I am really excited about business opportunities on the Internet. I have already heard many success stories. However, to do business on the Internet often requires a dramatic change in thinking. The playing field is different from your home turf and skills that you may feel are useless or unimportant may be very valuable for those in a different area or country. The same goes for products. If you can get the foreign rights to a product whether it is candles, maple syrup, crafts or a novelty item, put up a home page, you may be surprised where your orders may come from.
I am looking forward to feedback from this column and people sharing their experiences and comments. I am going to try to feature people who are using the Internet to do conduct business. This month I interview a real live Cybrarian. Cybrarians are one of the new jobs of the Information age and not only are they in demand by businesses, being a Cybrarian itself can offer one an opportunity particularly if you specialize in a particular kind of information that is in need.
Cybrarians are, of course, basically librarians but instead if being surrounded by books, they are nestled into a computer work station. There they are connected to the Internet and search the four corners of the globe in order to harvest information from thousands of Universities, the World Wide Web, from News Groups, governments, businesses, organizations, professionals and, of course, other libraries such as the Library of Congress.
Consistent with the many faucets of the Net, there is more than one type of Cybrarian. There is the traditional, institutional librarian who has made the leap to the Internet. The other type of Cybrarian is more of a freelance librarian or as an ode to the old west, a Cybrarian for hire (an information bounty hunter). A third type of Cybrarian that has evolved is the Corporate Cybrarian. Many large businesses have always had corporate researchers to find market and other information. However, with the birth and unprecedented growth of the Information Highway, many businesses have found that the need for their own in-house or part time Cybrarian if for no other reason than to monitor their competition. No matter the reason that information is needed, more and more organizations are finding they need someone to handle this task. This is usually because most managers, who need the information the most, do not have the time to surf and build an inventory of useful sites and find the information that they need.
I caught up with Lorna Peers, a real live Cybrarian at the DISCscribe site which is located in Fredericton New Brunswick. Lorna holds a Masters degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario.
She can be reached at "http://www.discribe.ca/cybrar.htm or E-Mailed. You can also telephone her at 1-506-455-3108 or 1-800-567 -6288. If you visit her WWW home page you will see her photo and see that Cybrarians are not chrome plated info hunters from the future.
What follows is the interview I conducted with Lorna:
TriCity: "What is your primary function as a Cybrarian?"
Lorna Peers: "My primary function is to locate information for clients or members of the company using the Internet or commercial online databases. I think your term information bounty hunter is quite accurate."
This includes:
* Individual requests from businesses and individuals. * Locating competitive information for use by the company.
* Background research and online promotion of clients who are on our Web server.
TriCity: "What percentage of your work do you find deals with online promotion?"
Lorna Peers: "I would estimate at least 50% and growing. I'm always finding new search engines and other places to promote our clients' Web sites. A lot of the time is spent locating the most appropriate category in a directory such as Yahoo."
TriCity: "How do you typically online promote a company?"
Lorna Peers: "At the design stage, I typically do some research to see what similar sites may exist and where they are located in directories or indices. Once the site is ready, we write a brief press release or promo and post it in the *appropriate* newsgroups, mailing lists, search engines (ie. Lycos, etc.), subject directories, and What's New pages. Online promotion is very important to Web sites. Regardless of a site's value, it is of little use if it cannot be easily located."
TriCity: "What areas of the Internet do you find you use the most to find information for your clients?"
Lorna Peers: "I would have to say that I use the Web most often, primarily because of the Web design we do for clients. For more general requests, I use the Web (usually first, as it is the fastest growing portion of the Internet), gopher (less so, I often find the information out of date or reach dead ends), as well as newsgroups and mailing lists. On occasion, I may come across a Web site with a contact name and send a request by email to see if he or she can supply more information. Others sources include library catalogs and periodical databases."
TriCity: "Is there such a thing as a common question you receive?"
Lorna Peers: "Not really, we've done some consulting for national organizations that want to get their offices on the Internet so I'm often updating my list of Canadian ISPs (Internet Service providers)."
TriCity: "What is the biggest information request you have received?"
Lorna Peers: "One client wanted a fairly comprehensive list of Canadian companies that design and host Web pages, with contact and pricing information. Finding the companies wasn't difficult, but locating their list of services and pricing information (when available) took a while. (Do you realize that some companies didn't have contact information on their pages? Not very useful for the client who didn't have Web access!)."
TriCity: "Do you find that most of your customers are preoccupied with the status of their competitors presence on
the Internet?"
