By Cynthia L. Shamel
Searcher
Vol. 10. No. 7

SLIS Summary

Information professionals are not on the radar screen of Harvard Business Review as it relates to knowledge management. Presumably those who read HBR publications could be in a position to hire an information professional. Why do we not make ourselves known to these people? How can the Harvard Business Review write a book on knowledge management and not include the role of librarians? We need to do a better job of getting someone listening to our tune besides the choir.

Why does the business literature not address the value of business librarians? According to Anne Mintz, librarian at Forbes, the role of an organization's librarian does not represent a story. Business magazines might publish stories on companies doing business in the information industry, but not on the information professional. If we had numbers or could quantify the value and give examples, then we might have a story. Whatever the reason, the result is that those in a position to employ librarians are not reading much in their professional literature about a librarian's value; rather, the literature discusses decreases in our value.

Business literature does not communicate the value of librarians and information management skills. Business schools do not teach the value of librarians and information managers along with the role of technology. Why do some businesses have libraries while others do not? According to a 1991 survey of managers at 154 companies, James Matarazzo reported in "Valuing Corporate Libraries, A Survey of Senior Managers" that there is little consensus about which library services bring the most value. So, even if the people in a company value information services, they can't say exactly why or how much. In a nutshell, many businesses do not have library services because the managers do not understand the value a librarian brings.

The Image

The perception of who we are and what we do is often based upon public service library workers. That is often all that nonlibrarians see; library and information work is service work. The main product we offer is service, and the way we deliver that service determines how we are judged.

The same is true for library customers. Customers see library staff shelving books, checking books in and out, reading the paper, and occasionally chatting with a library customer. Customers hear library staff enforcing the rules; this tells people what "librarians" do. These impressions go back to the users' earliest experience in a library.

With these impressions in place, it can hardly surprise that the general public does not see the value that an information professional could bring to sophisticated information management challenges. Margaret Slater sums it up in "Careers and the Occupational Image" found in The Marketing of Library and Information Services 2. According to a survey she conducted of 484 professional workers in industry and commerce, the negative image of actual librarians includes passivity, incompetence, bureaucratic tendencies, unworldliness, and insufficient education or subject knowledge for the job. On the credit side, real-life librarians were thought to possess service motivation, a sense of duty, and a desire to help other people.

Potential customers and employers find next to nothing in their own literature about who we are and what we do. The schools that train business managers and professionals have little to say about the role of a librarian or information professional in achieving corporate success. Those customers aware of librarians and library services find us motivated and well-intentioned, but incompetent and passive.

Marketing

Collectively, information professionals do not have a marketing plan. Segments of the information community do market, but without a comprehensive, industrywide plan. Library associations, suppliers, library schools, and individual librarians contribute to a mix of marketing efforts.

The two largest U.S. professional associations are the American Library Association (ALA) and the Special Libraries Association (SLA), including all their divisions. The messages from these associations are mixed. ALA's marketing efforts focus on the library itself. SLA's message focuses much more on the value of the librarian, and SLA offers its members resources to support the delivery of that message.

First in ALA's list of seven goals: "Increase awareness and support for libraries by increasing the visibility of libraries in a positive context and by communicating clearly and strongly why libraries are both unique and valuable." This is a sophisticated program that allows individual library systems to deliver messages consistently. The SLA mission statement is to "advance the leadership role of our members in putting knowledge to work for the benefit of decision-makers in corporations, government, the professions, and society; as well as to shape the destiny of our information and knowledge-based society." SLA educates its members on how to market their own services and includes plenty of resources on its Web site.

The Library Schools

If librarians are ultimately responsible for marketing librarians and library services, then it would seem that the schools that prepare future librarians must offer the necessary training. Carol Tenopir of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, School of Information Sciences, stated that library schools tend to emphasize the skills and knowledge that a librarian needs to do the job. "Schools do not focus on how to market to a constituency."

