The ‘Hows’ of Alternative Information Professional Career Paths

Rubin’s 2004 statement that “Librarianship is in the midst of a great change” (Rubin, 2004, p. 437) seems, these days, to be an understatement and almost a truism. As documented extensively in the literature, technology is a key aspect of most, if not all, of the types of work that information professionals perform and the requirement for some level of technological skills are a given, especially for those new to the profession. At the same time that this shift towards technology has occurred, there has also been a shift from focusing on primarily on the collections and information to a focus on people and the provision of diverse services to those people. Changes in the ways information are created, purchased/leased, organized, stored, preserved, disseminated and accessed have also required information professionals to acquire new and flexible skill sets. A focus on providing services to patrons/clients—who are increasingly diverse and multi-lingual, and who possess varying degrees of information literacy—suggests a greater need for information professionals to have excellent ‘people’ skills, such as intercultural competency skills. While all these aspects apply within ‘traditional’ library settings—e.g., school, public and academic libraries, there may be additional challenges involved in information profession (IP) work in non-traditional types of roles or settings.

Previously, we addressed the What, Where, When, Why, Who about alternative IP career paths. In this posting we address some of the “Hows.” Two key aspects of ‘how’ to obtain and thrive in an alternative career path are Information Professional (IP) competencies, and portable or transferable skills.

Information Professional Competencies

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) has identified several areas of competency needed in today’s information professional. According to the SLA website these are: professional competencies, personal competencies and core competencies (Special Libraries Association, 2003). Professional competencies are managing information organizations; managing information resources; managing information services and applying information tools and technologies. Personal competencies are “attitudes, skills and values that enable practitioners to work effectively and contribute positively to their organizations, clients and profession.” The 2003 SLA list of Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21^st Century” is available at https://www.sla.org/content/learn/comp2003/index.cfm . According to the SLA, core competencies, “anchor the professional and personal competencies.” These are: (1) “[contributing] to the knowledge base of the profession by sharing best practices and experiences, and [continuing]… to learn about information products, services, and management practices throughout the life of his/her career; and (2) “[committing] to professional excellence and ethics, and to the values and principles of the profession” (Special Libraries Association, 2003).

Transferable Skills

Within these competencies are skills and skill sets. In order for information professionals to work in a variety of types of workplaces and to perform various types of ‘non-traditional’ information work, it is important to have, identify and market ‘transferable skills.’ Dority (2006) defines transferable skills as “skills that bring value to many environments, rather than being specific to a given organization…they can be applied to new and/or nontraditional types of library work or to new nonlibrary work opportunities” (p. 124). These include “technological skills, an ability to work with customers/the public, management expertise, communications skills, and overall information research and/or management abilities, among others” (p. 124). In addition, writing and editing skills are always in great demand. As well, with all the ‘change’ challenges that libraries face these days, having skills to lead and guide change, as well as facilitating teams could give you a real competitive edge.

Some “Hows-to’s” of Alternative IP Career Paths

Identify, Value, Rethink, Reframe, Rephrase and Repackage Your Skills

Skills Assessment—Self and Desired Job Position

Just as you have probably gone through a process of determining if an alternative IP career is right for you using various self-assessment tools such as Myers-Briggs (Dority, chapter 2), you now want to look at your entire skill set and knowledge base and compare it to the skills and knowledge that are needed for the types of work you wish to do. Two typical approaches identified by Dority are a “gap analysis” and the “SWOT” (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis (p.136). In the gap analysis, you list in specific and concrete terms your various skills and knowledge base—whether learned and practiced in the workplace or elsewhere. Then you review the job description or job ad for the position you are interested in and identify the skills involved. Which skills do you have already? Which skills are you missing? What are the gaps that you will need to address via what Dority called a “learning agenda” (p. 136), for example, via formal courses or informal, on the job learning, mentorship opportunities or volunteer positions? Also, have you given sufficient value and weight to the skills you possess? We sometimes undervalue our skills—they become invisible to us—so it’s important to look at them objectively and see them as real skills. Now, can those skills be, as Dority suggests, reframed, rephrased and repurposed for a new type of job or work setting (p. 118)? A good question to ask yourself is: “What roles, responsibilities, and opportunities would your skills prepare you for if there were no libraries?” (Dority, p. 118).

