Rethinking Information Careers

Most of us graduate from our MLIS programs with the “library and information professional” skill set: we know how to do most of the basics of library/information work, such as doing a reference interview, cataloging special materials, organizing and publishing digital materials via the web.

Broadening from Skill Set to Knowledge Base
As you progress through your career, that skill set broadens and deepens into what I would call a “knowledge base” – you understand, for example, how the world of librarianship works, its issues, its working language, the profession’s thought leaders, the competitive landscape, the key LIS information resources and media, and related disciplines and industries. Equally important, you have built (or are building) an extensive community of colleagues and contacts who keep you in touch with career opportunities, emerging issues in the profession, innovative new applications and programs, and who’s doing what.

If you stay in the world of librarianship, you’ll continue to develop your LIS knowledge base. However, if you want to open up more job options, consider actively looking for ways to develop multiple knowledge bases.

Building from One Knowledge Base to Another
For example, one of the benefits of becoming a special librarian is that it offers an opportunity to develop an entirely new knowledge base. Perhaps you’re a medical librarian for an academic medical center. In addition to your basic medical librarian skill set, you’re also in a position to create a knowledge base around the broader medical field.

Knowing about the overall trends in the medical field, having connections with industry vendors, attending medical conferences not specifically geared toward librarianship, building contacts and relationships with people, for example, in biomed companies, consumer health firms, or similarly related disciplines, means that you now have two knowledge bases: librarianship and the medical industry. That means, you now also to have two pathways to find employment, two distinct networks to tap for job leads or career opportunities.

For example, during my career I have worked in traditional academia, publishing, librarianship, online learning, and the cable television industry. Because of that varied work history, I understand how each of these industries works, what the issues, opportunities, and threats are, and – equally importantly – I have good friendships with colleagues in each profession. Consequently, if I were I looking for a job, I would be able to explore opportunities in each of these directions.

Choosing Career Diversity
How does this translate in terms of career choices? Well, it’s a good argument for looking for job (or volunteer) opportunities outside traditional librarianship, in multiple industries and professional disciplines. If and when you land in those new industries, start building… knowledge and connections.

Why is having multiple knowledge bases so potentially important to creating a resilient career? Because as we’ve seen in the library profession in the past few years, industries – and professions – can go through major contractions that wipe out thousands of jobs in a heartbeat. Your best job security lies in being “fluent,” and able to make a contribution, in many professions.

Added Value: You Ability to Bridge Multiple Professional Communities
It also places you in a unique position to be able to “bridge” between multiple knowledge bases or communities. For example, if you have an LIS knowledge base and a medical industry knowledge base, you can work as a content or information specialist for a start-up biotech company, a researcher for a medical e-publication, a competitive intelligence person for a venture capital company specializing in healthcare, or a website developer for a pharmaceutical firm, among other options.

Another example of bridging multiple knowledge bases is the work I’m currently doing, which is being the head of content and strategy for a startup called Disaboom.com.  I was hired in this role because of my LIS skills of aggregating and organizing information. But part of my goal in taking on this position was to immerse myself in a new knowledge base – this time, in the field of disability.

Consequently, during the past two years, I’ve learned all of the information resources in the world of disability, I’ve built relationships with hundreds of individuals, and had the good fortune to meet many of the thought leaders in this community of more than 55 million US citizens. Equally important, at Disaboom we’ve had the opportunity to develop unique resources for the disability community (for example, a disability scholarships directory and a directory of over 400 disability-related organizations) that reflect my LIS commitment to creating useful reference tools.

If my career path were to change, I could now look at working in the disability field as one of my potential job opportunities because I have mastered this knowledge base. Because I know this field now, I also know where my skills could contribute most effectively. I’ve already begun to work on a book that identifies potential ways for public libraries to work with their local disability communities.

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste
This quote, widely attributed to economist Paul Romer and cited by nearly everyone in the current economic upheaval, can also apply to your career. If your job is in jeopardy, and the library profession continues to contract based on local economic downturns, now might be just the right time to see if you can look for a career opportunity that’s outside of your current professional path.  In which direction would you like to head?

Kim Dority is the Vice President of Content and Strategy for Disaboom.com, founder and president of Dority & Associates, Inc., and author of Rethinking Information Work: A Career Guide for Librarians and Other Information Professionals (Libraries Unlimited, 2006). She can be reached at kimdority@gkdority.com.

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