Ten years ago Blaise Cronin, dean of Indiana University's School of Library and Information Science, edited The Marketing of Library and Information Services 2. In an interview, Cronin explained that there are no courses in the IU library program labeled marketing. He said he believes that marketing is embedded in the curriculum as part of other courses. Cronin pointed out that professional attitudes in library schools and in the broader library community have changed since 1992. The concept of marketing is more widely discussed and accepted professionally. This acceptance just has not found its way into most library schools' formal curricula. Regarding any effort to infuse the business schools with appreciation for the skills of an information manager, Cronin maintains that there is no substitute for the performance of individual librarians in the workplace.

The Librarians

Accepting that information management is a service-based business, then marketing by front-line personnel is consistent with service marketing theory. As librarians gain more and more experience with marketing, they have lessons to share with their colleagues. Through the library literature, electronic discussion lists, conferences, workshops, and seminars, librarians offer each other guidance, suggestions, case studies, and helpful tips on how to communicate value.

As librarians struggle to shed their stereotypes, suggestions run from how to dress (more businesslike, more casual, more like your boss, more like your boss's boss); to how to act (more friendly, less rigid, more confident, less aloof); to what to do (seize the day, get out of your comfort zone, be part of the team, make money, save money).

Is it working? Can we measure the impact of the marketing efforts coming from library associations, academic institutions, the information industry, and from within the library community? I don't think we really know how effective this work has been. It is time to focus on the profession and the professional. A library without a librarian is nothing more than a document storage facility. With or without walls, librarians are masters of information retrieval, management, and delivery. Nobody does it better, and that's the message that current customers, prospective customers, and all humanity should hear.

The Marketing Plan

Librarians are in the business of information management. Librarians evaluate, identify, acquire, organize, package, summarize, filter, and deliver information. Librarians manage information and deliver it in anticipation of a need or in response to a request. The product that librarians offer is ultimately service. How we offer or market that service can vary. However, we possess a unique skill set that prepares us to offer a unique service.

Competitors are those who anticipate customer demands and satisfy them before the librarians do. The most formidable competitor is actually the customer or prospective customer. The main goal of our marketing effort is to convince the potential customer not only to "do it," but to enlist a librarian to participate.

Librarians bring a number of advantages to the target market. In most environments, the librarian's perspective affords the opportunity to reach every segment of the community and to have a general understanding of the needs of the whole. The librarian offers information management skills based upon specialized training and experience that neither the competitors nor the individuals in the organization possess. These perspectives and skills give the librarian opportunities to serve the customers with efficiency and effectiveness, saving time and resources.

Current customers perceive librarians as willing to help. They value the librarian's research skills and ability to filter and organize content for intranets and in other online environments. On the other hand, librarians have the image of being slow to change, bureaucratic, and somewhat controlling. Among customers and prospects, the general understanding of library services is hazy at best.

Barriers

At a very early age, members of the public have the stereotypical image of the librarian ingrained in their consciousness. The elementary school child in some states may not even see a librarian at school, so the impressions gained there might come from a volunteer or aide. No matter where it comes from there are plenty of opportunities in this environment to serve as a model for the bureaucratic, rule-enforcing, fine-imposing librarian.

In public and academic libraries, most customers do not see the demanding, information management responsibilities that occupy most librarians. They see the public service area and all the library personnel who work there. The behavior of each library staffer reflects upon the organization as a whole, including the librarian. There is no clear outward and visible sign of who's who, so for some customers and potential customers, the stereotype lives on.

Another barrier is the competition. Librarians should realize that their biggest competitor is the customer or the prospect. Children are taught from a very early age to "use the library," but the message to "use the librarian" is not delivered as strongly. Public and academic library customers often do not ask for help either. They may be embarrassed or not realize that the librarian is willing and able to help.

Yet another barrier lies within the library community's own sphere of influence. As a profession, librarians lack a coordinated approach to marketing. Library associations, for instance, have differing goals with differing approaches to serving their constituency. Too often, librarians preach to the choir, sharing advice, strategies, and experiences only with one another. Library schools systematically fail to offer appropriate training to those who will ultimately be responsible for communicating who their graduates are and what they do.

This marketing plan differs from current efforts in that it addresses the profession more than the individual professional. Think along the lines of the "Got milk?" campaign, only this is "Got librarian?" In order to broaden and elevate the opportunities of the individual information professional, the information management profession needs its own unifying branding and identity.

Read the full article:
http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul02/shamel.htm

Posted March 10, 2003