Association of Independent Information Professionals

Having Difficult Conversations with Clients

In Colorado, where I live, we sometimes experience a weather phenomenon called virga. It is precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before it hits the ground. It’s quite a sight. Infopreneurs often encounter the business equivalent of virga when we see ahead of us a stormy and contentious conversation with a client. But we can help evaporate it before we get drenched.

From Big Business to Solopreneur: A Success Story

By Kelly Berry

Starting Off

Like all good infopreneur stories, Janene Liston’s starts in the middle: after a successful career working for top international companies, she was burned out and decided to step back from the corporate world to heal and reassess. This was her opportunity to figure out what she really wanted to do. Like other solopreneurs, she found standing at the edge of her own new business to be scary and exciting.

Five Things I Learned as an Independent Information Business Owner

By Denise Carter

As I approach the 10-year anniversary of starting my information business, I have been reflecting on some of the things I learned about my business and my work processes. These five things help keep my business working:

Reset, Refocus, Review: AIIP 2022 Conference “Takeaways” Process and New Watch Party

By Liz McLean

September is a time to reset and refocus for a productive end to 2022. And it’s an ideal time for a strategic pause to revisit some of the great topics and energies delivered at the #AIIP22 virtual conference in April 2022. Conference participants told us they loved the inspiration, learning, and conversations that grew from diverse and engaging speakers and topics.

Online training: what I learned through lockdown

By Elizabeth Hutchinson

In my school librarian background, professional development was neither valued nor recognized, so it may be surprising that my career is now based on providing training for the very type of professional I used to be. If your place of employment doesn’t recognize or value your professional development, and your opportunity for upward mobility is minimal, why would you ever bother?

Whose Job Is It Anyway? Calling on Different Others to Join in Our Work

By Connie Clem

“The founding of Dialog by Roger Summit ushered in an era of innovation and hope for information professionals. In every information era, we wish for the cutting-edge technologies that will propel us forward. However, what we need now are not new technical variations, but the development of an expanded community. To do that, we need to move beyond hope into action.”

AIIP22 participants heard thoughtful perspectives on diversity and inclusion from 2022 Roger Summit Lecture Award winner Jill Hurst-Wahl. Jill, a person of color, is Professor Emerita in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and was formerly Director of the iSchool’s Library and Information Science program.

No More “Fake It ‘til You Make It”

By Mary Ellen Bates

I was recently talking with a colleague who commented that there were steps she needed to take to help build her business, but it just felt like too much. She wasn’t the kind of person who reaches out to strangers and asks them for a 15-minute phone conversation; that’s something that phone researchers feel comfortable doing, but not an online researcher like her.

Embracing Technological Change: How Info-Entrepreneurs Can Prepare for the Opportunities

By Maureen Shields

Sue Lacey Bryant, currently National Lead for NHS Library and Knowledge Services in England, presented an engaging and thought-provoking keynote at the recent AIIP Annual Conference. A seasoned and gifted information professional with a broad portfolio career throughout the knowledge management industry, Sue opened her talk with a short history on her journey into the information field. Inspired early in life when she made the connection between inequality and lack of access to good information, Sue discovered her why; best captured in the words of Prof. William G. Pollard: “Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.”