AN ASSESSMENT OF INFORMATION

TECHNOLGY (IT) SKILL

REQUIREMENT FOR DIGITAL

LIBRARIANS

BY

DUSHU TANGKAT YUSUF

SEPTEMBER, 2014

INTRODUCTION

The trend in librarianship today bears every mark of a

future yet unknown. The digital age has been succinctly

captured by Kruger (2005) in her provocative question: “will

flesh-and-bone librarians be relevant in fifty years time? Of

course – the status of information professionals will grow in

the information economy-surely we have established that. But

will they be flesh and bone?” It requires an answer from every

librarian today. Simply, the concept being addressed by Kruger

is that of natural mutation; the survival of the fittest. In

another thought-provoking question, Akintunde (2006) added

that: can librarians continue to look at, and practice

librarianship the way they are used to and still be relevant?

Can we continue to render services as in the traditional

pattern that we’ve always done and still be current? He added

that doing things in the “normal” way, can we last in the new

information and communication era? What then is the more

appropriate approach to librarianship?

“Information” means many things to many people, depending

on the context. Scientifically, information is a processed

data. Information can also be loosely defined as that which

aids decision making. Information though abstract, could also

be visualized as a commodity which could be bought or sold.

Gilbert (2000) added that:

“any potentially useful fact quantity or value that can beexpressed uniquely with exactness. Information iswhatever is capable of causing a human mind to changeits opinion about the current state of the real world”

Burch and Grundnitiski (2009) viewed information as “data

that have been put into meaningful and useful context and

communicated to a recipient who uses it to make decision”

Daniel (2009) used a broader approach in his definition of

information when he viewed it as “knowledge used in its

generic sense irrespective of the source, format, mode or

transfer medium”. In his rather simplistic attempt at coming

up with a definition, Pinniston (2000) categorized information

as ranging “from articles n technical publications to verbal

repots of informal meetings and from news items in daily or

trade newspaper to patent specifications”.

Technology refers to the use of scientific knowledge to

invent tools that assist human beings in their efforts to over

come environmental hazards and impediments to comfort. In this

regard, technology refers to the things like the computer,

telephone, cell phone, GSM handsets, television. Radio among

others (James, 2004). In a wide look at the position of

technology, Tachio (2010), reported that “technological change

is a process that house accelerated in tandem over the past

fifteen years and has created a new global economy powered by

technology, fueled by information and driven by knowledge”.

The word technology refers to that branch of knowledge,

which deals with scientific and industrial methods and their

practical use in industry (Issa, 2010). This explains why some

refer to it simply as “practical science”. It is in this sense

that Langley and Shain, as quoted by Chiesenga (2005) defined

technology as “the acquisition, processing, storage, and

dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical

information by a micro-electronic based combination of

computing and telecommunication”.

Put together therefore, IT as presented by deWatteville

(2000) is the acquisition, analysis, manipulation, storage and

distribution of information; and the design and provision of

equipment and software for these purposes. Whereas the

computer provides facilities for processing, storage and

retrieval, telecommunications, on the other hand, make

available such facilities as are needed for transfer or

communication of data and information. Ehikhamenor (2003)

viewed IT as the information revolution, a combination of

massive increase in the world’s inventory of information and

the technical development of the means to cope with it.

Agradelibrary (2003) saw IT as “all the hardware, software,

telecommunications, database management, and other information

that we use to process technology using computer based

information systems”.

A noted trend particularly in academic libraries is a

move away from simply redefining traditional or existing

library roles altogether in favour of new and completely

redesigned job profiles. Davies (2008) imbued that this trend

verifies actions by library administrators who are

increasingly seeking librarians with a wider range of

Information Technology (IT) skills to meet the demands of

users who are accessing information through technology. Chuck

(2008) stated the need well as “We need an integrated

understanding of human needs and their relationships to

information systems and social structures. We need unifying

principles that illuminate the role of information in both

computation and cognition, in both communication and

community. We need information professionals who can apply

these principles to synthesize human-centred and technological

perspectives.”

