Social Media for Investigative Professionals

Notes from presentation at SLA-2014, Vancouver, BC, Canada June 9, 2014

Social Media for Investigative Professionals
or
How to find people who don’t want to be found!

Presenter:  Julie Clegg, President, Toddington International Inc.

Prior to working at Toddington, Ms. Clegg worked for 10 years as a detective with the West Yorkshire Police in the UK.

Images are from her slides.

We are living in a digital world!

In order to be a competent, successful citizen, you need a new set of tools

                                                         -          Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center

The largest group of digital users is in Asia, but they constitute less than 30% of the Asian population.

North America and Europe are pretty saturated with 78% and 63% of the population already digital users.  Greatest growth potential is in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Digital use will take off as we move into the Internet of Things – when we are connected with our refrigerators and cars and we get reminders of what we products we need at home while we are shopping.

Technological change is happening twice as fast social change in incorporating the new technologies.  Business is moving even more slowly.  It is hard to keep up and we can’t always afford to keep up.  New phone technologies are rolled out annually.

Among new technologies – geo-tagging (in social media posts and photos) has led to geo-fencing.  Building an electronic fence around a spot and harvesting the Twitter, Insta-gram and other posts within the fence.

Metcalfe’s Law:

N(N-1)/2

The value of a network grows as the square of the number of its users increase.

                                                     -          Robert M. Metcalfe, co-creator of Ethernet

Social Media:

There are a variety of Social Media categories:

• Collaboration and Crowdsourcing – vBulletin Dicussion Boards, Google Groups
• Blogs – Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, LiveJournal
• Microblogs – Twitter, Tumblr, Weibo
• Content Communities (Wikis) – Wikipedia, Wikispaces, Gamepedia
• Social Networks – Facebook, Linked-In, Google Plus, QZone
• Image Repositories – Flickr, Picassa, Imgur, DeviantArt
• Virtual Games
• Virtual Worlds

YouTube is social network platform but it is also a search tool.  It is a good resource to find training and product information.

Gaming platforms – World of Warcraft and virtual worlds like 2^nd Life are great places for social interaction and research and investigation.  There can be product reviews.  Some universities have set up campuses in 2^nd Life and you can take classes by placing your avatar into a classroom.

Both are good ways to access person-to-person interaction.  From a law enforcement perspective it is important.  As technology develops there are complaints of online offenses requiring new definitions and reporting of crimes.

Blogs tend to have low readership currently, but when they first took off in 2007 people were sharing a lot of personal information.  Some blogs are online diaries and still good sources for personal information on individuals.

Foursquare is an example of a space timer.  Sites like this tell you that a person was at specific place at a particular time.

Space locators are location-sensitive only.  TripAdvisor and Yelp tell you where people have been.

Quick timers are time-sensitive only – Twitter and Facebook are examples.

Slow time – neither time, nor location specific.  Sites like Wikipedia and YouTube.  Items here will be around for a long time, generally.

Social Media Building Blocks:

Ms. Clegg talked about the elements of social media – Presence, Relationship, Reputation, Identity, Groups, Conversation and Sharing.

Linked-In is focused on Identity and pulls in elements of Reputation, Relationship and Groups.

Foursquare focuses on Presence with elements of Identity and Relationship.

YouTube is about Sharing – and secondarily about Conversation, Groups and Reputation.

Facebook is a big winner – it is really about Relationships with elements of Presence, Reputation, Identity, Conversation and Sharing.

Twitter is another big winner – but its primary focus is on Sharing and secondarily about Presence, Relationship, Reputation, Identity, and Conversation.

How connected are we?

Ms. Clegg showed examples of people putting social media ahead of personal safety.

• Posing for photos at fire scenes
• Updating Facebook status while driving (her example was related to an actual fatal accident)
• An incident with a man taking a hostage and posting to Facebook – and others updating with police movement and activity.

Tracking people using Social Media:

Now there are tools (some free, some for purchase) that allow you to draw a digital fence around a location and pick up the Twitter, Instagram and other posts at that location.

You can draw a fence around someone’s house and follow their posts and tweets.  Use this to find a Twitter user name and perhaps a Facebook profile.  Search in Facebook on photos – or photos that someone has liked – find their friends.

