Content Companies
With so many different directions to take our LIS skills, frequently the challenge simply lies in narrowing down the options. One way to do just that, however, is to think in terms of "categories" — organizing those multiple options into a manageable set of approaches.
For example, one way to think about your professional possibilities is along the lines of traditional versus nontraditional library work, which might look something like this:
- Doing nontraditional things within a traditional library setting ("traditional," for purposes of this overview, being public, school, and academic libraries)
- Filling traditional library roles within an organization whose mission is not librarianship or education (usually a special library)
- Carrying out nontraditional tasks within traditional special libraries
- Doing these nontraditional activities embedded in operational units
- Doing library-focused activities outside of — but for — libraries and librarians
- Building on skills honed in a library-based job to bridge those skills into a new, non-library role
- Creating your own job, either within a library or for a non-library organization
However, another take on nontraditional career options can be found in the December 2007 issue of EContent magazine. Each December, the magazine announces its annual recap of leading information companies, "The EContent 100," organized by category. These categories provide a fascinating look at where information skills may be in greatest demand among industry leaders and innovators in the info business.
EContent categorizes its top 100 within the areas of:
Classification and taxonomy. A familiar arena for LIS professionals, "cat and class" is what allows companies to derive meaningful relational structures for their masses of data. The editors describe this category thus: "When it comes to classifying content, tools range from auto-categorization algorithms to pre-packaged taxonomies, and find themselves woven into many other content categories, from services to search." (Example: Digg, Inc.)
Collaboration. As many of us are experiencing in our daily work flow, "collaboration tools enable teamwork, web-style, which emphasizes shared knowledge and member-contribution, regardless of proximity." (Example: Google)
Content commerce. The universe of free-agent content development is exploding. The editors note: "When what is being bought and sold is measured in bits and bytes, solutions that enable the buying and selling of digital content are there to keep the transactions humming smoothly along." (Example: Copyright Clearance Center)
Content creation, production, and digital publishing. This is the world I and many of my fellow LIS independents have worked in for years, and it continues to grow. "Luckily, tools keep cropping up that help us make it, convert it, use it, and — most importantly — reuse it in ways as varied as the people creating the content in the first place." (Example: Innodata Isogen, Inc.)
Content delivery. Consider how many channels information flows through today: in print, through the web, e-mail, PDAs... with more to come. LIS professionals can help envision, create, and populate those channels. (Example: Newsgator Technologies)
Content management. Whether for an individual website, a company intranet, or an enterprise-wide knowledge management, content management systems are key to organizing, finding, and displaying information. "Yet, while content management purports to be all things to all people, its true power may actually lie in its flexibility to change shape to fit each new business problem set before it," suggest the editors. (Example: Open Text Corporation)
Content security. Vital to all organizations, including for-profits, nonprofits, educational institutions, and government agencies, content security for both personal data and digital content is crucial to both internal and external transactions. Digital rights management is included here. (Example: iCopyright)
Fee-based information services. From databases created and offered by independent information pros to the mega-corporation offerings of such companies as Dow Jones, EBSCO, and ProQuest, fee-based services are flourishing. LIS professionals can contribute across multiple plays here: information gathering, architecture, deployment, and more. Additionally, this category can include independent information researchers and brokers (think AIIP). (Example: MarketResearch.com)
Intranets and portals. Describing this category, the editors assert that "Infusing organizations with an internal knowledge and information hub might not be as hot as portals that purport to offer every piece of content on a given subject," but that "intranets... bear many similarities to their outgoing cousins. So it goes that these unlikely kin share some powerful tools and technologies to suffuse content in and outside the enterprise." (Example: Intranet DASHBOARD)
Mobile content. Think podcasts, downloadable e-books, stock recaps, web research, mini-movies, and content deliverables yet to go live — this is the future of how content is deployed. (Example: Bango)
Search engines and technologies. Including "algorithms, bots, spiders, metatext, and more," the category-killer here is, of course, Google, but there's lots more going on in the search world, and many companies looking to exploit both emerging technologies and niche markets. (Example: Groxis)
Social media. Think community-generated content, the holy grail of today's Web start-ups. Through blogs, forums, user-submitted videos, wikis, online surveys and polls, and new tools yet to be created, readers have now become "writers, reviewers, and producers." This category considers the tools being developed, and the companies developing them. (Example: Technorati)
Needless to say, these content development, acquisitions, organization, and deployment categories represent a vast range of possible LIS career opportunities — and not just for those with strong technology skills. In addition to techies, these companies need catalogers, information organizers, technical writers, trainers, and salespeople familiar with how information is used by consumers. They need people with strong people and project management skills in conjunction with strong information skills, and people who understand and can "translate" information-seeking behavior. Sound familiar?
The article provides more than 30 pages of company overviews. Each includes the category, date founded, number of employees, name of the chief officer, and key products. In addition, a number of companies boast two-page profiles that cover history, background, current business environment/goals, and "fun facts."
To get a better sense of what these companies do and the possible career paths they might offer, take a look at "The EContent 100″ in the December issue of EContent, or check out the listing of the industry 100 online here. Then, start thinking about how your particular skills might be a match for some of these dynamic organizations.
This column first appeared in "Rethinking Information Careers" on December 30, 2007.