Many commencement speakers seem to start these days with a disclaimer - that is they tell the parents, families and friends and significant others, faculty and staff to listen and observe…But I am not going to do that…my remarks are addressed to all of you…you who have been so supportive of these graduates. You all are also deeply immersed in the information age even if your perspective may be a bit different than these new information specialists.

Librarianship has been (but is no longer) a stable profession with a sure sense of mission, and a defined operational setting - and an agenda of duties based largely on procedures. But basically we are all happy about that…with instability comes excitement and even a sense of adventure. In just the past few years we have seen a new paradigm in which the information function (library role) instead of being a traditional support service for the company becomes mission critical rather than a support role. Our graduates may find themselves not in the information center, but all over the organization. In the new model we are seeing the "staff as library" rather than the library as place. These staff are strategically located so that they can participate in strategic decision making.

SIRLS has attempted to provide you with an array of courses that will make you comfortable and confident in the midst of this instability of our profession. Courses heavy on theory so that you will be able to apply it to a variety of information settings. Evidences of this instability are every where…as for example, this article in the Washington Post, Feb. 15, 2003:

"In the beginning…before GOOGLE…a darkness was upon the land"

"We stumbled around in libraries, we lifted from the World Book Encyclopedia. We paged through the nearly microscopic listings in the heavy green volumes of the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature. We latched on to hearsay and rumor and the thinly sourced mutterings of people alleged to be experts. We guessed…we conjectured…and then we gave up.

Only now in the bright light of the Google era do we see how dim and gloomy was our pre-googlian world. In the distant future, historians will have a common term for the period prior to the appearance of Google. "THE DARK AGES."

Well, as you can imagine, this article provoked some discussion…but on CBS News online last Sunday morning, Craig Silverstein, the first employee of Google, was quoted as saying…cataloging the web is only the beginning but…"my guess is it will be about 300 years until computers are as good as, say your local reference librarian in doing a search. But we'll make slow and steady progress. And maybe one day we'll get there." (My guess is they will get there by having some more librarians.)

Yes, in the years to come, librarians may be called almost anything! But Public, School and Academic libraries will probably continue to use the "L" word, and as Stuart Smalley used to say on Saturday Night Live, "That’s okay…we can live with that."

We have, however seen enormous changes in the workplace, but to profit and non-profit sectors…partly as a result of the new technology that makes information available at all levels of the organization, employees know a lot more about what's going on than they used to and this has led to the voguish term "empowerment"…bringing decision making down to a lower level. But the change that is parallel with this free-er flow of information is the restructuring of organizations…the elimination of several layers of middle management...the establishment of teams to complete work projects--this has permeated libraries as well as for-profit organizations…and we are still not sure what the new organizations will look like…but the truth is Mrs. Fields (Cookies) organization chart (I love this analogy!) is now 20 times wider than it is high…(Sales have boomed from 25 million to well over 250 million in the past decade.)

We have had some discussion in SIRLS in the past weeks about the value of group projects and perhaps we haven't explained very well why we do it -- but let me just say that it is the way life is in the workforce…and nowadays to say, I don't like group projects is to say "I don't want to work" because that is the normal work environment. It's safe to say that business and other organizations would not have embraced it if it is (with all the difficulties) not a more synergistic productive way of operating.

Okay, what implications do these somewhat new and changing environments have for people just now entering the workforce? The implications are many and complex…Fortunately I have picked just four areas in which to offer advice, and I offer them for what they may be worth.

First of all, no matter what else you do, pay attention to equity. The ever-new technologies will never succeed, no matter how easy to use unless they are accessible to everyone regardless of geography, economics, race, religion or gender. Librarians have a major role in seeing that this happens. Despite what your family and friends may have, it will be a long, long time (perhaps never) when every home is linked to the internet…No other agency can take on this responsibility because no other agency is accessible to citizens from the cradle to the grave. And it will require great creativity to see that people are not left behind by the digital divide. Remember, that as a leader, a professional, your thinking may be broad, even universal, but your solutions should be local.

