Professional development - part II

Information Outlook, Jan, 2005 by Ethel M. Salonen

Happy New Year to you all! I wish you much success in 2005.

As you know, my presidential theme is professional development. I spoke to this in my November 2004 "Information Outlook" column. As I uncovered ways to enhance our professional development opportunities, I began to realize that the core education aspects of our profession are greatly changing. Those of you in professorial positions have been dealing with these issues your entire career.

From June to August 2004, I was fortunate to work with a summer intern. I was totally impressed with her technical skills as well as her project management abilities. I remember my summer right after graduating from my information school and I definitely did not have the skills she possessed. Her graduate program was intense and emphasized the technical, management, and financial aspects of our industry.

What was an eye-opener for me was the criticism she received from some of our colleagues concerning her lack of exposure to the "core" subjects--cataloging, reference, and bibliographic studies. It made no sense to me to hear such criticism, so I decided to perform a quick study of the MSLIS program issues and find out what is really going on.

Our profession is very diverse, with differing needs and issues. During the 1990s, employers were looking for library and information science graduates who were familiar with the new technologies and who could easily work in a virtual information center environment. Our schools of information responded with course offerings that reflected the changing technical needs. Cataloging became meta-data and content management. Acquisitions became external content. Reference became search engine and portal management services. We are now working in multiple team settings that require us to use project management skills.

Our recent graduate students are now ready to work in stimulating environments and are ready to take on diverse and exciting roles. I was very surprised to read columns from Library Journal written by Rachel Singer Gordon, a young professional, in which she told stories of how, even though they are ready to work in challenging and futuristic organizations, they are faced with resistance and objections to their advanced knowledge of technologies. Some of their T-shirts read "The only thing graying in this profession is my unused MLS" and "Will catalog for food."

Our young professionals are looking for stability in their jobs; they want opportunities where they can work on projects independently and with multitasking and networking as part of their daily activities. In the October 2004 issue of the Harvard Business Review, an article titled "The Young and the Restful" discusses that "... employers might well look to entry-level workers for new solutions to knowledge management and business generation in virtual environments."

The editorial from the October 1, 2004, Library Journal discussed the crisis in the MSLIS graduate programs and how many leaders in academia are reviewing existing curriculum. Changes in school names from School of Library Science to School of Library and Information Science finally to School of Information have also created much in the way of discussion in the press.

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SLA's Pharmaceutical and Health Technology Division was awarded a grant during the October 2004 board meeting to write information professional job descriptions that reflect our ever-changing technology needs. These job descriptions can be used by anyone in the industry. I applaud the efforts of the division and thank them for their work.

To be an inclusive profession, and to grow our profession and our industry, I encourage everyone to embrace these newly minted students, ask them to help us change the way we do business, and accept the fact that what we consider as core competencies are no longer as core as they used to be.

I have visited a number of schools of information and I am thrilled to see such diversity in the student population and in the types of organizations they are seeking employment with. We have students working in IT/IS departments whose job is to manage internal content access and distribution and to work on project teams with external content managers and other information professionals.

I see SLA's professional development program as a way to ensure that our graduates are kept up to date with access to all the new technologies and changes in our industry. Professionals in the middle of their careers can hone their skills further. For those of us at the end of our career, it keeps us motivated and makes us realize the value these new students bring to our organizations.

Look for the new SLA Online University in the coming months.

Speak to you again in March.

Make it so!!

Ethel M. Salonen

SLA President