Lorna Peers: No, not as much as they should be. Some businesses still see barriers to the Internet (eg.cost of hardware, cost of access, learning curve) despite the fact that their competitor may already have a presence online. This spring we held two free seminars on using the Internet for local businesses. I think once they have the opportunity to see the capabilities for themselves, they may realize its potential."
TriCity: "What is the primary type of research you conduct and for what type of companies?"
Lorna Peers: "In terms of individual requests, many companies request a synopsis of "what's out there" that may be related to their type of business. In many cases these businesses don't yet have Internet access of their own, so the results may help justify the decision to purchase access. I would estimate that many of these companies are small business."
TriCity: "What does a Cybrarian typically charge?"
Lorna Peers: " My rates range from $65 to $100 (Canadian) plus applicable taxes per hour for searching and formatting results. The rate depends on the volume of work and the urgency of the information. Additional charges may occur for reprints, and with some commercial services there are extra charges that may be required."
TriCity: "Could you categorize for us the types of businesses that you find most often require the use of a Cybrarian and for what purposes?"
Lorna Peers: " I've done a number of searches for government departments, where they required information for presentations, or for decision-making purposes (eg whether or not to proceed with a particular program). I've done research for insurance companies, telephone companies, manufacturing, public utilities, hotels, nonprofit organizations. The businesses, individuals and organizations that have purchased our Web services, range from the Chamber of Commerce to music groups. They like the fact that I can put together a list of links to other sites with related information, as well as the promotion of their site."
TriCity: "What do you like or dislike about being a Cybrarian as opposed to a conventional librarian in a book-filled environment?"
Lorna Peers: "I like the fact that the Internet is constantly changing and evolving. It's all I can do to keep up on all the new sites, software, etc. Navigating the Internet can be a challenge, since there is no absolute list of its resources, but the tools and indices have improved significantly. I can't say I dislike anything. Who wouldn't love to surf the net all day (and get paid)? I'm also adjusting to being (for the most part) a telecommuter and working from home. I missed the daily interaction with co-workers at first, but there are lots of benefits. "Also, since most of the communication and transfer of my results is done electronically, I rarely meet my clients face to face."
TriCity: "What is the strangest request you have ever received for information (enquiring minds want to know!)?"
Lorna Peers: " Well, we do have a site on UFO's. I put together a list of links to UFO pages on the Net. There's a ton of them. Another was for the availability of Internet access in St. Lucia."
The Language Barrier
The language barrier is not insurmountable. This is because of the way in which e-mail and the WWW work. In the Orient and Latin America many of the business people have very poor language skills when it comes to the English language. However, when it comes to written skills, most have better grammar than most North Americans. When dealing with a WWW site and e-mail, people in other countries are not intimidated and can take the time to compose a response. They may be very interested in using your services as well as acquiring the rights to your product.
The Nihongo Yellow Pages
How would you like to advertise to the Japanese and even be able to do it their language? This is the inspiration behind the Nihongo Yellow Pages, Inc. I recently interviewed Tetsuya Yamashita, the owner NYP Inc. He tells me that as of October he was averaging 5000-7000 hits per day. 50% of those came directly from Japan, 23% from the United States, 11% from other countries and 16% from areas that are unresolved. The remarkable thing about the Nihongo Yellow Pages is that is has only been going since June of '95. The site has received much publicity from several Japanese magazines and Japanese and newspapers. It is a bothersome issue with the Japanese that the language of the Internet is English. The Japanese are very interested in the Internet but language continues to be a problem. One of the early success stories was the Milne Jewelry Company which started with an English home page and then had great success when it was translated into Japanese.
NYP Inc success comes from translating information into the Japanese language for businesses that are interested in the large Japanese market. I took up their free trial offer and created a business card which they translated into Japanese for me. I accented my P.R. and desktop publishing capabilities. I found it a very exciting experience. If you want to send e-mail to the Nihongo Yellow Pages their address is webmaster@nyp.com Their WWW address is go to site Their numbers are voice: 408-379-5459, fax: 408-379-8042.
I always try to practice what I preach. I have hung my own shingle out in Cyberspace. The result of which is that I have already picked up work from people stumbling onto my site. I have not announced the site at the time of writing and am getting about 1000 hits per month. I will be detailing in upcoming columns how to get maximum exposure for your site. It is a numbers game. The more people who visit your site, the more orders and interest youare likely to generate. What surprised me the most about my site is that it is still very much under construction. Forthose interested, my WWW sites are:
http://www.discribe.ca/vidpix/
http://www.discribe.ca/vidpix/resume.htm
http://www.discribe.ca/vidpix/garden.htm
They are all linked together so all you need do is go to the first and follow the links. |
