Roger Summit Award Lecture: Confessions of an information professional
Each year at the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) Conference, the Past Presidents fund the Roger Summit Lecture Award to bring an inspiring and stimulating speaker to the AIIP Annual Conference.
In 2019 the Lecture was delivered by Sue Feldman, founder and former president of the Association of Independent Information Professionals. Sue is now President of Synthexis. Kathaleen Porter reports on the insights gleaned from our esteemed colleague and founder of AIIP.
Sue Feldman suggests that her career as an infopreneur was based on her family’s encyclopedia including the discussions and topics the encyclopedia started.
Her love of learning and knowledge led to a degree in linguistics. The trick was how to put that learning to good use as career options for women were quite limited at the time. Librarianship was one option and that is where she started. After a few years of shakeups related to funding changes or moves related to her husband’s career, she needed a more reliable and portable occupation.
Feldman read Sue Rugge’s book about being an independent information professional and in 1982 started Data Search, her first business. She supplied quick turnaround research projects in the pre-internet era using the skills she gained in her previous positions. Data Search grew and changed as the technology changed.
1987 – the start of AIIP
When the meeting that led to the founding of AIIP in 1987 happened, Feldman was there to get in on the ground floor.
Among the benefits of the AIIP group were the camaraderie, and the opportunity to learn new skills.
These skills included writing and editing which expanded her reach and led to speaking engagements.
New opportunities through digital libraries
Digital libraries became the next doorway opening into new opportunities. A feasibility study connecting computers and info and online systems started Sue in a new direction that led to Dialog.
In 1999, Feldman had an opportunity to work at IDC but it required moving to Boston and selling her business. In exchange she began to work with a company using a network of analysts that amplified her reach into the world of computer information and publishing. During this period of intense change and learning, data searching and formatting became more and more important. Feldman found herself at the forefront of making information more useful by making it findable and searchable. Eventually, she used her background in information and searching to author a book “The Answer Machine”.
Cognitive computing
Feldman is now in charge of her own company again as she left IDC and founded Synthexis. She is interested in cognitive computing and how that leads to artificial intelligence. The transition from the hype to reality is on her mind now as she explores the areas of disruption, robots, and automation as well as computer ethics. Clearly Sue Feldman is not one to settle into a comfortable spot. She has pushed boundaries throughout her career and is not ready to stop now.
Final thoughts
Her final thoughts were summarized in a slide that listed what she felt she has learned to date in her career. I don’t think she is ready to stop moving the field forward but she did have these final thoughts for us.
- Take risks
First, it is important to take risks. Fostering chance encounters through networking, brainstorming, and collaboration can move you forward in your career. - Look and act successful
Look and act successful or as she put it “camouflage for success.” - Seize the moment
Seize the moment and say yes when opportunities knock. - Know your strengths and weaknesses
Just as important is to know what your strengths and weakness are so that you don’t try to build a company on tasks that you hate. - Set aside time to think
Finally, you need to set aside thinking time, a concept we heard from a number of speakers and know when to say “no”.
All in all, Sue Feldman reminded us of the rapid changes that have occurred in our industry over the last half century and has given a road map of how to link our experiences into a cohesive plan to move into the next half century.
This is the last post in our AIIP19 report series. We hope you have found them informative and useful. A huge thank you to our conference reporters – we could not have put this series together without you.
With the conference series wrapped up, AIIP Connections will publish new material every two weeks.
