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Alternative Careers

 by Amelia Kassel

 

On January 26 of this year, I began teaching a new course about alternative careers to graduate LIS students. Alternative careers, or, should I perhaps say, non- traditional-careers, are not new to me - nor is teaching. I received my MLS in 1971 from UCLA, and then applied for and was awarded one of four pre-doctoral internships at the UCLA Biomedical Library, funded by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for one year. We rotated through all departments of the Biomedical Library, including acquisitions, cataloging, reference. We also spent time working with the Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library Service (PSRMLS), which offered training and other services to medical libraries in a four- state region (California, Hawaii, Arizona, and Nevada), and was also funded by NLM.

 

Starting Out Alternative

After I completed the internship, the UCLA Biomedical Library hired me. I stayed on for three more years, working half-time in interlibrary loans (where I did all the detective work needed to verify incorrect citations that came into the library), and half-time for PSRMLS. Working as a PSMRLS librarian, my first professional job, I consulted for and trained hospital librarians on how to establish health care collections for physicians and allied health care professionals. I also assisted hospital librarians in writing grant applications to receive monies available from NLM for starting or expanding hospital libraries. My first library job as a consulting and training librarian was an alternative career. Although I was based in a library, I did nontraditional work, traveling to libraries in the region to provide on-site workshops and consulting.

In 1974, I moved to Northern California and became an adult reference librarian for the Sonoma County Public Library. I worked there until 1982, when I became the reference coordinator for the North Bay Cooperative Library System (NBCLS), housed at the library. NBCLS is a multi-type library system that includes public and academic libraries, and at that time provided various library services to its 19 member libraries. NBC (as we called it) offered services such as acquisitions, cataloging, book processing, reference, and continuing education for librarians. Again, I found myself working part of the time in an alternative (or non-traditional) job. I provided reference service to libraries in the region when they could not answer questions from their own collections, and also coordinated continuing education programs for librarians in the system.

 

Striking Out Independently

In 1981, the forward-looking director of the Sonoma County Public Library decided that it was time to use online services, and we established an account with Dialog. All adult reference librarians were trained by an on-site Dialog trainer. When first introduced to Dialog, I was absolutely wowed. It opened up a whole new world of knowledge, much like what the Internet has done today. In late 1981, I began to consider establishing an information brokerage business based on skills I had learned as a librarian - mainly because I was looking for new challenges. While attending a conference at the California Library Association, I chanced across an exhibitor, Sue Rugge, who was demonstrating how her company (Information on Demand) conducted online searches for clients. I immediately decided that this was what I would like to do.

At about this time, both Apple and IBM had introduced microcomputers, later known as PCs, and the desktop revolution was on its way. You could buy a computer for home or office, and this opened up tremendous opportunities for home-based businesses. Online databases, on the scene since the early seventies from companies like Dialog and LexisNexis, were evolving and growing in numbers, with more and more full-text information available.

I needed new skills to start a business. I began taking classes at the local community college and attended workshops about business planning, marketing, and sales offered by the chamber of commerce and individual experts. I continued to hone my online research skills and established an information brokerage in 1982 while still working at NBCLS. During the early years, I attended breakfast meetings and evening business mixers to make new contacts. On my birthday in 1984, I gave myself a birthday present by resigning from my job and going into business full time.

 

Staying the Course

The focus of my business is online research, and I've worked on hundreds of projects for a wide range of clients during the last 20 years. The majority of my work today is business research - industry, market, or company research, plus a multitude of business topics. One area of interest is business research for law firms. Various applications for the research I conduct include market research, competitive intelligence, marketing, new product introductions, and mergers and acquisitions, but the sky's the limit. I've also conducted medical information searches for consumers based on my medical library background, and accepted contracts in which librarians or other organizations outsource library and information services such as state-of-the art research, library and database organization and management, and intranet resource development.

As one strategy for marketing my business - and to project my expertise and credibility - I write, consult, and teach. Teaching is of key interest to me. I began giving presentations, workshops, and seminars in the eighties, and today travel within the U.S. and internationally to conferences to train librarians and business searchers on the skills they need to conduct market and competitive intelligence research. In the nineties, I taught a full-semester course in information brokering for LIS students. Subsequently, I developed a one-year educational program via e-mail for those wanting to start an information brokering business, which I call the Mentor Program. The program focuses on establishing and marketing information brokering businesses, and trains new entrants in how to conduct commercial database and Internet research time efficiently and cost- effectively.

Both in my research and training business components, I've worked with hundreds of organizations and taught people from all over the world, almost all virtually, almost all online. Since the start of my career, I've been able to put my graduate library education and a range of experiences to work to create an alternative career. Today, there is nothing I love more than imparting some of my knowledge to others embarking on new careers.

 

Becoming an IIP

This year, I began teaching a new distance education course for LIS students that focuses on IIPs (independent information professionals). Through various assignments and online class discussion, students are learning about diverse work environments, responsibilities, and the required education and skill sets for various settings. The final assignment is to select a hypothetical information-related business and prepare a business plan. Required books are:

A few weeks into this semester, some students expressed trepidation about the idea of starting a business and writing a business plan. After one month of discussion and reading Sabroski's Super Searchers Make It On Their Own, however, most have moved from fear to enthusiasm. We all know that establishing a business is not for everyone, but learning about the world of the independent information professional has started to electrify students, while nurturing awareness that many IIP skills have direct parallels to other types of jobs.

 

Amelia Kassel, M.L.S., is president of MarketingBase, a firm specializing in market research, competitive intelligence, and worldwide business information since 1984. She combines an in-depth knowledge of information sources and electronic databases with expertise in business and marketing strategies. She is the author of Super Searchers on Wall Street: Top Investment Professionals Share Their Online Research Strategies, and teaches in the United States and abroad. Amelia offers an e-mail-based training program for new information professionals and those wishing to expand their services at http://www.marketingbase.com/bio3.html.