Alternative Careers For Librarians

“ You know I always wanted to pretend that I was an architect.” - George Costanza, Seinfeld Alternative Career Paths for Librarians

10 years as a Public Librarian
7 years as a Corporate Librarian
2 years as an Information Architect
9 years as a Taxonomist
1 year as a Consultant
my cred nick berry content architect / taxonomist REI old man of the library

Your SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE as a librarian can be applied toward other careers.
Harness your powers for good:
Better salary
Greater respect
Broader knowledge
More job opportunities
we are gathered here today…. Giuseppe Arcimboldo

What other job titles can librarians aspire to?
Here they are, in order of coolness:
Information Architect (IA)
Information Management Consultant
Taxonomist
Crazy Cat Lady (just kidding)
who are these people? lego library

what skills and knowledge do I need? Librarian Taxonomist IA Consultant Librarian Taxonomist IA Consultant Librarian Taxonomist IA Consultant Librarian Taxonomist IA Consultant Interpersonal Visual Research Database Business Librarian Taxonomist IA Consultant

librarians: profile librarian promoting useful skills Librarians organize and locate information for patrons of the library. Librarians’ skills organizing information makes them better finders of information, and… … librarians’ skills finding information makes them better organizers.

Librarian skill: organization of data librarians: profile

information architects: profile architecture gone bad.
Information architects apply data from:
user research and testing
business requirements
content properties
analytical tools
They produce the following deliverables:
site map
wireframes
visual design mockup or prototype
site navigation
style guides

Web sites are libraries. Customer service is the process of making libraries easier to use. User-centered design is the process of making web sites easier to use. It’s all about the user experience. Users are patrons and the experience is finding information easily. IA and librarians: shared goals Representing information accurately in the user interface.

PP PP PP PP PP Splash Page Search Results Page Top Nav Bar Shopping Cart why architecture? Web sites are like buildings. Pages are like rooms. Your info is in a room. To find the room you want, you have to find the route. Building a site with clear routes through the pages depends on links. Links are nothing more than words. Which leads us to taxonomies…. PP = Product Page

Categorization. Taxonomists find patterns in the content and break them down into components. These are repeatable elements that can be used, measured, and adapted. Examples: content type, subject, and intended use. Taxonomist must deeply understand the content and the business to which it applies.
Deliverables:
Content audit
Content analysis
Taxonomy
Metadata schema
Content map/Domain model
taxonomist: profile

Illustrates the danger of ivory tower navel-gazing induced by lack of user research. the role of research
Taxonomists must stay in touch with their users, or else risk creating non-functional information systems.
Ways to stay in touch with users:
card sorts
site navigation analytics
Google keyword analysis
surveys
task analysis and other usability tests
direct comments

Metadata is the language used to identify digital resources. LC or DDC defines the language used to identify books, articles, and print resources.
A taxonomist is a cataloger on steroids:
develops the subject headings
designs the cataloging rules
taxonomists vs. catalogers For experienced professionals only. Don’t try this at home.

Librarian Information Architect Catalog Business Information System Taxonomy Metadata Patron/Librarian User information architects and librarians AACR2 LC/DDC

faceted navigation, AKA parametric search
breaks down content into attributes (parameters)
helps reduce search results to a manageable set
Electronics
GPS Units
Altimeters
Heart Rate Monitors
Activity
Cycling
Hiking
Travelling
Price
<$400
$400 - $600
>$600
Brand axis Activity axis Price axis products Target search result: Garmin 305 GPS units used for cycling and costing less than $400 how taxonomists feed IAs

taxonomy is linguistics functional label

taxonomy is linguistics non-functional label

IA and taxonomy: shared goals Complex data set becomes a simple picture, its meaning apparent at a glance.

Consulting is a balancing act. information management consultant
IM consultants
solve business problems
oversee system implementations
sell and champion IA
produce reams of paperwork
Deliverables:
use cases
business cases (justifications for work)
governance processes
implementation roadmaps

the content lifecycle
IM consultants must be able to:
Walk in the door of an unfamiliar company
Analyze their content resources and information flow
Learn the business across divisional boundaries
Recommend changes to workflow, often to hostile executives or directors
It’s not for the faint of heart, but experience breeds confidence

seeing it as you really are IM consultants are challenged to see the big picture. They have to be the visionaries in the face of entrenched opposition. They must understand all parts of the information system, especially how information and content affect the overall business strategy.

Educate yourself (books/classes on business strategy, databases, etc)
Find a good place to work: business or nonprofit
Find a business problem that can be solved by organizing something
Apply the principles and process (see the Polar Bear book)
Document your steps and write up your findings
Get in front of managers and different groups
Learn from your own mistakes
Learn other peoples’ jobs
Go back to #3 and repeat
so how do I get there?

nicholas berry content architect & taxonomist [email_address] comments and complaints

backup slides

users content context the lens model

an IA methodology Stakeholder information needs (business & user) User Mental Models Business & Technology Constraints Metadata Model Content Model, Domain Models Indexing Paradigm Findability, Usability, Brand Health

IA process: details
Determining user information needs
Task flows
Mental models
Constraints and context
Technology
Domain model (how is the business organized?)
People
Content management
Content model/structure (taxonomy, metadata)
Content strategy (how do we get there?)
Governance, change management
User experience
Findability (faceted search)
Shareability (consistency of business data)
Collecting metrics for analysis
IA brings organization to content.

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Alternative Careers For Librarians

by Nick Berry on May 12, 2009

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Alternative Careers For Librarians — Presentation Transcript