23 Years Later… And Still Discussing The Same Problems…

Perhaps you have read this post before? Or maybe something on this blog rings a bell? I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

At Library Camp in Birmingham several months ago, I tried to encourage those who did not consider themselves to be ‘New Professionals’ to join in debates and discussions with those who did – especially in discussions such as #UKLibChat. My concern was that much of what I blog about, and discuss with my peers has been around for years. The same problems keep cropping up again and again, but as new entrants to the profession rise through the ranks and gain additional responsibilities, their spare time to tackle these problems rapidly diminishes. Many of their ideas therefore perish, or are simply lost into the depths of obscurity. New Professionals pick up on the issues, but from a fresh start, without building on work previously undertaken, and so the circle begins again.

This was partly confirmed to me this week when an old box of journals was returned from storage. Inside the box were numerous copies of the ASLIB Journal way back from 1988-1992. I was shocked and amazed that the capacity to publish journals existed in the Triassic period, but nevertheless, they made for interesting reading.

Yep, there was technology back then too. Photo courtesy of katerha on Flickr CC

My mirth at the many John Major look a-likes was rapidly quelled though when I realised that one of the journal articles was not far removed from one of my own recent posts. Entitled “Information Work: Occupation or Profession?”, it dealt with challenges to the professionalism of information work, and touched on the ‘Information Professional v Librarian’ job title issue. The conclusions reached were almost identical to the many discussions that can be seen all over the place today; we do not let our users know of the skills we possess, nor are we valued as much as we might like to be. There was one slight difference though, less militancy! The ending sentiment was that providing our clients are happy, then “our professional credibility will be beyond reproach” – sadly, credibility does not guarantee the protection of a service or jobs in today’s economy.

What really struck me though, was that the article confirmed with a concrete date of October 1989, how long these issues have been discussed for. They are not new challenges facing New Professionals and taking established workers by surprise – they are been discussed and debated for slightly less than my entire life, and longer than my entire educational life (that’s school, sixth form, 3 years of uni and a postgrad course…). It has left me wondering, if the problems have been discussed and debated for this long with no avail, what difference will it make now? If it has taken approximately 23 years to get to a stage where libraries are facing closure, it doesn’t exactly bode well for the next 23 does it?

And so I left this blog post in situ, feeling rather despondent, until last night when I had a bit of a revelation. I have since added a more upbeat addendum.

There is no need to be in total dismay. Whilst the same issues are still be discussed, a greater amount of action is being put in place alongside these discussions, and their impact is reaching a wider audience. Fantastic groups such as Voices for the Library are raising awareness, and initiatives such as National Libraries Day are starting to get the amount of press that they deserve. Whilst job situations are still grave in most sectors, information professionals are proving themselves a resourceful bunch and finding work in usual non-traditional roles.

And what of the issue surrounding the point on continuing to blog about issues that have been around for a while? Unfortunately for those subscribed to this blog, I have decided that there is a point to continuing to write about age-old issues. It demonstrates that the profession is still critically assessing itself. By voicing these concerns, hopefully further collaboration will be continued between all levels of the information profession, from the brand new ‘new professional’ to the highest upper echelon of management, so that we can learn from each other, preventing either a one way learning process, or a complete disregard for work undertaken previously.

There is also a point to be made for discussing the same issues, but in a different context. 23 years ago, the information landscape as we know it today was completely different. The Internet was but a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye. The issues that were discussed had to therefore be relevant in a time where people believed CD-ROMs would still work, even if covered in jam and breakfast foods. The solutions that were discussed were therefore appropriate for that time and place, but are in no way applicable now. The fast changing information world means that these problems need to be addressed again in a new context, a world where Opal Fruits are now universally known as Starburst and Coco Pops and milk now make a bowl full of fun. Changes such as this mean everything needs to be evaluated, again.

Catering for “Millenials” in the Workplace

Intro

I’m going to start this post on a negative. Millenials. I really dislike that phrase. It sounds stupid, almost as daft as Generation Y (which I also have an intense dislike for). Thankfully, the LIS profession is clever enough to refer to new entrants to the profession as “New Professionals”, and whilst I realise that the they are not the same,  for the purposes of this post the two will be treated as synonymous  (read The Next Generation  for more musings on Generation Y etc).

The Point of this Post

PWC have just published a new survey entitled the “Millenials Survey” looking at how the next generation of workers are shaping the workplace, and how employers can meet their expectations. This has been done with a view to ensuring super talented people are targeted, recruited, and possibly most crucially, retained.