Often an individual is careful to monitor his/her Internet activity and profiles, but their friends and family members may not be as careful.

www.echosec.net

http://geofeedia.com/

Using Geofeedia Ms. Clegg’s company found a posting by an employee at a secure location.  There was a clear photo showing the employee’s desk – his monitor that was displaying a classified document and his personal laptop that was in used.  Both are violations of security guidelines.

Another location they found a posting by a soldier who was scheduled for deployment.  She was posing with her rifle.  From that post they could pull up her Facebook profile and photos of herself and her friends. 

www.teachingprivacy.com

Knowing her Twitter profile name they could search on the Teaching Privacy website for other posts by her worldwide and see where she has been deployed.

Google tricks:

One trick that Ms. Clegg showed was an enhancement of the familiar wild card search in Google.  Put a name in quotes but add an * - “Lisa * Smith”  The * acts as a wild card and will cover up to 4 additional words between the names.

Ms. Clegg used this on one project and was able to find the name of a subject’s wife.  The subject had done a good job of keeping his own online profile low, but not his wife and family.  With the wife’s name she was able to find associations with the children’s school and then photos on Facebook and Twitter of the children.  Following Twitter posts and the time and location stamp she was able to trace the subject’s route to work – dropping the kids at school and on to his place of business.

For all this geo-tracking – Ms. Clegg concluded by showing us a site:

www.pleasedontstalkme.com

A person can log in with his/her Twitter ID and select any location.  Then post a tweet and it will appear in Twitter that one is Johannesburg when she is really in Detroit.

All that means is that we have to be careful when we use any of these geo-tracking tools. 

KM in the Trenches

Presentation by Ulla de Stricker, Cindy Shamel and Connie Crosby at SLA-2014, Vancouver, BC, Canada, June 8, 2014

Presenters are authors of Knowledge Management Practice in Organizations: The View from Inside.

Chapter 2 – KM Culture, by Ulla de Stricker is available for download –

If a city tears up the same street three times over a six month period to install three different cables, there’s a KM problem.

If KM is imposed by IT – no one will do it.

There are often multiple KM groups within the same organization.

You have to look at the cultural aspect of the organization in order to see how you can incorporate KM practices.

How do we proceed?  Short term – it may be easy to fix an immediate KM short-coming.  Provide someone with the information s/he needs.  But what about the long term?

Knowledge Audit:

How do you find out what you need to know about your organization?

Hire a consultant.  Conduct a survey.  Become an Undercover Boss!  Just like the TV show, go undercover to find out what problems exist in your organization so you can fix them.

New hires are another source of information on what is going on and what isn’t working.  They have their experience at another job and can communicate on any difficulties they are having in finding information at the new place.

KM by stealth – if management doesn’t like KM – do it anyway, just don’t call it KM.

Managers lose sight of the grass roots after about two years.  Many times good workers become managers because they know how a department works.  They know what it takes to run things well.  But as they focus more on administrative duties, they begin to lose sight of the work.

KM Culture – there is not always enough Time, Thought or Reflection to implement KM.

People cycle through the organization faster and faster.  It is harder to keep track of what KM efforts have been made before and what is in place and/or working and not working.

Often KM technology is rolled out – but we forget that human oversight and interaction is needed.  We often forget to train people on how to use the technology and think that the technology will just do the work of KM.

Human oversight and intervention is IMPORTANT!

Be Agile – add value to the KM process every day or every week.  Work toward accomplishing the KM solution for the organization incrementally.

How do we get buy-in?

Listen – eavesdrop!

Where are people suffering?  Where is the pain?  What is keeping the boss awake at night?

Build the KM strategy around what is worrying the boss.  If you can find a solution to her/his concerns, you will get buy-in at the top.

3 questions:

Ask the following questions to people in your organization and listen to their answers.  You will learn a lot.

• Tell me about your day – what does your department do?
• Tell me about your research?  What are you working on?
• What’s the buzz in your field these days?

Facts and Findings:

When preparing a report on the Knowledge Audit there are three sections:

Facts and findings – the current state of things – just the facts.

Pointers – this prepares them to think about and get ready to hear solutions.  But don’t include the solutions in the report.  If you do, they will skip to the solutions and explain away why they cannot afford to implement the solutions.

Solutions – find out where the organization is in pain – and tailor the solutions to ease that.