The questions then become, is there a scarcity of

qualified individuals to fill these technology driven

librarian roles in our libraries and if so why? How are

qualifications acquired and what are they, besides a moving

target? There appears to be two major convergent trends

influencing this uncertain phenomenon. The first is what is

perceived as “lack of awareness” and consensus about what the

core of Library schools need to be or to become in order to

offer real value in a constantly changing and competitive

information landscape. The other trend centres on the role of

Library and information science education and the continuing

questions regarding its direction, efficacy and ability to

prepare future librarians for the modern information

professions of now and the future. While changes are apparent

it appears many LIS programs are still operating on a two-

track model of “traditional librarians and information

managers” and there are enough questions in this area to

warrant further investigation and inquiry (Michael, 2007).

A 2009 study by Matthew and Pardue asked the question

“What skills do librarians need in today’s world…” They sought

to answer this question by performing a content analysis,

spread over five months, of randomly selected jobs from ALA’s

JobList. What they found in the in the area technology was a

significant need for Web development, project management,

systems development, and systems applications. Further they

suggest that some librarians are using a substantial

professional IT skills subset. The priority of staying

educated, active and current for librarians with significant

technology roles cannot be underestimated; what Renee (2006)

defined as technology agility,

The capacity to learn constantly and quickly. I cannot make

this point strongly enough. It does not matter what they

know now. Can they assess a new technology and what it

may do (or not do) for your library? Can they stay up to

date? Can they learn a new technology without formal

training? If they can’t they will find it difficult to do the job.

Not all librarians with technology roles start out in

those positions and thus role transformation must be examined.

In some cases librarians with more traditional roles such as

reference and collection development have transformed their

skill set and taken on technology centric roles

THE DIGITAL LIBRARIAN

Digital libraries are an emerging concept, as today's

libraries routinely provide information and services in

digital form. As the nature and role of libraries have changed

in response to the new digital environment, new applications

and services have been developed. Many practitioners have

reported on these changes in the digital workplace

(Association of Research Libraries, 2000; Croneis and

Henderson, 2002; Stoffle, et al., 2003).

Digital libraries have unique characteristics that differ

from traditional libraries and their approaches to information

provision. The evolutionary view of digital libraries has been

addressed by practitioners in the library and information

fields (Borgman, 1999; Digital Library Federation, 1998). From

a traditional librarian's point of view, digital libraries

present a transformative model of a large-scale, user-centric

organization that is moving towards an integrated form with

various components (See Figure 1). However, the main purpose

of digital libraries remains consistent with that of

traditional libraries in that the purpose of digital libraries

is to organize, distribute, and preserve information resources

just as it is for traditional libraries.

Figure 1: Definition of a Digital Library Based on a Practice

Community

Increasing priorities to align digital library (DL)

applications with traditional library collections and services

requires staff with new expertise that adds another dimension

to library practice. Many researchers (such as Chowdhury and

Chowdhury, 2003; Tanner, 2001) have described digital

librarians' roles, and have suggested core competencies and

skills needed to perform these roles. Now, in addition to

their traditional library skills and knowledge, many of

today's professional librarians are expected to possess

additional knowledge and skills required for work within the

digital information world. Librarians are thus faced with the

challenge of acquiring advanced knowledge and skills to

augment what they traditionally learned, and to do so while at

the same time there is a shortage of experienced library staff

(Tennant, 2002). As a consequence, educating digital

librarians who are competent to work in the dynamic and

complex digital environment has become a high priority.

An important step in dealing with these needs is to

design educational programs appropriate for preparing future

digital librarians for the workplace. To design such programs,

we need to understand the staffing patterns in digital library

practice, the activities and tasks in which current

practitioners in DL development are involved, and the

practical skills that help these practitioners function

effectively.

"Digital librarian" is someone who is responsible for

and involved in technology-based projects to deliver digital

information resources in non-public service areas (Croneis and

Henderson, 2002). If the digital librarian is that important

to the 21st century library, what then are the IT skills

requirement for digital librarians?

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) SKILL REQUIREMENT OF A

DIGITAL LIBRARIAN

What type of technical skills do you need to be a

librarian? A tough question to answer. Specific skills will

vary depending on type of library one works in, will vary by

departments within a library, will also vary from library to

library – and will most definitely change rapidly (Borgman,

1999). However, until now the focus has still primarily been

on the concept of the document. If librarians are going to

continue being relevant in the age of Google and Google

Scholar, they need to move beyond the document and facilitate

access to the increasing amounts of data that is being made

available on the web. Croneis (2002) believed librarians, often

called information professionals, combine traditional duties with

tasks involving quickly changing technology. Librarians help

people find information and use it effectively for personal

and professional purposes. They must have knowledge of a wide

variety of scholarly and public information sources and must

follow trends related to publishing, computers, and the media

to oversee the selection and organization of library

materials. Librarians manage staff and develop and direct

information programs and systems for the public and ensure

that information is organized in a manner that meets users'

needs.