I figured that it would be interesting to have a nosey through these figures and see how they translate to the LIS profession.  I was expecting the results to be roughly similar with how I think (I am a New Prof in the commercial sector after all) even though I imagine very few of the 4,364 undergraduates surveyed want to go into the LIS sector. I was also hoping that the results would be obviously transferable across the whole profession, therefore reinforcing an incredibly important point – the LIS profession is just as competitive and comparative a sector as other, more common, areas of graduate recruitment. For the most part, I think the results carry over quite nicely.

Important note – since this is a blog, referencing and footnoting is a right pain. Therefore all figures etc below have been taken from the PWC survey which can be found here: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/managing-tomorrows-people/future-of-work/millennials-survey.jhtml [Accessed 22 December 2011]

Loyalty

One of the PWC survey’s findings was that the number of employers a graduate expects to have across their lifetime has increased; over 25% now expect to have 6 or more employers across their career. This is apparently a decrease in expected loyalty to an employer.

Decreasing loyalty will sit very much at odds with the traditional LIS sector, where the usual idea was to stay with a collection to develop it.  As hardcopy stock levels continue to decline, the attachment librarians have to their stock is likely to decrease, and a physical bond will no longer exist (that sounds a bit weird. I hope none of you have physical bonds to your stock. If so, please stop now). Moving jobs and familiarising oneself with a new collection is likely to be simpler in the future, especially if current trends in law librarianship continue and large, often identical “bundle collections” are still being farmed out to firms. Instead of collection familiarity, other (more important?) issues with changing jobs will be able to present themselves instead.

This would also fit in with advice that Bethan Ruddock put forward at a recent panel session at ILI2011. In order to progress, it is necessary to look two or three levels above your current position, and then tailor your job search accordingly to develop those skills you need to get there. With almost certain inevitability, this may require several job changes.

Pay

Just as an aside, almost comical in its presence, 32% of graduates said they had taken a job with a lower than expected salary in order to get on the job ladder. At least they were lucky to get a job, unlike many others. Unfortunately there was not a box in the survey to check to grateful/ungrateful/nepotistic.

Career Advancement

Where the survey results flagged up some differences in the careers of graduates outside the LIS sector was the way in which career progression both within and outside of organisations was discussed. 52% stated that to make an organisation an attractive employer it should have opportunities for career progression. I can think of very few library organisations where this is a likely reason for taking a job. Most structures are simply too small; perhaps national libraries are an exception, or some “information units” (GCHQ possibly?), but for the most part teams will simply be too small to support multiple levels of career progression across a long periods of time. Rather, to gain skills and advance, extracurricular activities will be used, new projects within work undertaken, or a change in organisation needed. It is not uncommon for a traditional career tree to be structured of library assistant – assistant librarian – librarian – head of service. A far cry from the various tiered rankings of business consultancy, law or otherwise.

Thankfully, the profession is more diverse than these traditional structures that I have just outlined above. Rather, the various roles that are available to the forward looking information professional do not fit into the traditional career tree structure, because often the different levels of work that will be undertaken can fit into other teams outside of a traditional service and serve as a means to supplement and broaden this linear structure – for examples of this I point you towards organisations such as JISC, MIMAS, or roles such as knowledge managers and other obscure, yet super interesting jobs.

Managing the New Professional

For me, the most interesting part of PWC’s survey was the final part. Not because it was the end, but rather because it dealt with how more experienced generations perceive how we New Profs should be managed. I’ve outlined my thoughts on these into two sections below…

Things that made me giggle/cringe (*Disclaimer – I’m super-manly, GRRR, so I use Giggle in a loose sense of the word*)

“It’s particularly important to understand and address generational differences and tensions.”

            Yes, we have different long term needs to older members of a team. The chances of needing to support a family or have dentures repaired are less likely, but mostly we aren’t that different you know. Some young people have families too – something you will know if you watch day time TV. The statement implies that there are a million worlds between new grads and experienced workers. This is wrong, and will only enforce an “us and them” attitude, possibly leading to grads feeling treated like children, other others feel ancient. As I have said before, mix them together, and hope that new ideas can mix with realistic understanding of how to implement things in order to make something wonderful happen.

“is it time to shift focus from cash bonuses to other things”

            Bonus? Made of Cash? Post Lehman? Must be kidding.

Things that made sense to me

“Challenge them to come up with new ways to streamline processes and to exercise creativity”

            Yes. Absolutely. We are creative and have been bred in a time of austerity. We can streamline with new idesa, uses of tech and swooshing noises.

“Give them honest feedback in real time — and highlight positive contributions or improvements on key competencies.”

