Quantum² : InfoStars : A New Kind of Librarian

A New Kind of Librarian

Quaker Oats' Duncan McKenzie

Ask Duncan McKenzie, manager of the Information Center at Quaker Oats, for a cup of coffee, and he's apt to hand you a coffee mug that advertises the Information Center's intranet site. "What's your competitor doing today?" it asks. "Call us and we'll tell you." And the other side of the mug says "The Internet is only one database; we have access to 2,081 others."

Duncan has seen the Information Center change dramatically over the past 10 years, and as far as he's concerned, it's been for the better. Back in 1994, the library was downsized from a staff of nine to a staff of one. Recognizing an opportunity to think creatively about the library's strategic direction, Duncan decided that, as he said, "this is not your mother's library." Since the restructuring, he has brought the headquarters library and the Research & Development library into a single Information Center, and now has two librarians, a part-time student and a part-time library assistant reporting to him.

How does he manage to meet the information needs of Quaker Oats with a staff that small? He doesn't; he outsources most of the online research to a company of independent info pros. This arrangement gives him the opportunity to market the services of the Information Center and spend more time working directly with his clients. He also doesn't have to administer accounts with dozens of online vendors or maintain search skills on seldom-used online services. "Instead of having to spend time hiring, training and supervising a staff of researchers, this has freed me up to focus on the value-adds that only the Information Center staff can provide to Quaker staff," he said. "I operate the Information Center as if I have a storefront business. We are in charge-back mode, and if we're not showing a profit, we're not paying our rent."

Duncan concentrates on what he calls the Three C's - helping Quaker Oats employees get closer to the customer, the competitor and the consumer. In addition to the outsourced online research, Duncan and his staff provide consulting services for units within Quaker Oats. They help create and feed information to intranet sites, build internal databases, address document management needs, and negotiate with online vendors for delivery of electronic information to the desktop. They also offer training for clients who want to do their own online research, although, Duncan noted, "in time, most of them come back to have us do their research for them." In fact, one of the Information Center's heaviest users asked for Dialog training, not so that he could do his own online searches but so that he would know how to ask for information. "He wrote us a memo afterward, telling us that he now understands that searching is a real skill, and that it makes no sense for him to spend the time required to learn how to search when he has access to trained experts in the Information Center," Duncan said.

Much of the Information Center staff's time is now devoted to services that can only be provided by in-house info pros, such as creating and publishing information on Quaker's intranet. In fact, people often comment that the Information Center is more like a publisher than a library now. The Information Center staff create "get-smart" briefs for the intranet on topics of current interest, build links to information about Quaker's key customers and competitors, and write monthly newsletters with abstracts of articles on the industry and consumer trends. They provide information on significant new patents and trademarks filed by competitors, upcoming conferences and trade shows, internal organization charts, even a collection of presentations made to Quaker staff. Duncan explains, "We can do all of this with such a small staff because we outsource things that others can do and focus on what only we can do. We look at ourselves as business partners, not just librarians. We have as much invested in the company's mission to increase profits as everyone else does, so we focus on the bottom line."

The Information Center's users agree. One market research director told Duncan that the Information Center has become a business partner with his group. The Information Center staff "goes the extra mile to understand not only our information needs, but also the business issues at hand, enabling them to not only track down the information but also offer an insightful summary which addresses our needs."

The transition from traditional library to an Information Center that outsources most of its online research hasn't been easy. Duncan found that some librarians aren't comfortable with the emphasis on providing analysis and consulting services. "It took my boss a while to realize that I'm a different kind of librarian than what she was used to," he said. "Our marketing approach is nontraditional, and we often amaze people when we tell them what we can do. We promise a lot, but we've never failed to deliver, and that's what's made us successful."