The following list of typical skills came from

consultations with a small set of library IT professionals:

Mangut Samson and Akintunde Sunday from university of Jos

library, Franca A., Joseph E. O, and Ijoema A.A. from

university of Calabar, and Gbaje E.S., and Aminu S from Ahmadu

Bello University, zaria. Their response are presented in key

areas as:

System administration skills (UNIX):

understand how to apply basic permissions schemes

(chown / chmod) for users and groups

OpenSSH configuration and usage for securely

administering remote machines, transferring files,

setting up remote backups via phrasesless keys

vim or emacs fo editing text files remotely

Perl or Python and shell scripting for basic system

automation jobs

crontab for setting up scheduled jobs

system backups

System administration skills (Windows):

tools for resetting the administrator password on systems

ability to poke through system logs to find problem

events and search for possible resolutions on the web

from reputable sources

Hardware skills:

system imaging (CloneZillam partimage, or the like) to

automate rollout of machines

basic hardware troubleshooting - checking cable

connections, installing and configuring drivers

Software configuration skills:

XML: parse and generate well-formed XML, and potentially

XSLST too

SQL: create and use basic relational models in MySQL or

PostgreSQL (CREATE, UPDATE, SELECT with joins, DELETE)

using JavaScript, JSON, AJAX for integrating Web services

into applications

one or more of Perl, Python, PHP, Java - to

troubleshoot / customize applications in the most popular

open source languages

creating and applying patches with diff and patch

version control with one or more of subversion, git,

bazaar - to keep your own configuration files and

customizations safe and enable rollback if things go

badly

Communication skills:

mailing lists - how to ask a question and etiquette

bug reporting systems - how to search for an existing bug

report that matches your problem how to report your

problem

bug reporting systems - how to set up your own bug

reporting system to manage your workload / workload of

assistants

Library specific skills:

basic understanding of MARC format and how it relates to

cataloguing standards - including MARC21 vs. UNIMARC,

MARC vs. MARCXML

using Perl + MARC::Record / Python + pyMARC / PHP +

File_MARC / Java + marc4j / yaz tools / MarcEdit to parse

and manipulate MARC records

basic understanding of how Z39.50, SRU, OAI-PMH work

it is amazing to see that the IT skill requirement of the

21st century librarian is enormous; owing to the fact that the

library staff collects from clients through their information

needs into the System while the IT staff collects from the

system to the client. Therefore, the Digital librarian

requires the librarianship skill of diagnosing the information

needs of his clients and the IT acumen of Deeping into the

system for information resources for the satisfaction of those

needs.

In agreement with result of the consultation above, Steve

(2010) believed that these skills are very necessary because

“Traditionally, librarianship has always been about

facilitating acquisition of information. But, that presumed

that librarians were the experts in the acquisition,

evaluation and dissemination of information. When one

considers the “Millennial” patron – the “Digital Native”

patron – nearly all 60+ million of them have grown up

acquiring information digitally (of good, bad or indifferent

quality). So, what do they need from libraries or librarians?

(Not intended to be a rhetorical question.) Now that the 21st

Century Skills movement is taking hold in public education,

these Digital Natives will be taught “Information Literacy”

(“Accessing information efficiently and effectively,

evaluating information critically and competently and using

information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem

at hand. ….”)” information gatekeeper picture that was

previously the purview of librarianship is eroding away under

the flood of Millennial library patrons armed with advancing

technology who are becoming their own gate keeper. Let’s not

be quick to forget that “Librarian positions focus on one of

three aspects of library work: user services, technical

services, and administrative services. Librarians in user

services, such as reference and children's librarians, work

with patrons to help them find the information they need. The

job involves analyzing users' needs to determine what

information is appropriate and searching for, acquiring, and

providing the information. The job also includes an

instructional role, such as showing users how to find and

evaluate information” (Dalbello, 2004). These services are

made possible and more effectively with the requisite IT

skills

Other IT skills relevant to the digital librarian as

prepared by Croneis, and Henderson (2002) and supported by

Jane (2008), Chuck and Patel (2008), Michael (2007), Renee

(2006), Tennant (2002) and Stoffle, et al. (2003) are:

Programming skills: To keep pace with information changes

and the needs of users, librarians need some programming

skills, argues David Stuart (2011). Recent ICT innovations

have led to the reappraisal of our understanding of library

and information services. The traditional vision of the

library as a provider of physical documents has been

superseded by the library as a provider of access to

information – virtual and physical. However, until now the

focus has still primarily been on the concept of the document.