Ownership of systems is essential.

Scale-up over time.

Start small and build out.

 

The Googlization of Everything

Notes from a presentation by Siva Vaidhyanathan, Robertson Professor in Media Studies, University of Virginia at the 2014 FEDLINK Spring Exposition at the Library of Congress, Montpelier Room on
May 14, 2014.

 Mr. Vaidhyanathan is the author of TheGooglization of Everything - and Why We Should Worry,

Libraries have done so well that they are taken for granted.  They become invisible – like an offensive line in football.  You only notice when it doesn’t do its job.

Google is 17 years old.  In that time it has changed our expectation of how companies should operate and on the availability of information.  Google is pervasive and we have become dependent.

Right to be forgotten

What about the recent European Court decision that people can remove information about themselves from the public record.

The European case involved a Spanish man who at one time owed a large debt.  He repaid the debt – but anyone searching his name on Google finds a page about the debt – but not the information that the debt was repaid long ago.

In the days before the Internet anyone doing research on this man would have to go to a local library, courthouse or records office and search through records and likely learn that he had repaid a debt that he owed at one time.  This kind of searching takes time and costs money.  In the age of Google it is cheap and easy – but it fails to provide the context of the information.  Yes – there was a debt – THAT WAS REPAID!

Following the European Court decision, the New York Times opined that this was an attack on the free press.  But we had a free press before Google – why does this threaten the press?

Another reaction to the court decision is the sense that if we cannot find something on Google, then it doesn’t exist.

Social Circles

Facebook has changed the way we connect socially with others.  In the past one managed one’s circles of friends and would selectively share personal information.  Our co-workers would know some information; acquaintances we meet at conferences would know some, perhaps not the same information.  Our family would have other information – but our siblings might know things that our parents did not know.

Facebook scrambles those circles – so that everyone is suddenly on the same level of knowing the same information about us and our associations.  Unless we learn to control our Facebook privacy settings.

Google scrambles our ability to control our reputation.  The links that point to us are skewed by the weight given to some websites.  Some news sources are given more significance than other sites.  For example, Huffington Post articles seem to stay at the top of the search results.

NSA has had a partnership with Google and Facebook, but we only recently learned that NSA has gotten even more access to our personal information at these sites than even the administrators realized.

Google’s Mission:

The mission statement is not – “Don’t be evil.”

It is To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.

When Google started in 1988 – that was ambitious – so much material was being added to the Internet on a daily basis.  Yahoo approached the organization with people to do the sorting and categories to help.

Google folks were in university and applied for a National Science Foundation grant for library research – and they developed the algorithm to sort and organize the web sites.

Organizing is a job of discernment, judgment and training.  It needs training and guidelines.

This is the hubris of Google – to think that they can organize the world’s information.  Not all of the world’s information is on the Internet – and they still cannot make it universally accessible. 

Libraries have the skill and the ability to provide access to their collections – and they have better metadata!

But this was part of their purpose in launching GoogleBooks, GoogleScholar and even taking on YouTube.

GoogleBooks – was a deal with Harvard University, Stanford, New York Public Library, the Bodleian Library and a few others that gave Google, a six-year old start-up company, the access to hundreds of years of acquisitions and materials with the purpose of digitizing and putting on the Internet – without any plan for copyright and license agreements.

But these projects are losing money for Google.

More about Google Rankings

Google is a benevolent dictator.  In the early days of the Internet porn sites came up pretty regularly in Internet searches.  Now Google downgrades the ranking of porn sites – the sites are still there – just not on the first page.

Personalization and localization are great for shopping and for business, but they are not very good for learning – when we are trying to research some principle or standard and it isn’t tied to something within our immediate vicinity.

What is missing is the learning and the context of information that comes from doing real research.  Algorithms favor the interests of developers.

Popularity of sites plays a role in search retrieval on Google.  The more popular sites come up first.  This is disastrous when you are searching for health information.  Search on vaccination and you get a lot of sites by vaccine-bashers and Huffington Post articles.  That is a subject area where brand names should matter – Centers for Disease Control or WebMD etc.

What is the goal?

Google has already won the battle of the search engines.  So far they haven’t won the battle of the operating systems of the Web or of Mobile devices.  The goal is become the operating system for life – when our appliances and our cars and our clothes are all connected to the Web. 

