Traditional competitive intelligence (CI) professionals are finally getting what librarians have known for years – what they call secondary research has its merits. Evidence of this change of view will be provided to members of the The Iowa Chapter of SCIP at a program presented tomorrow (Nov 30th) titled CURRENT & CREATIVE COLLECTION TECHNIQUES FOR RESEARCH PROFESSIONALS.
In the past, when attending SCIP meetings, I would hear from speakers that primary research was the way to go with secondary research being a fall back when needed. During a webinar on CI that I attended, Leonard Fuld responded to a question regarding librarians as CI professionals by saying they weren’t suited. While I think we have some work to do on developing analysis skills (generally speaking, as some librarians do a great job of analysis), I do think there is a huge role for librarians to play in CI.
Given the fact that librarians are expert in what the traditional CI professionals call secondary research, those professionals would be wise to team up with librarians in their larger organizations or look to librarians as potential hires as part of a CI team. Our skills can’t be learned in a one day session, no matter how good it is.
Any thoughts from the librarians working in the competitive intelligence arena? Any thoughts from traditional CI professionals?
Strategic Librarian 
One response to ““Secondary” Research gets Its Cred with CI Professionals”
Competitive intelligence is definitely suitable for many librarians. Here’s an interesting fact I uncovered in my research for my CI workshop presentation at AALL in New Orleans. According to Mel Briscoe, a certified Myers-Briggs consultant, most US librarians are either ISTJ or INTJ. Now consider the predominant personality type of those who choose employment in national security intelligence. According to a Joint Military Intelligence College survey, a significant percentage of those people are ISTJ – 21% in fact, even though ISTJ makes up less than 10% of the US population. That means many of us are a natural fit for competitive intelligence positions.
LikeLike