Because I was worried I was misrepresenting her, I reached out to Susan Klopper about her comments at the SLA SAAAC panel. She graciously agreed to take the time to elaborate and to allow me to post her further comments.
I stand by my comment at the student career panel at SLA that corporate libraries don’t exist anymore, but let me add some clarification to my viewpoint. First, it is just my opinion, but one that comes from 18+ years working in a corporate library and personally experiencing the dramatic shift in that market space. That said, of course, many do still exist and will continue in the future to be supported by their organizations. But that number, relative to the market, is small and getting smaller every day. With the commoditization of information that has taken place over the past 8-10 years, I don’t see companies ever being willing (and one could well argue the errors in their thinking) to invest in corporate libraries as they once existed. But if you read the rest of my thought about this in the blog, my stating that corporate libraries are dead was not intended as a final statement, but rather as a challenge to the future librarians sitting in the room to think about what lessons might be learned about their demise and how they might position their skills, competencies and passion for working in a corporate environment in ways that will more successfully speak to the interests, strategies, focus of corporate organizations. When an upcoming librarian asks me about working in a corporate library, I ask them to describe to me how they envision that experience ,what they are doing each day, who they are working with. If that vision is defined by a library in any capacity, I can not in all truth endorse the career path. However, if that vision is focused on bringing the skill sets, knowledge, networking strengths we own into the organization and deploying and embedding them as needed within the organizational structure - then I say YES, that is how we demonstrate our value in terms that the organization can measure. And who knows, perhaps if we work our way through organizations on their terms, holding ourselves up to the business models they value, we may make some progress towards elevating librarians and libraries as a core organizational function.
Just my 2 cents - susan klopper
July 1, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Honestly I am not sure what planet this person comes from. Her view of the need to focus on the functions as opposed to the library as an organization or central place are definitely valid. But I can point to umpteen examples (my own work place included) where the corporate library is not only still in existence, but growing in reach and value and in staff. I guess what bothers me most about this perspective is that this is what was told to students interested in corporate/special librarianship. I think this is a very narrow and negative perspective.
July 3, 2008 at 11:40 am
I have to agree with familymanlibrarian. This quote bothers me:
“a challenge to the future librarians sitting in the room to think about what lessons might be learned about their demise and how they might position their skills, competencies and passion for working in a corporate environment in ways that will more successfully speak to the interests, strategies, focus of corporate organizations.”
Demise? What demise? Yes, I hear the stories about corporate libraries being eliminated. I also see articles on how corporate librarianship has a bright future because of the vast amounts of info people deal with these days. They may go by another name, and new duties may have been added, but they’re still corporate libraries. And a recent Outsell report on the global library market for all types of libraries and information centers found that corporate libraries are “the second largest market worldwide (school libraries were first), followed by academic libraries, public libraries, and government libraries. And that the market is growing.
If you’re a corporate librarian in a corporate library, how would positioning your skills, competencies and passion for working in a corporate environment to more successfully speak to the interests, stragies, and focus of corporate organizations take you OUT of the realm of the corporate library? While doing so, wouldn’t you just be strengthening the library? Well, obviously, YES! Our library is well supported by our organization. Innovations are encouraged. We are constantly re-evaluating ourselves in order to make sure our efforts support the organization - it just makes our library - our corporate library - stronger. ROI? Absolutely? Mission statement coinciding with the company mission statement? You bet. PR efforts? Oh, yeah. That’s just what a good corporate library should do. But it doesn’t mean a corporate library doesn’t do things like cataloging and database searching. I would tell people who are interested in corporate librarianship that, yes, corporate libraries are alive and kicking and do so much more than cataloging and research - that they’re an integral part of the organization but it takes work to make sure they’re viewed that way. It’s called a job. Like other departments and positions corporate librarians and libraries require justification - that’s just the world we live in today. And it’s a good thing - keeps you current.
Mary Ellen Bates once said, “The more info, the more important the info pro.” Substitute “corporate library” for “info pro.” We just have to make sure the higher ups in the corporate know we’re important.
I know some people in our profession are ashamed of the word “library:; see it as something old-fashioned. Maybe they have a point. So, let’s keep it but make it a modern word, with all it’s good connotations - mainly that having a corporate library is a good business decision in this day and age.
There. My say is said.
September 2, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I don’t think that Ms. Klopper was implying that the massive downsizing and elimination of corporate libraries is ever justified, but that it happens nonetheless. I’ve seen a major business library at a magazine close without warning and without much thought to how business research (not the easy stock ticker stuff, but the research that required deep knowledge of sources and database language skills) would get done thereafter. You know that a lot of scum consultants are going around, charging huge fees and suggesting to big employers that they can save a lot of coin by closing down the library and rolling out software to their staff, regardless of the consequence of the staff not being able to really do their own research. I understand where Ms. Klopper is coming from because I know that the next time McKinsey comes sniffing around our hallways that our days in my corporate info center are numbered. Transitioning to a different type of job that lends itself to the use of research skills (anything involving business, law, human resources…just to name a few) and marketing yourself as a multi-layered talent is not a bad thing. Whenever anyone in the library field has the guts to sound an alarm, the old guards usually overreact and knuckleheadedly misunderstand the problem. It’s the latter of which should get more nervous than either myself or Ms. Klopper when those consultants come knocking on their corporate employer’s door.
September 3, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Hello:
There are always more than two opinions on any subject - Corporate Libraries and Corporate Librarians are not an exception. People who work hard in Corporate Libraries know how important they are to the organisation. It’s that feeling which makes them harder and harder. But, in general, people perceive that we are a sort of dull characters. Recently, I was attending an assessors program in one of esteemed institutes of Bangalore - one of the comments that came from a faculty regarding Libraians was quite funny. He started as, if “Information is power”, Librarians in the world will claim that they the most powerful - they are the custodians and not user. Believe me, I was the only Librarian attending the program.
After his session, I got up and told him - that I work as a Librarian and I have never claimed that I am more knowlegeable than my user - and no other Librarian would have ever claimed that he is more knowledgeable. They (Librarians) only help people become more knowledgeable. He apologised for his statement in front of all.
The people who do not use Libraries are the one who pass such comments. The users who visit Libraries are the one who get the real fruit of our efforts. But they too forget about the benefit they got.
We need to change the way people look at us - the “so called professionals”. Learned societies of Library and Information Services, have a great job to build the brand Libraries and Librarians. Lets all work sincerely towards building the brand.