What is the long game?  On the open Web, Google wins over Facebook.  If you spend your time on Facebook – then Facebook wins.

The big players are Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook.  Who will win when data is flowing through our lives?  Who will we trust to manage all of that?  Who will be the operating system of our lives?

Strong Roots, New Branches – how I grew to become a librarian

Here is the presentation I gave at the National Press Club, Washington, DC this morning.  The was Government Libraries event sponsored by Lexis/Nexis and moderated by Marie Kaddell.

Other presenters were Samir Goswami, Director, Government Professional Solutions, Lexis/Nexis, and an expert on human trafficking, and Kris Vajs, Chief Librarian at the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors Research Library.

Strong Roots, New Branches – how I grew to become a librarian

Thank you, Marie, for inviting me here today.  I have come to this event almost every year and I have gained much from the speakers.  Marie asked me to share the story of my career as a librarian.  I hope that you will find it encouraging and find something from own experience to aid yours.

Building on the theme for today – I think of trees with strong roots and new branches.  So I will use the analogy of the life of a tree as my framework.

While growing up I remember a poster in my sister’s bedroom.  Bloom where you’re planted.  Posters were the tweets of the 1960’s.

Trees grow everywhere: Forests, Groves & Orchards, Homes & Neighborhoods, Tree boxes, Bonsai pots and in cracks in the sidewalk.  They grow naturally, or planned by landscapers, arborists, homeowners, farmers and bonsai masters.  Some grow to be majestic oaks or redwoods while others remain small.  Some die as seedlings while others live to be hundreds of years old.

Taking root

I often say that I fell into being a librarian.  After college, with no real career plan, my godmother steered me toward federal service.  She had made a career working in human resources and thought that would be a good path for me as well.

This was back in the day – before personal computers and smartphones – and I went to OPM a few blocks west of here to take the Clerk/Typist exam.  The first job was with the FDIC and I started my library career by weighing, opening and sorting the mail.  I checked in serials using a Kardex system.  I shelved, I weeded, I did loose-leaf filing and I filed cards in the card catalog. I replaced pocket parts and even learned how to handle Shepard’s Citations volumes.  Not use them – that wouldn’t come for another 15 years, but I figured out what to keep and what to toss.

I left that job to become a Personnel Clerk/Typist at the VA Medical Center in Washington, DC.  It seemed to have more chance of advancement.  It was an interesting experience and I learned a lot about HR rules and benefits.  But one day, a friend from my FDIC days, told me that they were looking for a cataloger.  This was not a position that required an MLS.

I took that job and since then I have always worked in libraries. 

Growing and nurturing

But I needed library skills to go along with this job.  I got OCLC training at FEDLINK and I took a cataloging course with Dr. David Battey.  If any of you had the privilege of knowing him or taking a course from him – you are lucky.  He was a brilliant man and one of the first librarians I ever met who wore his quirkiness with pride!

Luck had much to do with my career – that and some talent to learn.  I took on the cataloging, and other duties as assigned.  I learned how to take care of the library system that the FDIC had at the time.  I took over running the back-ups.  I dismantled and rebuilt system furniture.

I had a good boss and good directors for the library.  After I had been on the job for a year or so – and figured I knew everything – I got a new boss who helped to give me a new attitude in my job.  She helped me to see the bigger picture of how my job fit in with the structure of the library and the agency and why it was important.  She was a dedicated civil servant who took her responsibilities seriously.  She was also fair-minded and encouraging to others.

Then the Internet happened and life as we knew it changed forever. 

In this case I was again lucky.  I learned about gopher sites and ftp and html.  I learned about the reality of electronic resources.  And that interest prompted me to get my MLS.

Again, I was lucky – my agency helped pay for my degree.  I attended the University of Maryland, College of Information Studies.  After I finished there were some staff shifts and I moved into a librarian position.

Over the next few years I made the most that I could from professional development, training classes and attending conferences and workshops.   I took advantage of DC-SLA to network with other librarians in the area.  From the start I would write up my notes from attending conferences and share them with my colleagues.

Blossoming

It was during this time that Blogs and then Twitter came into vogue.  A colleague was testing a site for supporting library services and asked me if I would consider starting a blog.  I did and used it to post my write-ups on conference and workshop sessions.  I had some following – not a lot. 

