The Future Librarian: A Diverse and Complex Professional

Abstract

The library professional is an active actor in the information society and the professional identity is affected by societal and cultural phenomena as well as technological changes. The library users’ changing information behavior, different forms of information, and information overload challenge the professional perspective; what is the core expertise of the library profession and what new skills are needed in the future? The library profession meets a growing complexity in its role and it becomes difficult to balance the generalist and expertise level of the profession (Stover 2004). Desirable future skills are related to operating and navigating on the Internet, and being open for interaction with the users on the Internet. At the same time the professional identity is firmly anchored in the traditional core values and competences of librarianship (Huvila et al. 2013). This paper discusses the challenge of the diversity of the expected qualities of librarians. The paper has both a professional as well as an educational point of view. How do we educate library professionals of tomorrow in a society where information and information related activities are continuously growing and changing? What are the core competencies, what are the key challenges, and how do we find a balance between technical and social skills? This paper is based on empirical work looking into expectations of the future library profession among library directors, as well as LIS-students.

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