cut budgets within the different corporations. As such, many professionals have tried to figure out ways to either receive funding from other sources like grants or try to impress the board enough to be given a larger budget.

If the librarian wants to attempt to impress the board, then he or she should show them how the library is important to the corporation and their clients. The professional can accomplish this by analyzing the library’s clients and their needs through a couple of different approaches.

Find The Funders

At the very beginning of the process, the library staff should take some time to do some research about their clients. By knowing the needs of their users, they are making the library and information more available and user friendly.

Currie stated that the librarian should focus on the highest-level client or patron because they are the ones that make the decision about the corporation, especially in terms of the budget. By pleasing the highest potential user, the information center would have a good chance of getting the continued funding from the heads of the corporation.

Another approach is to analyze the image of the library and its staff among clients and colleagues.  An easy way to do this is with surveys to clients and users or by word of mouth.  Knowing how they are perceived with by clients and users enables library staff to understand the strengths and weaknesses in their collections and services.

Users As Best Friends

Patricia Currie also indicated that relationships in general are very important. For instance, personal relationships between library staff and people who have influence in the organization offer the librarian a better chance to inform the decision-makers of the value of the library and persuade them to allocate more money to the library’s budget.

In addition, the information professional with key personal contacts would be aware of the current atmosphere among the leaders in the organization which could be used to the professional’s advantage.

Market The Value of Services

Ms. Currie commented on two other approaches, trying to do a cost justification for the services offered by the library and trying to market the information center. She said that some professionals use cost justification as a way to cut some of the services or journals since it can eliminate the emotional part of the decisions.

In addition, marketing the library and its services makes more people aware of the collections and services that the professional staff can offer its clients.

Use Language of Business and Finance

Currie closed by explaining that in order for information centers and libraries to be successful, they must learn to speak the language of business and finance. By speaking the language of the library’s stakeholders, the librarian or information professional ensures that everyone understands each other and there are no barriers in at least language and concepts, which is a great thing.

The presentation was very informative and useful for any professional’s career in library and information services. Currie answered questions about non-profits at the end of her talk.

Free case studies, presentations and models are available at Thomson's Quantum2 site. For a copy of the presentation, contact Patricia Currie at 312.469.1700.