Fly the flag and fly it high

Earlier this week I ventured over to Westminster to attend the 2008 Network of Government Library and Information Specialists (NGLIS) conference. The theme was, “Changing to survive, breaking professional boundaries”. It was a war-cry to the government information managers to adapt or die.

Essentially the busy event was about equipping government information professionals with the necessary skills to promote themselves and their profession a little better.

The language and advice followed a common sense if obvious approach, such as “make yourself heard”, or “engage”, “talk the language of business” “learn to network better”.

An evangelical Natalie Ceeney, (National Archives boss) was the keynote speaker, she talked about opportunities for information management being at their greatest in the last decade. So were the challenges and threats.

The talk was of a real shift in how government perceives the importance of its information. There is greater ministerial interest in data and information than ever. In part this was down to new technological initiatives being developed as well as the obvious data-loss crisis that continues to beleaguer Whitehall. The bigwigs in government realise what you knew all along and that there is so much more that could be done with the information it held, both as a way of engaging the public and doing its job better.

Ceeney’s Keynote asked for governmental info pros to consider the following points and how that reflects in their role:

 Knowledge Management (KM) is strategic and important, Knowledge Information Management must be owned at a senior level.
 Departments must ensure Information Management features prominently as risk registers at a senior level.
 All departments should have a coherent information strategy.
 That an information or KM department is considered just as important as Finance and HR etc to an organisation

It was these changing roles and relationships in government that were the biggest threat to information management Ceeney said. Info professionals must stand up and not let IT take over their turf. The fear now is that a lack of self-promotion for info departments may be to their detriment.

Given that NGLIS spent a large part of the day examining this, there must be cause for concern. It’s almost as if there is an endemic lack of confidence among information workers in the organisation.

If Ceeney and NGLIS have anything to do with it, then government information professionals will need to change. Either that or the tireless efforts and pool of knowledge belonging to info managers could well turn to vapour in the glare of the IT-centric, business talking profession.   

Ceeney rounded off the keynote saying, “We need to see ourselves as part of a bigger whole, or it will end up in IT’s hands”. That would be a shame, information professionals, whatever sector they operate in, are a varied, highly informed and dedicated bunch of professionals, let everyone else know that too.