If librarians are going to continue being relevant in the age

of Google and Google Scholar, they need to move beyond the

document and facilitate access to the increasing amounts of

data that is being made available on the web. The large

quantities of structured data available online come from many

sources and in many formats. Michael (2007), affirmed that Up

to now much of the focus has been on the data available

through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) – interfaces

that allow software to interact with websites’ data and

services, particularly those of the big three search engines

and the popular Web 2.0 sites. A website may gain additional

context by including information from an external source, or

combining more than one external source of information in an

innovative fashion. For example, geo-tagged Flickr photos may

be provided with additional context by displaying them on a

Google Map. The provision of APIs not only provides the

opportunity for data to be combined in previously unthought-of

ways, but also enables services to be used in innovative ways

and on multiple platforms. Much of the recent success of

Twitter may be ascribed to its simple API. The British

government’s Digital Engagement Team according to Stoffle, et

al. (2003) is currently working to make increasing amounts of

government data available, whilst newspapers such as the

Guardian and the New York Times have also recently made APIs

available. The quantities of data available and the different

ways it can be combined are likely to increase exponentially

as we move towards an increasingly semantic web, where data on

the web has meaning

On a contradicting note, Steve (2003) argued that the skill

sets of librarians and computer programmers are very different

and it would undoubtedly be an inefficient use of resources to

train librarians to a professional standard of programming.

Programming languages go in and out of fashion, and new

platforms regularly emerge, requiring their own scripting

languages. However, Lynch, (2008) asserted that a basic level

of programming and experience of manipulating and combining

together some of the data available will provide librarians

with a better understanding of the potential opportunities

with the available data. At a minimum it should be expected

that librarians have experience of some of the available mash

up tools and editors, and are aware of the scope of the data

available.

Basic knowledge of a personal computer: knowledge of file

folder structure – how to save and retrieve documents

(including how to organize) – how to navigate between folders

– knowledge of network folders vs. local folders – how to add

a network drive – how to add printers – difference between

local printers vs. network printers – knowledge of how to

delete items and empty trash – knowledge of different file

formats & ability to recognize virus files (Jane, 2008).

Software knowledge: Software provides the interface between

users and the information system (Kumar, 2004). Software can

be divided into two generic types: system software and

applications. The system software comprises of the operating

system, utility programs and special purpose programs.

Applications are developed to accomplish a specific task.

Feret (1999) opined that Microsoft Office products and other

alternatives, anti-virus software, personal firewall software

– ftp – telnet – HTML editors – basic ability to understand

your operating system (os) – knowledge of what (os) you have

on your computer – knowledge of how to figure out what (os)

others have – ability to test & learn new software (librarians

are often asked to troubleshoot any program installed on

library computers), in depth knowledge of email software –

understanding of POP3 vs. imap are necessary software skill

needed by the reference librarian

Internet knowledge: Broke (2004) (as cited in Aina, 2005)

suggested the following IT internet knowledge needed by a

digital librarian.

The internet: The internet is a global computer network

that has revolutionized communications and information

exchange. It is a worldwide collection of host computers

using high speed telephone lines to share information.

The digital librarian uses the internet to communicate, to

exchange thoughts, requests, and answers with patrons

beyond geographical boundaries through the electronic

mail (email). Patrons type and send messages back and

forth, e-mail clients such as Microsoft outlook, Eudora,

Gmail, Yahoo mail, hotmail and AOL have found their

way into reference service delivery today. Chat and

instant messaging (IM) are more interactive in which

library patrons type brief messages to the librarian in

real time and feedback given immediately. Quarries are

received and solved through this medium

Oyedun (2005) (as cited in Burch 2004) added that:

Not to be left out are blogs and wikis. Blogs (or web

blogs) are online diaries or journals in which an

individual or a group can post entries about topic of

interest. Entries or posts are arranged in reverse

chronological order, with most recent post appearing

first. Readers can often make comments on due posts to

continue the discussion.

