Information professionals are everywhere. Sometimes you forget that there are people in many organisations that do a version of what you do but have snagged a gig that looks diverse and special.
Information professionals have a range of opportunities – if you know what to look for and have confidence to apply. Many of these roles seem out of reach due to their uniqueness and lack of direct career progression towards them, however, can be attained through experimenting with different roles including volunteering to gain insights and skills. This gives early career professionals like me both hope and inspiration to move beyond the typical roles and explore beyond into areas that might be rare, intriguing, and interesting. I think there might be a limit on how many times I can name that book with the boy wizard when being described by a requesting library user.
There are many issues that I have face already as an early career Teacher Librarian that I have now come to see as universal across differing information agencies and with highly experienced information professionals.
The lack of understanding at times from colleagues and management in both what your role is, but also what support you can provide others is one of the key issues that is present among different agencies. When working in a highly specialised environment or simply as the only person in your role isolation is another key issue to overcome. There are solutions to these issues, but networking and the building relationships is a common theme in supporting yourself and others. The need to feel connected and share information seems almost fundamental to the nature of the role: ensuring the access and sharing of information, yet it can not be so obvious what you do not know when you are working alone.
