Staying afloat on the digital fall, resilience and new library and information professionals

Pisgah Falls TV. McKin BY: NC-SA

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of teaching one of the sessions on the Information Organisations and Their Management modules on Manchester Met’s Masters in Library and Information Management course. The module develops students’ understanding of the information organisation landscape. It encourages them to take a wide perspective on contexts in which their skills might be relevant, giving them the opportunity to develop their management knowledge and skills, including people skills such as leadership and teamworking.

I called the session “Libraries and Their Digital Offerings, Disruption and Resilience”.  I began by reflecting on my career development over the last 20 years in the context of a digitally disruptive society. I punctuated my career timeline with significant digital happenings that had taken place along the way.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         For example in the library I worked in as pre-professional trainee the Times Newspaper was on CD-Rom on the floor above, which could only be networked when somebody physically put the disc in. Now look where we are today in a world of mobile devices and media saturation.





I then followed with a series of group activities based on my own case studies which mapped to the Digital U values of the University project I am currently involved in:

• Communication, Collaborator & Participator:  using technology to network and develop working relationships and effectively communicating online - Case study: reading list upgrade communicating with suppliers at a distance using conferencing software
• Information & Data Handler: managing and interpreting data, as well as keeping it secure - Case study: collection management review, understanding data and communicating this to academics
• Creator and innovator: using a range of technologies for different activities - Case study: identifying technological solutions with limited resources, cloud solutions and open source
• Leaner and self developer: utilising different digital learning opportunities and using a range of online tools to participate in this - Case study: constructively developing knowledge in an new area using MOOCs and joining professional networks
• Digital ambassador: developing a positive digital profile and looking after personal health and safety in digital settings - Case study: how to select an area of expertise and building your professional profile    

The aim of the case studies was to help the students to identify the digital skills they had and would need acquire to make them resilient in the future digital library world. This was a collaborative digital exploration, I was really impressed by the innovative contributions of the cohort. As I have illustrated above the profession has changed considerably over the last 20 years in the public and private sectors, mainly due to digital disruption. New professionals have to be resilient with respect to addressing unexpected challenges, challenges that some had predicted but possibly not so soon and not so impactful. The group’s engagement revealed a prepared awareness and enthusiasm to promote their existing skills and to find ways to develop these. This showed a real commitment to the profession making the whole experience for me extremely rewarding, I felt an optimism for the profession knowing it will be in such good hands.