Second, in planning your career (I know that most of you already have jobs…you may now get better ones) but in any case, planning and managing a career is the ultimate solo flight for each of us. Anyway, this reminds me of a Charles Lindbergh story - a few weeks before he took off on his flight from New York to Paris, he was talking to a group of naval officers: "What kind of charts do you intend to use," one asked him.
"The same as you use on ships at sea."
"Suppose you hit a wind change in the night, and it drifts you off course."
"A navigating error wouldn’t be too serious," Lindbergh answers. "This flight isn't like shooting for an island. I can't very well miss the entire European coast."
Lindbergh got a good laugh with that line (Better than I got!) But the point I want to make here is that in planning a career in a fast changing and highly unpredictable environment such as we have today, you don't want to aim for too small a target. It is a great mistake to target a specific job, because organizational, economic or technological change may cause the job to disappear. On the other hand it is important to have some kind of flight plan that sets some sort of broad parameters and gives some definite direction to your career. I am reminded of what Lily Tomlin once said. "I always wanted to be somebody. Now I realize I should have been more specific."

Third point: A while ago, I mentioned the "L" word. Now I would like to talk about the "F" word -- I won't ask you what you think the "F" word refers to (I am not that big a risk taker!) but, basically, the word is "failure," or rather "Fear of Failure." Don't allow the fear of failure to keep you from succeeding…lots of examples in our field…even though as a group we may have the reputation for being fairly conservative (except in politics)…Bob Wedgeworth, former Executive Director of ALA, saw a chance to build an endowment for ALA--would have to invest in a skyscraper. The organization would occupy some of it -- the rest would be rented out to well-heeled tenants…now this may not sound like a big risk to you, but if Chicago had gone into a recession, rather than a boom, he would have had the wrath of 75,000 librarians on his head.

Fear of failure keeps us from trying new things, but some people are willing to try the impossible. I think of Dr. Martin Lazar of Dallas who in his travels to developing countries has seen children die because of the lack of a small steel instrument needed to change dressings. Without small surgical clips, children are denied brain operations. When there is a lack of surgical gloves, mortality rates skyrocket. He watched visiting doctors go through trash baskets to retrieve these items - take them home - sterilize, and reuse. Un-used bandages in packages in the US are thrown out. The US generates 6.25 billion in medical surplus each year.

Lazar, unable to find an agency to distribute, created one called Medisend. He started it by handcarrying packages of small goods to doctor's overseas. To date, Medisend has moved hundreds of tons to 45 countries in Asia, Africa, Central and South America…he did this by placing boxes in strategic locations around hospitals in Dallas.
"There's a good reason why nobody's really done this before," says Lazar. "It's impossible, but you start with one step…and its amazing how people will rise to the occasion."

Don't be afraid to take a risk….

Along with this idea, I want to quote from a book that came out quite a long time ago…its called "Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun." One thing Attila says: "You must recognize and accept that your greatness will be made possible through the extremes of your personality -- the very extremes that sometimes make for campfire satire and legendary stories." Now what did Attila mean by that? My interpretation is that we need to imbue in librarians now and in the future an absolute conviction that our work is enormously important for mankind's quality of life…and that what we do is enormously satisfying because it is so important; we need to produce people who are so convinced of this that they are supremely self confident, and that they are not too inhibited to allow people to see that they are passionate about their work. When you are excited, even passionate about what you do, you tend to draw others in -- you are proactive, and therefore your co-workers become proactive as well...but getting back to Attila the Hun -- he was saying "Don't be afraid to let your zeal show…go to extremes to get the results you want...Don't be afraid of becoming a legend!

And, at last, the final point. Just remember that it does not take extraordinary ability and talent to be very successful (even a C student at Yale can become President of the US). Just being slightly superior will make a vast difference, and being slightly superior, nine times out of ten, translates into hard work and long hours rather than talent. It's not done with mirrors. As Robert Frost said, and as you have no doubt discovered, "The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest are willing to let them."

Congratulations! And best wishes! We are proud of you and your families! Have a great career!