I talked to some speakers who were successful bloggers.  One gave me the advice, if you don’t have anything special to say- don’t blog.  I applied that same notion to my tweets.  I mostly tweet from conference sessions I am attending or to promote a new blog entry.

I also provided weekly updates on what I was doing.  This helped me to mark my successes and achievements.  I worked on projects in the library but also volunteered for programs at my agency as a way to promote the library.

While it is important to blossom and reach out on the job, it is also important to have hobbies and interests outside of work.  Face it, sometimes work can be a drag.  I find comfort in music.  For many years I sang with a choral group and for the past 14 years I have played trombone with a community band – DC’sDifferent Drummers.  I also enjoy helping my husband work in the yard.  There are many ways to re-create oneself.

Storms and drought

Sometimes we face difficulties on the job: down-sizing, budget cuts, or difficult colleagues.  And personal life presents challenges: illness, finances, care for children, parents, partner or spouse. These are times when we need to learn to be resilient and be strong.

A challenge in one job led me to take a look at my health – and that took me on a journey of its own and a successful weight loss.

Calling to mind the analogy of a tree – you have to bend during the storm in order to survive.  If you become rigid – you can break or topple.  And having had two trees come down at my home – you want to avoid that!

We all make mistakes.  Yes, it is embarrassing. What is important is to learn from our mistakes.  I have had some setbacks, just like many others – but I have tried to be optimistic, improve myself and move ahead. 

The reason that we laugh at clowns is because they do the things that we do – they trip and fall – but they do it in the spotlight of the center ring.  And then they laugh at themselves.

Transplanting

Transplanting trees is a tricky endeavor.  You have to pick the right time so the tree can survive the move.  As librarians we have to be ready to learn new skills so we are ready for our next move.

I have worked in Technical Services, Electronic Resources, Reference and Acquisitions.  I have trained contractors in using library systems.  I have built databases and webpages.  I have trained agency staff on library services and Internet searching.  I realized that I have had some experience in most areas of librarianship.

Most of my library career was with banking agencies.  I started out with the FDIC.  Then I went to the Comptroller of the Currency and then to the Federal Reserve Board Research Library.

From there I worked a couple of contract positions – one at the National Agricultural Library and another in the private sector for a company called LMI that does consulting work with the Department of Defense and some other agencies.

The breadth of this experience, the way I marketed it and no small amount of luck or providence landed me in my current position with the USArmy Corps of Engineers.  It is perhaps the coolest job title I could have ever imagined – Command Librarian.

Branching out & Bearing fruit

Now I am in a position where I need to branch out and learn from my colleagues as well as support them.  It is my role to provide guidance to the USACE Library Program.  We have 21 district libraries, 3 research libraries and two other library sites.  Fortunately I am not their supervisor, but I have visited each site and try to find ways to help them.

Looking ahead, I am reaching out to other groups and divisions at my agency to see how the library can provide better support.  I will also reach out to those districts that no longer have libraries and learn what help they need.

And it is my turn to mentor and help others.  One day I got a phone call from a training officer in our Sacramento District.  She had an employee who was a clerk and was interested in going to library school.  Over the next several months we traded emails and chatted as she embarked on her training and transition to becoming a librarian.

I have also been active with DC/SLA and the EmploymentPortal.  Some of us on that team have met with library students and reviewed resumes.

Pruning

We should regularly look at our careers and what we are doing and cut away the dead wood.  This can be as simple as reviewing our resumes and removing irrelevant skills and training.  It can also mean letting go of some of the negatives in our lives, letting go of bad will and grudges.  Sometimes this is easy – sometimes it requires counseling.  Don’t be afraid of it.

Old trees and by-products

What can be said about old trees?  They give shade & comfort.  They beautify the landscape.  Their branches provide nests for birds and homes for squirrels.  Their roots help to give stability to the land.  Their wood can be used to make homes, doors, desks, tables and chairs.

They can be milled into pulp to make paper for printing of books, currency and much else.  What we do as librarians and information professionals helps our agencies accomplish good for the people of America.

I think of the librarians I have known throughout my career.  Teachers in library school who were demanding and challenged me.  Another librarian earned a Master of Divinity and retired early, but applied her skills to helping at a theological library.  She went on to lead others on pilgrimages in Benedictine spirituality.  People like Sharon Lenius who, though retired, still support other government and military librarians.

