by Quincie Rivers, Washington DC Chapter, Knowledge Management Division

InfoCurrent has had a ringside seat watching the library and information science world change over the last few decades. As the Information Management Division of CORESTAFF Services, InfoCurrent has a 40-year history of providing library services to a broad spectrum of business, industry and government clients.

While InfoCurrent continues to place traditional librarians, technicians and clerks, we are constantly being asked to find highly skilled professionals who can manage digital archives, content management systems, web content, digital rights management, taxonomy, e-learning, competitive intelligence and analysis and more.

To be “future ready” in today’s market means more than being proficient in traditional Library Sciences.  It means being futuristic, strategic, and quick to adapt to change. Employers are looking for librarians who are creative, flexible, innovative – who are at ease with technology and understand how that technology can help an organization manage their resources better. Information is key to a business’s growth. Hiring managers expect a librarian to be team oriented, collaborative, people focused. They want and need librarians who can become thought leaders, strategists and innovators.

As companies are exploring ways to recover and expand in the current economic climate, budgets continue to be under strict scrutiny.  Often with limited resources, library services must continue to evolve and become leaner, smarter and faster as the new age of technology and social media transforms our markets.

Organizations and businesses realize that the management of knowledge is a valuable commodity and necessary for growth.  It is not enough, however, just to manage information and provide a service but rather to proactively adopt new technologies and economies of scale.  Businesses who have sought skilled personnel to cost effectively deliver and streamline information now view these individuals in a far less traditional role.

How does one become future ready?  Become innovative and adapt to the evolution of business strategies as it relates to your specific industry.  While the demand for MLIS/MLS professionals remains high, the work environment will be a far less conventional business.  As long as you are flexible and have a curiosity for life-long learning, there will be a place in today’s future ready business world by translating traditional skills and adapting new technologies to their best and highest use.

The day of the back office librarian is vanishing. Professional Librarians are embedded in the teams they service. They are managing virtual researchers and collections, orchestrating the delivery of these valuable resources in whatever form they take. Expect to be part of a team collaboratively working to provide innovative solutions in a dynamic environment.

It’s an exciting time to be a librarian. At InfoCurrent we see the future every day.

InfoCurrent, with offices in Washington, DC, New York City, Boston and Houston, is the Information Management Division of CORESTAFF Services specializing in library and records management services.  InfoCurrent is a full-service, nationwide staffing firm offering temporary, temp-to-hire, direct hire and project management for almost every industry, on projects large and small, and on items from legal documents to art collections.  We keep pace with trends in both Library Sciences and Records Management, sharing best practices to help our clients build faster, nimbler – and smarter – organizations.

by Dianna Roberts, Australia and New Zealand Chapter, Transportation Division

Our Information Centre has always been well-positioned in the company especially as our two most recent Chief Executives had wives who were librarians. We now have a new, young and dynamic CE with a non-librarian wife and who is making lots of changes, all of which I support, but like many of you I suffer from what I refer to as ‘librarians’ paranoia,” i.e. the fear of being seen as irrelevant and potentially disposable.

My immediate manager has been asking questions which were making me feel nervous, such as “what would it cost the company NOT to have the Information Centre?”, but I knew I’d done all I could to present a positive image with glowing feedback and value statements that proved our worth, and that any outcome was probably now beyond my control. So this morning I was very pleasantly surprised (almost shocked!) to be told that the company wants us to move beyond being viewed as “the library” and to take on a more active role of Information Management with ownership of functions such as EDRMS, e-learning, KM and anything else I can suggest.

We currently have a staff of only 2.5 FTE who serving a population of 2,500 in four different countries. Our main focus has been on indepth research, document supply and alerting services so taking on these wider roles will mean expanding our staff and learning new skills. It will also provide us with more authoritative position in the company.

What an exciting year it is going to be.

Dianna Roberts is the Manager of the Information Centre at Opus International Consultants Ltd.