Q&A: Dennie Heye, The Obnoxious Librarian From Hades

You may have heard of Dennie Heye under his nom de plume, the Obnoxious Librarian From Hades. But when he isn't blogging, he is an information manager for Shell International Exploration and Production, a business of Royal Dutch Shell. He has been a member of SLA since 1998 and in 2004, he joined the SLA Division of Petroleum of Energy Resources, where he was elected International Relations Chair in 2006. He is also a member of the NVB, the Dutch Association for Librarians and Information Specialists, and NIC, a group of Dutch senior librarians who meet twice a year to discuss issues and share best practices.

Recently, Mr. Heye published a book which has been hailed as a compilation of "tales of a librarian in a large bureaucracy, dealing with managers, cost reductions, helpdesks and other challenges"; it is a funny lampoon of the library world in the modern age and can be downloaded for free at http://www.lulu.com/content/4253767.

How did you get into information management? Were you always interested in a career in the information industry?
In high school I wanted to become a translator / interpreter, as I liked languages and was good at them. But when I visited the open day of a interpreter / translator college, I realized that it is a very lonely job, and not as "romantic" as I envisioned it. I just happened to also go to an open day of the library & info science school earlier that week, and I felt at home there: working with computers, helping people and being part of the booming information industry. So I thought I'd try that for a year and see if I wanted to continue. And the rest is history...

What basic duties do you have at Shell?
I am currently the global knowledge manager for the corporate IT division which is responsible for all HR systems globally. In my role I am responsible for the creation and implementation of the knowledge and information management strategy for the division. This strategy will generate projects in the area of records management, information management and knowledge management to help the divsion grow.

What is your background? Where did you study?
I studied at the library & information science school in Maastricht, were I got my degree in "new media". Following that I studied marketing & scociology of information products at Tilburg University, also in the Netherlands.

Your book is a "Satire" -- how much of it is based on your experiences? Where did you come up with the idea for this look at modern beaurocracy?
Over the years I have been keeping notes of Dilbert like experiences, I think we all have these experiences when you work in an office environment, especially if it's a large organisation. I also heard lots of stories from my colleagues and peers around the world. In 2006 I was at a meeting with oil & gas industry peers, sitting next to Leah Bartlett - who always has good ideas. We had just finished a session discussing whether we as a group should start a blog. The question was asked how to keep the blog going, as you need enough input from different people to keep it going. So Leah and I were joking about creating a fictional character who would trigger responses by being very obnoxious and provocative.

During the next session, which I think was a product demonstration by a vendor, my mind wandered off as it tends to do when it finds something interesting. I remembered that way back in the 90's there was a series of satirical stories called "the b*stard operator from hell". This was written by an IT operator who was fed up by management, users and consultants. So he wrote a series of satirical stories which I thought were really funny.
Back in my hotel, I scribbled some notes about creating a weblog about a fictional librarian with an attitude and some story ideas. The idea resurfaced a year later when my alter ego, the obnxious librarian, decided it was time to unleash his tales to the world.

How are you marketing/publicizing/selling the book? How is it doing?
My main goal is to get on Oprah's show. So far she hasn't called yet.

I'm not doing this to make money, I just want to share my stories with people who are interested. A weblog is one way, but not everyone reads weblogs. So I collected all the stories into a book and created a book via selfpublishing at lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/content/4253767). Following that, I uploaded the free e-book version to scribd.com, feedbooks.com (http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/2658) and a usenet newsgroups related to e-books. The number of downloads across the different websites is over a 1000, the physical book has sold 20 copies so far. The book also helps to draw susbcribers to my weblog, so that fits within my plans for world domination.

Where did you get the name "Obnoxious Librarian from Hades"?
I wanted to name it "b*stard librarian from hell", paying tribute to the stories that I liked so much 10 years ago, but I thought that title might offend some people. So I changed "hell" to "hades", as this has two meanings: it is another word for hell and it was the name of the fictional company where the librarian works. I used obnoxious, because that is the librarian's main competency.

As an author, who are your influences?
Of course Simon Travaglia, the author of the b*stard operator from hell series. More indirectly it's Douglas Adams, who wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which I continue to read over and over again since I discovered it at the age of 13. Lastly, I greatly admire Ben Elton, who wrote for many great british comedy series - his work for Blackadder is superb.

Talk to me about your experience as an author? How is it different than operating your blog? More satisfying?
Writing a serious book (I wrote "The characteristics of the 21st century information professional" in 2006, http://www.chandospublishing.com/catalogue/record_detail.php?recordID=81) is different, as you want to teach and explain things to people. That is a different approach than writing a blog where my main goal is to vent frustrations and entertain people. I can't say one is more satisfying than the other, I like being able to both.

Are you yourself an email/blackberry/iphone junky?
I like gadgets, but am not addicted to them - my main addiction is reading. I switched from having both an mp3-player and a phone with me to a smart phone a few months ago, and I like having one tool that can do different things. I now use my smart phone to view my work calendar, use work e-mail, listen to podcasts and audiobooks, read e-books and make notes for future blog entries.

Talk to me about the future of librarianship? Any notes of caution? Are you optimistic?
People who know me or have heard me speak at different occassions will know that my main advice is to do more marketing. That to me is pivotal for succes and we should do it more and better. You can be the best information professional there is, but unless you market your services, products and yourself, you will get nowhere.

And we must understand that marketing is more than making nice flyers and adding a logo to your website. It is about knowing who your customers are, what drives them, what do they need? Are there customer groups that should be using your services and they don't - why? Why do you provide the services you do? How are they helping your customers achieve their goals - be it in a commercial organisation, a non profit or as a public service.

Since LibGig is a job site -- any advice to our job seekers? Have you had a personal experience trying to find employment in a recession/depression?
It is not something most information professionals know how to do by nature, but make sure you know how to sell yourself. The employer has a problem and you want to be the solution - make sure you understand what the organisation is about, their goals, their market etc. Then you can link your resume to their problems, because that is what they are looking for. Don't say "I have 10 years experience in desk research", but "I understand you would like to improve your market position, I can help your staff be better prepared for client sessions by creating competitive intelligence reports".

To learn more about Mr. Heye: http://www.dennie.heye.nl (a list of presentations, articles & achievements). The weblog can be found at http://olfh.blogspot.com.