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6 reflections after changing jobs and cities

It's been over 6 months since I last blogged here. It wasn't an intentional break, time just got away from me, plus lots of different changes.

Tonight I've written 6 posts in one night. Some may not appear to be consistent with others, such as post 2 and post 4, but it could be that post 4 is a more specific example of radical and uncomfortable change.

1. Autumn in Canberra
2. Compromise
3. Being the senior librarian
4. Reflection on KM and libraries in law firms
5. Unconnected and inspired
6. It's not all available online for free

it's not all available online for free

I am an information omnivore, I will use information whether it comes from print or online sources. Being an information omnivore makes me have a hard time with two different sorts of people. Most of the time it’s been the people who think that information from online sources is inherently of a poor quality, unstable, unreliable and generally worthless. But increasingly I have to deal with the other extreme, the people who think that information from print sources is always out of date, and is too expensive or inconvenient to deal with. I am definitely not a bibliophile, but there is no way that you can try to keep on top of a specialized field and ignore books and other print only sources.

Repeat after me: Right now, it is not all available online for free. And if information created from the past is needed, it will never be all available online for free. I wish it were, but it isn't.

unconnected and inspired

As I write this I have no internet connection at home. Of course, I use the internet all day at work, but would never contemplate working on this blog there. Anyway, I’m writing all of this offline, with the intention of uploading it when I’ve got my home connection sorted out.

We take things for granted, and I wonder if this situation of not being able to blog has made me want to blog again. That, and the fact that my daily commute is way shorter than it was than when I lived in Sydney. My guess is that it’s been halved and then halved again.

reflection on KM and libraries in law firms

I used to have sanguine views about the relationship between librarianship and Knowledge Management. I haven’t had any formal education in KM, but I attended an early conference on the subject - the one which the Special Libraries Association organized in St. Louis in 2000. I used to think that librarianship and KM would co-exist and even support each other - until I worked at a law firm with a strong KM department. In fact the library is a part of KM and its rebranded name reflects this. My experience there has made me reevaluate my opinion about the ideal relationship between the library and KM.

My advice to a librarian interested in applying for a job at a large law firm is to find the answers to the following questions (please note, I’m not suggesting to ask all of these questions in a job interview context):

• Is there a National Library Manager who is a librarian?
• Are library staff allowed to develop the research sections of the intranet, or is that reserved for specialist KM staff?
• Are library staff allowed to work on new technology projects, or is that reserved for specialist KM staff?
• Are librarians, or people aren’t lawyers, allowed to work as Knowledge Managers?

I’m not writing to criticize KM per se, but to express concern at what happens when KM is left in charge of the library - at least from my own experience. I've seen that in this situation, KM ends up cannibalizing the library, creating a two tiered system in which the library is definitely subordinate. The library remains responsible for reference, document delivery and training; time intensive activities which KM doesn’t want to be burdened with. Cataloging remains with the library by default, but it is not appreciated or understood by the KM masters and is marginalized.

KM takes on several higher status activities which the librarians used to be responsible for: liaising and outreach with the users in the practice groups, developing the research section of the intranet, working on new ICT projects and managing the library staff. Because KM is taking on additional work, it needs more people. The trouble is that KM professionals are lawyers and are not cheap. To balance the books, the library is shrunk.

I’m worried that the library could be shrunk to the point where it could be drowned in a bath tub or outsourced without a peep because it has been under-staffed and under-resourced for too long. I’m also concerned that in this KM dominated system, librarians have been deskilled - going from being professionals with opportunities for advancement into occupiers of a dead end job.

This negative experience doesn’t mean that I think that there is no scope for effective and meaningful partnerships and collaboration between KM and the library in law firms. I have just observed that putting KM in charge of the library is not a good idea.

being the senior librarian

My career has changed recently. I’ve had a management role - only in an acting capacity during a maternity leave absence, but nonetheless I got to experience a lot of the good things and bad things which managers have to deal with. I’ve learned from this experience that I can do this management work, and wouldn’t mind doing it again. The experience also made me appreciate the perks of not being a manager. My new role (I’m not naming my new workplace here, other than to say it’s a Australian government agency) is not a managers role, and I’m really enjoying just having to worry about doing my own job.

But it’s not entirely back to how things were before. I am officially the second in charge of this library, and when my supervisor is away, I am in charge.

It’s a big change for me to be a senior librarian, someone who is responsible for coaching and mentoring less experienced staff. It reminds of two people I’ve worked with before who were more senior than me - one example I’d like to emulate, the other one I’d like to avoid.

