Elevator Speech

Speech:

I think there a direct relationship between academic librarians and publishers that is often overlooked in the publishing world. This might be the fault of librarians who often have little direct communication with individual publishers, but publishers also have a tendency to overlook the fact that academic librarians are making the purchasing decisions - not necessarily the scholars who are writing and reading the material. I know, for example, that our company spends a lot of time talking to school librarians and modifying our products based on their feedback. But when it comes to our more scholarly products, we seem to be spending more time at history conferences than we do at library conferences and few people on the editorial team have direct library experience, while many have had successful academic careers.  I think that having someone, like myself, with an MLS on your editorial team would be beneficial to the company in several ways. First I've worked in collection development and understand the considerations librarians must take into account when selecting materials. Secondly, I've worked with the students and faculty who use our material and have an understanding both of how they access it and how the library chooses to present it. I'd like to talk with you more about my ideas when you have some time. 

Process:

At first I started talking about the classes I've taken and why they would help me in publishing. Then I realized I needed to "set the scene" a bit to explain why my library experience should get me this promotion. When stating my opinions I realized I was being quite aggressive and I thought for this situation it might be better to "hedge" at least at the beginning - especially because I was accusing them of neglecting the people who buy their products (even if it was a just accusation). At the end I couldn't decide if I really should stop and say that I could continue the discussion when they had more time, but in the end I thought it was more courteous.