We don’t have to end up on the wood pile.

I leave you with something a manager said to me on my first day in a job waiting tables. The worst thing that we can do to you is to fire you.  You’ve looked for a job before and you can do it again.  The phrasing struck me as odd – but I took it to mean – if you’re not happy with what you are doing then look for someplace where you can be happy.

Information Culture in the Agency

Another speaker at the 2014 FEDLINK Spring Exposition at the Library of Congress was Rob C. Thomas, Deputy CIO, FEMA.  Here's a summary of his remarks.

Talk about Big Data often misses the essential connection between those seeking knowledge and the information.  The human factor is the key.  Librarians and information professionals make the difference.

Every federal agency has an obligation to leverage information.  We need to leverage information to serve the core mission of the agency.

Information is a strategic asset.  It is dynamic and it needs to remain agile.

Strategies evolve to meet the changing environment.

Collaborate/Participation/Transparency

• We must collaborate with others and increase participation and engage the whole community to leverage and make use of the data.
• We need to have participation by all stake-holders.  Collaborate to improve effectiveness across the agency.
• Transparency is needed to promote accountability.
• Release information on a regular, on-going basis.

The culture of an agency is the source of its action or its apathy. 

Obtaining the knowledge needed will make the difference.

If the Information Culture in an agency isn’t fed and grown, it will stifle.

Information that is shared is the ripple in the pond.  It will stir the waters and help make things happen.

It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.  – Mahatma Gandhi (citation needed.)

Women Leaders in Technology

It has been a full week.  On May 15, I attended FOSE at the Washington Convention Center in
Washington, DC.  The only session I was able to get to was the panel on Women Leaders in Technology.
 

Panelists: Anne Altman, General Manager, US Federal and Government Industries, IBM Corporation; Teresa Carlson, Vice President Worldwide Public Sector, Amazon Web Services; Renee Macklin (Invited), Chief Information Officer and Chief Privacy Officer, SBA; Debora Plunkett, Director of the Information Assurance Directorate, NSA; Barbara Rivera, President/GM, Public‑Sector Business, Experian; Lisa Schlosser, Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of E-Government and Information Technology, OMB

Gray Tsunami:

45% of the federal workforce is over the age of 50.  A lot of people will be retiring in the next several years.  Can we capture that knowledge? 

Employees under 30 years of age account for only 7.1 percent of the federal workforce. – Fed Figures 2014, Partnership for Public Service, April 24, 2014.

Panelists said that mentoring was the key to encouraging young people to work in the federal government.  Leaders and managers need to learn how to work with younger workers who have a different approach to work and tackling projects.

Thoughts - This is a challenge.  Young people have ideas and energy but often their ideas are shot down by older, longer-serving workers.  Many agencies are Microsoft shops and because of IT security concerns, they are aren’t flexible or open to Open Source software and other systems.  Many Gen-X, Gen-Y and Millennials grew up using Apple products in their schools.  They can work with Microsoft – but often prefer the Apple systems.

Social Media:

It is pervasive and business and government is making use of it.  Amazon runs all product launches through social media.  This saves money that can be put back into services and products.  They are also using social media to communicate within their organization.

Government agencies are issuing alerts and news releases and other updates via social media.

Thoughts – Social media is perfect for business.  Consumers interested in products are always on the lookout for news about the products that they like.  Government cannot rely solely on social media.  Not everyone uses social media or is necessarily following every agency.  News services track social media, but they have to confirm before they broadcast and not everyone is tuned into news media (television, online or print) 24/7.

Women in the IT World

The moderator asked about the experience of being a woman in the IT/Computer Science world.  Three of the panelists are also women of color.

Debora Plunkett of NSA said that she was given the advice to know that you belong.  Learn to be okay with being the one and only. Conduct yourself with honesty, integrity and transparency.  Be happy about what you do.

Other women spoke of the influence of a particular teacher or mentor.  They went on to suggest that we conduct outreach to STEM students in high school and college – but maybe we should focus on elementary school to get women and minorities interested in careers in IT.

You own your career.  Your boss is not responsible for helping you to move ahead – it is your responsibility.  If you aren’t happy where you are, go to where you can be happy.

