• Technology
Librarians 2.0 needs to understand technology trends, know how to use the most popular tools and be able to critically assess them for their usefulness in collaborating with our clients, to build a community and to communicate efficiently with our communities. Different communities will require different approaches and tools. We need to learn what works and what doesn't work and be proactive in trying new approaches when using technology.
• Learning and Education
For Librarians 2.0 the LIS degree is only the launching pad for our learning and life long professional journey. The Librarian 2.0 needs to be engaged in life long learning to ride the wave of future change. We are responsible for our professional education whether it be informal or formal settings. Our profession is no longer gatekeepers but facilitators. This facilitation role requires us to posses IT skills previously reserved for professional web designers, database administrators and communication experts. We are required to explain to our customers how technology works and the ways its use would benefit them what ever their circumstances.
• Research or Evidence Based Practice
• Communication
Librarians 2.0 must be good communicators whether verbally, in writing or visually as there are many mediums in which we are required to use to effectively share our message. We should be able to communicate with all levels of society, whether lobbying governments, colleagues or executive committees to enable us to resource programs when there are competing agendas from within or outside our sponsoring institutions.
• Collaboration and teamwork
Librarians 2.0 are members of a team. We work in a team to provide user centric services this may involve establishing cross sector partnerships with IT service providers, education practitioners, community organizations and individuals. We support our work teams programs and goals in order to deliver these user services on a local, state or national basis. We also contribute ideas and assess processes in order to improve productivity and service delivery.
• User Focus
Librarians 2.0 are user focused. We seek to support our communities in their life long learning discovery journey by understanding their needs and providing the channels to deliver resources most convenient to them. We design our systems and processes to with the user in mind and to remove access barriers.
• Business savvy
Librarians 2.0 should be able to create, design and implement projects on time and on budget. Then assess the project outcomes against the our sponsoring institutions strategic goals and mission. This requires us to be able to think outside the box, be good at time management and be able to communicate effectively the results to our stake holders in order to demonstrate our relevance to the organization.
• Personal Traits
Librarian 2.0 is a person who listens to others, communicates well, is proactive in learning about new information technologies and trends. We are not afraid of making mistakes instead we learn from them to improve our systems, processes and approaches. We take our own life long learning journey seriously in order to reach out and help our own communities create, collaborate and communicate in the ways they choose.
CONCLUSION
You can of course disagree with me as there is no standard definitions of what a Librarian 2.0 is or does. This profession is one of evolutionary skills set rather than a static one. As technology and processes change so will it require today's librarian's to morph to suit the needs of their communities that they service. Whether it is in an office as a knowledge manager, a administrator on an organization's intranet, working for Google or in a traditional setting our skill set and personal traits will continue to find a relevant place in our society.
References:
[1] Partridge, H., Lee, J., & Munro, C. (2010). Becoming "Librarian 2.0": The Skills, Knowledge, and Attributes Required by Library and Information Science Professionals in a Web 2.0 World (and Beyond). Library Trends,59(1-2), 315-335.
