Educational requirements for a library-oriented career in information management

Library Trends, Fall, 1993 by Michael E.D. Koenig

At the same time, the world economy is itself becoming both far more international and more information oriented. This in turn creates far more interest in information and information products that are not merely local or regional in their coverage but international.

The consequence of these trends is that the information industry seeks candidates who not only have the requisite technical and operational skills, but who also have the language skills, the interpersonal and communications skills, and the breadth of background and knowledge that allows them to operate effectively in the new international marketplace. Library and information science education programs must consciously prepare themselves to educate students to work in that marketplace.

THE MOBILITY OF INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS

A related development is that of the increased job mobility within the library and information field. Traditionally, library careers were somewhat constricted. Librarians tended to have a career within their particular specialty area. This was particularly true and remains so to a considerable degree within academic librarianship (Koenig & Safford, 1984). However, the growth of both corporate librarianship and the information industry, areas which are very much interwoven in terms of career paths, has brought an unprecedented flexibility to library careers.

In addition, the electronic information age has changed the nature of traditional librarianship by moving library and information operations to the "buy" end of the "create versus buy" spectrum. A fundamental decision in running any enterprise is what to create yourself and what to buy--e.g., if you are a manufacturer of window air conditioners, do you make your own compressors or do you buy them?

The era of electronic information has moved traditional libraries and information services increasingly to the buy end of the spectrum. The first phase of the shift was buying central cataloging from an agency such as OCLC rather than doing (making) it oneself. The second phase was online databases, and the third phase is represented by the shift from collection-based to access-based services. Of course, libraries always bought books and services, but librarianship and publishing were perceived to be two quite separate fields and quite separate career paths. Now, however, with the development and extension of the publishing industry to converge with computation, networks, and other players into the information industry, it is increasingly the case that those entering librarianship and those entering the information industry share common training and common friendships. Furthermore, that shift from "create to buy" has been accompanied by, or, perhaps more accurately, has been enabled by the development of a host of library agencies from national and international agencies (such as OCLC) to state and within-state library networks of various kinds. These agencies are developed and staffed principally by librarians, yet their function and their operation is very similar to that of components of the information industry. Indeed, the distinction between what is and what should be the functions of not-for-profit agencies versus what should be the functions of for-profit information organizations is murky, problematical, and contentious. The consequence is that there is no longer an information world with just two very separate domains--libraries and publishing--the new world is much richer and far more complex, and the domains are far less clearly delineated. Furthermore, the new domain of the library agency represents more than simply the addition of a new domain; it is also a bridge and a migration route between the old domains.