Teresa Carlson said that we should build our EQ as well as our IQ.  Our EQ is our emotional quotient.  Learn to handle changes within the workplace.  Be resilient.

The Aha Moment

One of the speakers mentioned that her Aha Moment was when she realized that she could create a place for herself by finding a need and filling it.  When we encounter a hole we have options: walk around the hole, jump over it, turn around, or fill the hole.  If we find a way to fill the hole in our organization, we show that we are part of the team and we can meet a need – provide something that was lacking.

Thoughts on Information Culture - Roberta I Shaffer

This week I am attending the 2014 FEDLINK Spring Exposition at the Library of Congress.  Today Roberta I. Shaffer, Associate Librarian for Library Service, gave introductory remarks on the Information Culture.  Here are my notes.  I hope I captured the essence of her talk.

What is Information Culture?  - Knowledge workers in a knowledge economy.

What should we expect from being part of a knowledge culture?

There is a lot of ambiguity – a lot more information independence and information dependence.  There are more haves and have-nots in terms of information access.

We hear a lot about Big Data, but how do we manage small data?  What about our personal data and our personal information needs?

What about the “right to be forgotten”?

In some European countries, people have the right to purge their personal history.  But does that accurately reflect history?

Information ethics – does a person’s right to control their personal information (history) override our need to preserve accurate information?

Where do we draw the line?  What about the right to privacy and the right to give up our privacy?

Shared values in the Information Culture:

The A-list:

• Ambiguity – positive and negative
• Authoritativeness – determine the authority. How do we tell others that something is reliable?
• Authenticity – What we pass along is authentic, but we often have to peel the onion to track the changes.
• Always – perpetuity. We live in three dimensions of time:
• The past – what we know; the information that we have collected
• The present – what is current and authoritative today
• The future – we plan for the future information needs, collecting and preserving for future generations.
• Access – for all. Preserving information is much harder in the cyber world.  What information should we acquire?  Our default is to collect it all because we fear we will miss something important.  But what will future generations need?
• Apolitical – As we collect information, we need to be objective.  Others can make political choices with the information, but we must be apolitical.
• Agile – we need to be more agile within our agencies.  Information demands are not rigid and they cross lines of traditional divisions and disciplines.

View into Information Culture

• I – Information Culture is a strategic asset within our agencies.  We have to let our leaders know that we are an asset – not merely a cost account.  We are stewards of agency information.
• II – Information Culture has the potential to effect social change.  How information flows through society, who has access and can use information – these are important!  What we do is important.  It is brain surgery and rocket science because we support the people who do brain surgery and rocket science.  We affect peoples’ quality of life.
• III – Information Culture is dynamic in its ability to influence.  It draws from society, but also gives back ten-fold.  Information Culture grows with use.

Coordinating with Librarians - Remembering to play nice

Again I was invited to write an article for  the 2013 Best Practices for Government Libraries that is edited by Marie Kaddell.  The full PDF is available from Marie's blog - Government Info Pro.

Here is my article - Coordinating with Librarians:

Several years ago a friend and I were talking about another librarian.  My friend made the comment that this other librarian was odd.  I asked, “Is he really strange or is he just library odd?”

Over the course of my twenty-five years of working in libraries, visiting libraries and attending library conference, I have come to the realization that librarians on the whole are a pretty odd lot.  Before anyone takes offense – be assured that I count myself among the odd.

Of course, being odd is part of what makes us interesting and part of what takes us into the realms of research and reference.  That’s why many of us think outside the box.  Some of us don’t even see the box!

Appreciating our differences:

We are all different.  Some of us are extroverts; some of us are introverts.

After taking a Myers-Briggs exam, I learned that I am an Introvert.  Then I read the descriptions of the various facets and combinations.  Lo and behold!  There’s nothing wrong with being an Introvert.  It is useful to know what our type is and understand the people around us so we can work better as a team.  Yes – we all have to be part of a team.  Even solo librarians work with other people.

I am an introvert who has learned to be an extrovert.  Sometimes I have to psych myself up to attend a party and interact with people.  And then I need some serious downtime.

The point of taking the Myers-Briggs exam is to learn better how you work and how you can be more effective with your colleagues.  It helps if other members of your staff take the exam so everyone can learn to work together more effectively.

