All entries for Thursday 03 May 2007

May 03, 2007

Future libraries meeting

Jess, Ant, Chris and I met on May 3rd to discuss the future of the Information Professional.

The following key points were made:

The word "Library" is being used less and less in current job titles and service provision, will this help to move away from stereotypes? Will it encourage more interaction and involvement from people outside of traditional library roles and sectors? Will either of these things be beneficial to the Information profession?
It may be easier to change job titles than change stereotypes. Does "Information Consultant" mean more to the public than "Librarian"?
Information roles require a wide range of broad and transferable generic skills. Customer service/IT/communications etc. The skill in the role is not to be specific but to be flexible and have a broad base to build from.
Networking is becomming more important. The profession is fairly small.
Will Libraries become less willing to share their ideas and work as they begin to see users more as "customers"? will this approach breed competition where currently there is a lot of openness and information sharing?
Libraries are starting to market themselves. it seems that competition for customers is not just against other libraries, also consider other lesiure providers, sports centres, etc. and also online provision, such as google.
What are the main sources of competition for a Public Library?

lesuire activities
google/internet services
museums

Competition is not just for customers, it is also for funding. Other public services are also in competition with Libraries. In order to be worthy of funding a public service must show how it supports all sectors of the community. There must be consideration of wider political issues: education, crime, terrroism, social inclusion, rascism, health etc.

Understanding what a Library is is not enough, understanding what your job is within a library is not enough, there is need to understand WHY a library is and WHY your job is.

Consider:

social drives
economic drives
ecological drives

Career Progression Considerations:

It can be difficult to get experience in management and supervisory skills and also in budget management. The jump from my current post to a budget holder post or a management post is difficult to make. Consider alterbative ways to get this experience:

secondments
courses
activity outside of work
additional special interest groups
voluntary work

Subject Librarians - are they needed?

What do they lend to students? academics? service provision?

How specific to a subject do they need to be? What kind of specific educational background is required?

Proactive approaches

Are we making good use of technology? ARe we exploiting the full potential of web 2.0?

Strategic Thinking

Are libraries supporting the current objectives of the organisation?

Do your daily tasks actually address the library/oganisation objectives?

This is how you can justify your post if it is threatened - be sure to look at how relevant you are to the organisations goals and strategy.

What are the benefits of what you do? Who gains from your role? Once you know this MARKET IT. This makes you more relevant to your audience. Could this idea be used to effectivly open a presentation to new students for example?

Also consider how you can sell yourself to managers - how do you benfit the organisational agenda?

Consider performing a personal SWOT analysis to take to the next mentor meeting.