Name: Kim Dority
Where do you live? Centennial, Colorado, about 20 miles south of Denver
Where do you work, and what’s your title? I’m the president of Dority & Associates, Inc., an independent information strategy and content development company.
What’s the mission of your organization? Mission is to help individuals and organizations (for-profit and nonprofit) use information as a strategic asset. This may involve auditing their existing information resources; aggregating, licensing, or creating additional information; and packaging, presenting, and/or promoting that information in ways that align with the client’s strategic goals.
URL for your organization: www.dorityassociates.com
When did you become an SLA/RMSLA member? Boy, tough question! Maybe 25 years ago?
What drew you into an information career? I’ve always been an information junkie – I was one of those odd kids who would sit around reading the encyclopedia (okay, or the cereal box in a pinch)! Once I realized that librarians learned how to do research for a living, I was hooked on the MLIS path. I also loved to write and became skilled at combining research and writing to do content creation for clients. I think good information can be the most powerful change agent for good on the planet – I love that we have the skills to be part of that. I’m also drawn to how infinitely adaptable the skill set it.
What’s the best thing about being an information professional? Knowing that in a world where information is the primary currency, we can be critical parts of the flow of that currency. Again, it’s that whole “infinitely adaptable skill set” thing. And also, it’s just really, really fun!
What’s the next great thing you want to learn? How to present information as effectively as possible, including graphically for written documents and persuasively for teaching situations. Whether I’m working with a corporate client or teaching a course or workshop on LIS career options, I’m usually in a position of providing information that (on a good day!) will help the recipient make a strategic decision or take a positive action. Sometimes that’s more easily done with a visual representation, or through a compelling story that helps a workshop participant feel confident that he or she can successfully set and achieve a goal. So I want to learn how to present all types of information most effectively for the client or audience at hand.
Are you a member of any other professional associations? Yes: the American Library Association, the Association of Independent Information Professionals, and the National Association of Employers and Colleges.
What do you love to do in your non-work time? Read, tai chi, learn any new skills, hang out with friends, write books, find a beach to explore, go see trashy movies with my 89-year-old dad, who is always game to go see movies with me that my other friends would rather die than have to see! (Usually involves lots of action and a distinct lack of character development….)
Tell us something about yourself that we’d never think to ask. I set my career goals at an early age! By age ten, I knew I either wanted to be Annie Oakley (she got to ride horses, shoot guns, and never had to hang around the house doing any of that boring domestic girl stuff) or Sandy Koufax, the legendary pitcher for the Dodgers. As I grew older and wiser, however, I realized that working with information was my true passion, so I transferred my earlier career goals into an amazing ability to avoid that “boring domestic girl stuff” whenever possible, often by watching in agony the truly terrible pitching skills of the Colorado Rockies….
What’s your favorite thing about SLA and/or the Rocky Mountain Chapter?
Getting to learn cool stuff from good friends, the professional and personal gratification of getting to hang out with people who “get” information work in all its diversity, and the amazing opportunity to connect with so many information professionals doing diverse, creative, and often fascinating things with their knowledge.
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