The emergent market for information professionals: educational opportunities and implications

BACKGROUND

Machlup's (1962) and Porat's (1977) landmark analyses of the U.S. economy highlighted the growing importance of the information and knowledge industries. Today, the primary and secondary information sectors account for a significant proportion of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and the GNP (Gross National Product) in many developed economies. The labor market implications of such rapid economic transformations are likely to be profound, and they raise a host of questions relating to educational strategy and responsiveness, not least for the library and information science (LIS) community (e.g., Angell, 1987; Brinberg, 1986; Brittain, 1989; Turner & Bray, 1989). Despite persistent terminological and scholarly wrangling about the exact nature of an information society, certain common assumptions seem to hold true (Locksley, 1990):

Each construct gives particular emphasis to one set of characteristics

of the transforming economy and society. The status of information

workers and information occupations are usually central within these

paragdigms. (p. 3)

In 1981, Debons et al. estimated the total information professional workforce--"those who were indisputably in the |hard core' of professional information work" (p. 5)--in the United States at 1.64 million, a substantial refinement of the earlier global estimates. Yet only 19 percent of this group belonged to the category "library and information services." Other studies speak confidently of the "invisible job market" (Harmon, 1987), "hidden job market" (Spivack, 1982), "emerging employment market for librarians and information workers" (Moore, 1987), "new intermediaries" (Arnold, 1987), "employment market for information professionals" (Moore, 1988), and "hinterland" (Cronin, 1993). This kind of thinking is not restricted to the United States and United Kingdom. Seeger (1987) made similar observations in the late 1980s relating to the situation in Germany and stressed the importance of moving beyond qualification profiles which were "almost exclusively directed towards typical job descriptions in one type of institution" (p. 170).

HEARTLAND, HINTERLAND, HORIZON

At the risk of oversimplifying, the market for information professionals is three-layered: the heartland, the hinterland, and the horizon. The heartland can be defined in terms of traditional library or information units, largely staffed and managed by graduates of library and information science programs. The contexts and opportunities which characterize the hinterland are not defined in an institutional sense. This is the world of libraries-without-walls and distributed information systems, where disciplinary pedigree and professional affiliation matter less than perceived competence and adaptability. Here, diverse groups, ranging from information systems analysts through information scientists to communications specialists, happily co-exist and inhabit a wide array of occupational niches (e.g., marketing information specialist, database coordinator, information manager). The third layer, the horizon, is the natural habitat of software engineers, business computing specialists, and telecommunications managers, whose focus tends to be the hardware or systems component, rather than information content and packaging.

A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

The emergent market constitutes a potential growth opportunity for library and information science schools (Slater, 1986; Cronin & Davenport, 1988; Schipper & Cunningham, 1991). This fact is already reflected in the expansion and diversification of the programs offered by many LIS schools in the last decade, notably those at Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Drexel in the United States; Toronto in Canada; and Sheffield, Loughborough, and Strathclyde universities in the United Kingdom. It is not, however, a captive or guaranteed market, as competition from other suppliers and skepticism about the ability of LIS schools to adapt, pedagogically and culturally, to the dynamics of a changing marketplace feature strongly. Nevertheless, The Occupational Outlook Handbook 1990-1991 (1991) is guardedly bullish in at least some of its forecasts:

Employment of librarians is expected to grow more slowly than the

average for all occupations through the year 2000. Slow employment

growth in school libraries reflects the slow growth of enrollments. Public

library employment will also grow slowly, due to slow population growth

and limited budgets. Little growth is likely in colleges and universities,

Since college enrollments will decline.... Employment in special libraries

is expected to grow faster than average, as the number of managerial

and professional specialty workers they serve grows rapidly....

Employment of library school graduates outside traditional library

settings is expected to grow. Nontraditional library settings include

bibliographic cooperatives, regional information networks, and

information search services. These settings employ systems analysts, data