I don’t want to be like the senior librarian who would roll her eyes in disdain when asked for assistance or advice with research, because it was all too easy for her. This person was extremely set in her ways, and fought tooth and nail to resist any change or improvement in library services or operations. I don’t want to be like the person who would speak glowingly of all the people who used to work in the library and expound on how better things were before. I don’t want to be the one who was constantly backbiting and undermining her manager. Most importantly, I don’t want to be the senior librarian who made sure that she was always given the most interesting and challenging research queries, and never shared any insights she learned from her research.

But I do want to be the senior librarian who gave rock solid support to the library manager, who could speak for the manager and was usually more approachable, being around more often and slightly less busy. I want to be like the one who would attempt to help me with my problems, even if they weren’t in her area of expertise, helping me identify the next steps and solutions by talking through the problem, and then, gently encourage me to work these things out for myself. I want to be the one who could be open to my crazy ideas about new-fangled library technology, suspend disbelief and tell me what I’d need to do to get these ideas accepted by management. I want to be like the senior librarian who shared her knowledge - whether of research techniques, or of the organization.

compromise

I worry that one day, I am going to be faced with a situation where a library where I work is going to be given that horrifying ultimatum: change or die! We all like to talk about how we’re good at handling change in the abstract, but what if the change amounts to some specific things which seem very negative. For example, what if the change means lose your physical collection and half of your staff, that so there is no more physical library, but an online and telephone based research service?

I plan to work in this profession for another 30 or 40 years. I expect that during this time, it’s going to change a lot, so that the librarian of the future may be unrecognizable from the librarian of today. If that’s true, we must be braced to accept the unthinkable.

I’ve worked with librarians who when confronted with "change or die", still refuse to change - because they have integrity and because they’re planning on retiring in a few years. I don’t want to be like that, I can’t - or I may as well start planning my second career already. I’ve worked in a library that’s been shut down, and once it’s closed, it’s gone and there is no undo button to bring it back easily. But a compromised library that survives may return to its original mission when the environment is more favourable. Or if the library changes and survives, it could be that it represents the new library values in the future.

I have no idea how things will be for librarians in 30 or more years, but I think that if librarians don't get used to the idea of radical and uncomfortable change, then the question will be moot.

Autumn in Canberra

Canberra is an unusual city - most Australians seem to have a hate-love relationship with it. Canberra is both a city and a symbol of the Australian federal government. People complain that it is boring city without a centre and a soul, full of dull government workers.

But since I decided to accept this job and move to Canberra, I’ve had a lot of people say to me - almost as a confession - that they actually like the place - that they enjoy visiting its institutions and restaurants, and have some good friends there.

Canberra supposedly has a crap nightlife, meaning that there are no night clubs or venues worth visiting. I don’t know whether this is true or not, and I don’t really care. I’ve already discovered some good restaurants and bars in Canberra - in Civic, Dickson, Kingston and Manuka. I don’t like night clubs anyway, but enjoy being able to walk around on a Saturday night without being worried about drunken louts, which is an improvement from Sydney.

I like that the Australian Capital Territory is mostly national park, and that the beautiful Namadgi National Park is only a short drive from where I’m living, and that I have another nature reserve just across the street where I’m living. I like that Canberra is full of trees and bike tracks. I visited Canberra a few times when I was growing up, usually in the hot and dry (but not humid) summer or in the chilly winter - chilly by Australian standards. But unlike a lot of places in Australia, Canberra has four distinct seasons. I’m really enjoying the autumn here, the cooler evenings, and the leaves of the deciduous trees turning to gold and red.

It’s different in Sydney. The leaves of deciduous trees tend to stay green well into the autumn, even into the winter, then one day they turn brown and drop all at once. For someone who fell in love with the beautiful and gradual fall colours in Minnesota, this seems so wrong.

But this post isn’t about saying good riddance to Sydney. Sydney is only a shortish drive away (I should know, I’ve done that drive a lot lately), and I know I’ll be back there often - for family reasons as well as to see national and international acts which would never make it to Canberra. I’ll definitely miss the Blue Mountains, a unique place which I won’t be able to visit so often any more. On the other hand, I look forward to exploring some of places surrounding Canberra - Batemans Bay and the South Coast of New South Wales aren’t very far away, not to mention Cooma and Jindabyne and the Snowy Mountains.

One last thing I’ll say about Canberra is that it’s a good place to be a law librarian. There seem to be many opportunities for librarians with legal or business research skills, both in the public sector and private sector. There are some amazing places to aspire to work at if you’re a librarian in Canberra: the National Library of Australia, the Parliament of Australia, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Treasury Department, the High Court Library, to name only a few. If you’re a new librarian and want this to be your focus, you could do a lot worse than move to Canberra. The process for entering the Commonwealth Public Service can be intimidating, but it seems that the placement agencies are having a hard time filling positions, and temping is a good a way of getting experience and getting your foot in the door.