What else do you need to do?

Dority (2006) provides an excellent ‘blueprint’ for seeking and obtaining alternative career positions by focusing on your skills and knowledge. In order to ‘grow your career’ (Dority, chapter 7) it’s important to adopt a ‘lifelong learner’ stance and to engage in continuous learning in both formal settings and informally. Sources of learning include: “learning on the job;” “learning from the LIS profession” (via courses, seminars, practitioners, blogs, listservs, etc.); “learning from your own professional community;” and “learning in grad school.” (Dority, pp. 140-141). Dority makes an important point in suggesting that students, when undertaking a course assignment should ask, “‘What do I want to learn with this?’...and to [align] every paper, project, and class activity with your personal career agenda whenever possible…” (p. 141). In addition, after completing graduate school, it’s important to continue to learn—and particularly with respect to more generic skill areas, from a wide variety of disciplines. Other ways for learning new skills and knowledge include working as a volunteer in community organizations, working on special projects in the workplace (Dority, p. 129), such as fundraising or marketing, seeking out and working with mentors, networking with others from diverse fields, and “reading outside the box” (Dority, p. 161)—namely reading widely and across disciplines.

Your Portfolio

As a final assignment in our class we will be creating a Portfolio. Dority provides some valuable tips on how to do this effectively (pp. 125-128) and how to ‘grow’ it throughout your career (pp. 128-130). Also see some of the “Toolkit Resources” on this topic.

Toolkit Resources

Please check out the various resources provided in the “Toolkits” we have provided.

Alternative LIS/IP Career ‘Job Bank’

Please feel free add to the ‘Job Bank’ that we have started on this blog by providing a brief job description of an alternative IP career that interests you.

Good Luck

Group Seven wishes you well with your career planning and pathing—whether you decide on the more traditional path or on an alternative career path. Enjoy your knowledge journey.

Toolkit Resources

Alternative Careers. (2005, March). Info Career Trends. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/archives2005.htm

American Libraries Association. (2008). Continuing Education. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.ala.org/ala/education/ce/continuingeducation.cfm

Carvell, L. P. (2005). Career opportunities in library and information science. New York: Ferguson.

Sharp, K. (2000). Internet librarianship: Traditional roles in a new environment. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/005-120e.htm

Gordon, R. S. Info career trends - LISjobs.com's professional development newsletter. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/index.htm

Gordon, R. S. (2008). LISjobs.com - Jobs for librarians and information professionals. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.lisjobs.com/

LIScareer.com: The library & information science professional's career development center. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.liscareer.com/education.htm; http://www.liscareer.com/bookstore.htm

Promotion (2002, July ). Info Career Trends. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/archives2002.htm

Society of American Archivists. Education Calendar. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.archivists.org/prof-education/seasonal_schedule.asp

Special Libraries Association. (2008). Careers. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.sla.org/careers/

Tucker, C. (2005, January). Career advancement for Nextgen librarians. Info Career Trends. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/archives/jan05ctucker.htm

U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008). Occupational outlook handbook (OOH), 2008-09 edition. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.bls.gov/OCO/

Weathers-Parry, P. The librarian's portfolio. Info Career Trends. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/archives/jan01pparry.htm

What's online? Recommended resources. (2005, March). Info Career Trends. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/archives/mar05sites.htm

References

Dority, G. K. (2006). Rethinking information work: A career guide for librarians and other information professionals. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Rubin, R. E. (2004). Foundations of library and information science (2nd ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman.

Special Libraries Association. (2003). Competencies for information professionals. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://www.sla.org/content/learn/comp2003/index.cfm

Prepared by Catherine Gibson, Group Seven, April 17, 2008.