There are other ways of accomplishing this – find what works best for your group.  The important thing to understand is that everyone on the staff is a little different.  They will each approach the same task in a slightly different manner.

Respecting our differences:

When I was working as a cataloger the library hired a director of Technical Services.  She wanted to sit down with me and review my work procedures.  I had a moment of resentment.  I had been doing my job for over a year and I didn’t need anyone telling me what to do.  Fortunately the moment passed.  I considered that was now her job to supervise me so she needed to see what I did.  And, since she had a lot more experience in libraries than I did, I just might learn something from her.

In fact, I learned a lot from her – including how to be gracious to staff members who can be resentful.  She was always fair showed respect for all of her colleagues.

Get acquainted:

In June I attended the SLA Annual Conference in San Diego.  The highlight of the conference for me was a presentation by Capt. Winston Smith, USN, Commander of the SanDiego Naval Base.  So much of what he said resonated with me and what I have been trying to do over the past year.

He says he spends 1/3 of his time visiting the ships at the navy base, 1/3 of his time meeting with the tenants and other commands on the base, and 1/3 of his time outside the fence – engaging with the local communities.

These visits aren’t inspection tours – he wants to know the people and them to know him so he can be approachable and better understand their needs.  So, in a library we should spend 1/3 of our time with our colleagues, 1/3 with our customers and 1/3 with our administrative stakeholders.

Some of these interactions will be formal such as staff meetings and presentations.  But don’t forget the informal – grabbing a cup of coffee or sharing lunch.  Find connections with others that don’t involve classification schedules or acquisitions.  But when you are working with your staff – make sure they know you appreciate what they are doing.  Remind them how their work fits into the big picture and serves the mission of the organization.

Know thyself:

This is an aphorism that dates to Ancient Greece.  And we still forget its importance!

Again I recall something that Capt. Smith said in his presentation in June - What is your psychological driver? Identify your own strengths and weaknesses. 

When we know our strengths we are free to let others be strong too.  Another person’s expertise isn’t viewed as a threat when I know that I have my own expertise.  Hopefully our expertise is complementary and we can learn from each other.  When we combine our efforts we can accomplish more for our organization.

Putting it into practice:

A year ago I started a new job.  I am a director of an agency library program.  I give support and policy guidance to my libraries but I have no supervisory authority over them.  They are themselves a consortium – each is independent of the other.  They are funded and supervised locally.

Fortunately I have a boss who sees the importance of my visiting the libraries and meeting with the librarians and the local supervisory and command staff.  This has helped me to understand the work in each of the libraries as well as get to know my librarians.

A few months before I started one of the librarians organized a monthly conference call to coordinate work on the eJournals resource.  I was surprised to learn that this was a recent development.

In addition to visits to the districts to meet the librarians, I started a weekly email to update everyone on what I was doing and sharing any agency information that I knew of.  I usually get some feedback on those –so that tells me that they are reading the messages.

My agency has several librarians who have been on board for many years.  I have made an effort to reach out to them to learn the history of the agency as well as the particular history of the library program.  They have been a big help and have saved me from making several mistakes.  They have pointed out matters of protocol as well as practical matters of working with the Department of Defense.

Email has become my default means of contacting people.  I have had to overcome that and pick up the phone and talk to my colleagues.

The personal meetings with my librarians and the personal phone calls have been the biggest asset to me in working with them and learning how to best support them in their work.  Nothing can beat that personal touch.  I learn a great deal by meeting others and it reminds me that I still have a lot to learn.

I encourage other librarians to be constant learners.  Learn from others at all levels of experience.  One librarian I know is also a potter.  She tells me that she is always intrigued to watch a novice potter throw clay on the wheel for the first time.  It allows her to observe an untrained approach and gauge what her instruction might be for that person.  And sometimes she learns something new.

Amusing spam -

I help maintain a website. There is a function for our members to register as members. The web-bots have found the site and every day I have to remove spam requests for accounts. They have gotten clever - the even include info in the Bio section. But I'm not fooled.

Some of them put me in mind of war movies from the 1940s where inept spies tried to dupe Americans.  It also reminded me of the Monty Python sketch about the Hungarian phrasebook.  These folks are trying to say something, but the words are just not right. 

Here are some examples from the website:

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