Library Science: Information Architecture and the Synthesis of Details with Abby Clobridge (1/2)

Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional

What do you think the following jobs have in common? The answer will give you a hint about our guest this week!
* Doing statistical work for a market research firm
* Conducting research for a popular news network
* Architecting information flow and query optimization for websites
* Leading digitization initiatives for a university
* Becoming a consultant
* Owning a business
Abby Clobridge, our guest in episode 292, held all of the above jobs as a result of pursuing a degree in library science. Listen closely for the parallels between learning how to architect information flow / retrieval for websites and learning how to architect communication flow so that people needing information get just enough at the right time and with the appropriate level of detail. This includes learning how to exercise brevity in communication while being assertive. You’ll also hear how Abby worked on natural language processing and sentiment analysis years before we had mature tools to do it.
Original Recording Date: 08-23-2024
Topics – Falling into Library Science, The Technical Nature of Library Science, The Architect of Information, Just Enough Information, Exercising Assertive Brevity, Leading Digital Initiatives and Walled Gardens
2:49 – Falling into Library Science
* Abby Clobridge is the founder and lead consultant at FireOak Strategies.
* FireOak Strategies is a boutique consulting firm specializing in information management, knowledge management, and everything related to how information, data, and knowledge are managed, secured, and shared.
* In college, Abby studied history at Tufts University and wasn’t quite sure what she might do after graduation.
* Tufts had an experimental college that allowed undergraduate students to teach a class to first year students, but it required a faculty mentor / sponsor. Abby was teaching a class, and her mentor was the head of information technology and human resources at the undergraduate library.
* Abby kept in touch with this mentor as she got closer to graduating, and she had also done internships focused on research for producing a documentary and other things adjacent to history.
* Abby’s mentor kept suggesting she attend grad school and look at library science as an option.
* The library science program aligned with Abby’s interests(using technology, looking at information, doing research) and combined them with the use of analytical skills.
* John jokes that library science is the original information technology and highlights the pattern we are seeing that there is no traditional background to get into technology fields.
5:43 – The Technical Nature of Library Science
* People might not know how technical library can be.
* For reference, Abby was studying as an undergraduate in the mid 1990s and was getting into library science in the late 1990s. During this time, doing research was not doing a Google search on a computer or phone. It was very different than today. This was before all the tools we can now use for free.
* Most of Abby’s initial work had to do with online searches and paid databases like LexisNexis, Avid, WestLaw, Dialogue, etc.
* Doing a search with one of the above tools wasn’t just typing in a search term / phrase like it is today. People needed to learn query languages that were specific to each database provider. When crafting a query, it was important to refine your query to get all of the necessary information needed because of the cost of doing searches using these tools.
* “It’s not that different from writing a script to do a thing using Python.