            Feedback is good. In a world of uncertain employment and economic downturn, it’s pretty gloomy for new grads. A bit of feedback goes a long way. Pretty sure this is true for all staff though!

“If you know what you want done by when, why does it matter where and how they complete the task?”

            Yes. Though sometimes guidelines and parameters can help shake that student mentality of do it last minute at 1am with lots of coffee. Maybe one to take with a pinch of salt.

“Millennials want to experience as much training as possible”

            Yes. We like to learn. We’ve been through an education system which examines us every two minutes, and without those exams we may now feel lost. Training can help to keep us on track and make us feel like we are progressing. Plus it’ll help your business too by making us better at our jobs.

“They value results over tenure and are sometimes frustrated with the amount of time it takes to work up the career ladder”

            Yes and no. Maybe my above comments about the disparity of career progression between LIS and other sectors applies here.

That’s all

Any thoughts? I’d be keen to know.

The Effect of the Modern Education Structure on Professional Development

The Background

Last week I attended the SLA Panel session at Internet Librarian International (ILI) and even after a busy day, several thoughts managed to occur to me throughout the evening.

A momentary flash of (potential) insight that I would like to reflect on relates to moving forward in ones career and future-proofing yourself for future job roles. This stemmed from a comment that Dave Pattern made with reference to a blog post by Ed Chamberlain – Ed talks about getting ready for future roles and developing new skills.

I was thereby pondering how people think about preparing to advance to the next stage of their career and how people are encouraged to adopt a mind set for forward thinking. I thought I would have a go at relating this to a change in educational techniques and their impact on new professionals and the next wave of information-professionals-to-be.

What this related to in my head

As anyone who reads the broadsheets supposedly knows, exams are getting easier year on year (at least so they say). Any contention put aside, a far more concrete statement would be that exams are becoming modular, more frequent, and with greater regularity. Less time is spread between them, creating a series of relatively short term goals. Each exam seems to act as a gentle stepping stone to the next level; GCSE to AS, AS to A2 etc. Students are therefore becoming used to constantly looking to the next challenge, and to a higher level. They are forced to plan ahead; the grades and subjects chosen, to a certain extent, shaping their options further down the line.

This needs to be combined with a new professionals’ view of the job market (or anyone’s view of the job market for that matter) – it is tough and unforgiving. Many jobs that become available for those with little pre or post qualification experience early in their careers are short fixed term contracts. This creates a mobile, fluid culture, reinforcing notions learned during their education of short, fixed term goals and achievements. To a recent school or university leaver, it would appear that the days of building loyalty to a firm are no more – instead entrants to a profession are encouraged, and to a certain extent, forced to move around frequently. This may come as a shock to some library positions in which traditionally a post was held and developed by an individual for a long period of time.

How does this become of relevance to me (and you)?

It means that there is a shift in thinking with regard to how people get ready for future job roles. Over the coming years there will be gradually less talk of ensuring that you prepare yourself for the next role or position – this kind of thinking will already be ingrained in the heads of those entering the profession as they think about moving up the career ladder.

Instead, as Bethan Ruddock explained during the panel session, there will be an emphasis on ensuring that people look two, or three, steps above and beyond where they want to be, ensuring that they can develop the skills necessary to get there, and to ensure that you don’t box yourself into a corner.

Employers too will need to ensure that they increase their talent development programmes if they wish to retain staff and develop individuals. Time needs to be invested to explain that one can mature and develop skills in a single place across a period of time, it is not always necessary to move on; rather job roles can be adapted and to a certain extent redefined to keep their employees keen and to help them develop themselves, and therefore the organisation.

 Employees will need to perfect a fine balance of loyalty against progression. Not easy terms to remedy against one another.

This shift in mentality also means that a greater emphasis on obtaining the skills needed to advance will slowly develop over time, as opposed to dedicating resources to general awareness. Cases of staff becoming complacent within roles may gradually diminish due to the continuation of the unstable financial situation worldwide. This may also be linked to the rise in professional networks – it is becoming easier to interact with others in the profession than it ever was before, helping employees remember why it is that they enjoy the profession they entered.

The other change I think will occur as a result of this change in thought patterns is a greater emphasis on evidence based seminars, presentations and papers. Students have been reassured by figures and obtaining the “right answer” throughout their educational careers, using an evidence base will therefore be reassuring to them. The theoretical side will still remain, but it will be here with numbers, facts and figures. An attempt to quantify advances will be desired. Evidence based practice will start to arrive in the world of the practitioner to a greater extent than it currently has, and it will expand to career development, not remaining solely within the workplace.