Defining Information Professionals in the Digital Era
Define what you believe to be the essential knowledge, skills, and attributes of an information professional in the digital era.
As the global landscape changes, computer and digital literacy is emerging as a future key to the information profession. Information professionals will increasingly be working alongside emerging technologies in conducting their work, both directly in cases such as automated cataloguing, and indirectly, such as analytical systems providing data on information usage (Burton, 2019).
Ayinde & Kirkwood (2020) break the use of assistive technologies down as Human-only activities, activities where humans complement machines, activities where machines give people ‘superpowers’, and activities that are machine only. Humans excel at leadership, empathy, creativity and making judgements, while machines are better for transactions, as well as data prediction and analysis. Information professionals need to redevelop their skills to focus on the human-only activities, as well as the ‘hybrid’ activities, including training, explanations and interactions, to remain relevant in the information profession. Activities that are best done by machines should be left to them, freeing up librarians to pursue more important and productive tasks. Axelsson (2019) talks about this use of expertise and the adoption of robotics to help alleviate mundane requests.
“Their expertise is better used in in-depth service, helping visitors find specific books that fit their needs best. This type of work can take 30–40 minutes. In comparison, “Where is the psychology section?” takes 1–3 minutes to answer. Stacked together, a whole day of 1–3 minute tasks becomes tedious, and a waste of skills.” (Axelsson, 2019, para. 4)
The adoption of emerging technologies, such as Web 2.0 including Social Media, and Machine Learning assistive technologies, requires library staff that have positive reactions to these technologies, or they’re likely to be passed over by information institutions. Information professionals need to have a depth of understanding so they can make the right decisions about which technologies will best aid their organisations mission (Akwang, 2021).
The adoption of new technologies is critical to the on-going success of information organisations in achieving their goals. With increasingly tight budgeting and new emerging demographics, and the increasing digital literacy of patrons, information organisations can’t afford to be left behind.
Technology provides the chance for librarians to innovate, boost quality, measure success, and align services with the priorities of their organizations. With technology, librarians can reintroduce themselves as visible, valuable, and essential partners in achieving common goals. (Journal of the Medical Library Association, 2015).
Information professionals of the future must be leaders and creators, ready to embrace technological innovation to meet the needs of their library, and move beyond the core skills of the past. In the digital era, they must possess digital skills, up-to-date and informed knowledge on emerging technologies, and fully embrace the human attributes that can’t be replicated by machines.
References
Akwang, N. E. (2021). A study of librarians’ perceptions and adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in academic libraries in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 47(2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102299
Axelsson, M. (2019). The Little Robot that Lived at the Library. https://towardsdatascience.com/the-little-robot-that-lived-at-the-library-90431f34ae2c
Ayinde, L., & Kirkwood, H. (2020). Rethinking the roles and skills of information professionals in the 4th Industrial Revolution. Sage Journals, 37(4). https://doi.org/https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1177/02663821209680
Burton, S. (2019). Future Skills for the LIS Profession. Online Searcher. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=016c2649-a634-4f96-a79a-219456b055bf%40redis
Journal of the Medical Library Assocation. (2015). Enhancing library impact through technology. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 103(4), 222-231. https://doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.103.4.015