Wikis are websites that can be edited, updated, and

improved by anyone. They are used for group work on

documents or shared projects and also for larger

communities who congregate online to share information

through the wikis.

Web 2.0 and mobile technologies offer educators new

opportunities to shape teaching and learning. These

technologies enable users to collaborate in developing

collective intelligences by integrating their work with

various applications such as wikis, blogs, social networking,

bookmarking and digital repositories. Opportunities for

collaboration have become ubiquitous thanks to mobile devices

such as touch screen phones and tablet PCs, all linked through

the Internet. Learning through Web 2.0 and mobile technologies

is all about active and productive input. Librarians must also

constantly explore ways to meet accompanying challenges such

as Internet security, cyber predators, identity fraud and

copyright fraud

The digital librarian can create a blog and wiki where

queries can be entertained and answers posted and used by the

students within the library community. New arrivals can be

reviewed and posted. In addition to the aforementioned

information sharing and file sharing are facilitated through

the World Wide Web. Reference libraries can use browsers

software to visit the millions of documents available on the

websites. Intend explorer, Firefox and Opera are three common

varieties of browser software, and supply the information

resources or the URL (uniform resource locator) to patrons.

Text documents, images of all kinds, audio and video clips,

interactive tutorials and games and more. Add-on software

programs such as media players for sound and video, VOLP

(Voice-over internet protocol) applications and others can be

downloaded and utilized by the reference librarian for

reference service delivery. Amazon.com, Google, Folksonomies

and social Bookmarking are acceptable technologies that make

reference service efficient and effective. (Lorcan, 2005).

Gbaje (2011) believes that social networking tools such

as facebook, mashups, second life, skype, Wikipedia, twitter

and Youtube can be utilized by digital librarian to provide

live tutorials, Have chats, conference calls, video

conferencing and discussions. The references librarians can

connect users in and through web 2.0 technologies, library 2.0

service, electronic reference collections and other databases

and library blogs which have made reference service a virtual

perspective. These and many more are achievable when the

internet skill has been imbibed by the digital librarian

Networking knowledge: From the twentieth century need for

computer literacy we have gradually migrated to a more

advanced use of the Internet known as Network literacy. There

has therefore, been a move over time from print literacy, to

computer literacy and recently to network literacy. Network

literacy therefore, is distinct from the forms of

technological literacy present during the first generation of

Internet communication. This is because it goes beyond the

responsibility of knowing how to access information on the

web, to critically reading web content and determining the

credibility of online sources. This is often recognized as the

critical literacy for the twenty-first century. Network

literacy according Ezeani (2009) referred to

network interface card & data cable – wireless

networks – how to connect to wireless on PCs with

various operating systems & on a mac – how to

determine if internet connectivity problems are

network problems, computer problems or web site

failures – what is an IP address? - some knowledge of

the following concepts: DNS (internal & external),

NAT (network address translation), VPN (virtual

private network) – what is a proxy server & the basics

of how it works are all important networking skills of

a digital librarian

Aina, (2004) believed that this is seen to be true

judging from the fact that Librarians are in the best position

to make use of the increasing information available, having

access to both internal and external information as well as

knowledge of the information needs of their specific users. As

we increasingly move towards a web of data rather than a web

of documents it would seem that a basic level of proficiency

in data collection and manipulation could become possible with

an excellent knowledge in networking which will facilitate

knowledge transfer.

Adrian (2007) has defined Network Literacy as the ability

to participate as a peer within the emerging knowledge

networks which are now the product of the Internet and to have

a 'deep' understanding of the logics or protocols of these

networks as we do of print. It therefore, requires an

understanding of the means of participating on the web by

writing and connecting to the public sphere. Librarians in the

twenty –first century need to be abreast of these emerging

skills in order to be able to deliver their services

effectively. They need to be able to have an understanding of

the ways in which people read, write, and participate actively

in the distributed, collaborative environment of the Internet

in its current form (Benson, 2009). The Internet offers a

uniquely rich resource for authentic inquiry and librarians

must learn to orchestrate sophisticated strategies to become

literate in this complex environment

Hardware knowledge: Familiarity with your Central

Processing Unit (CPU) – understanding where your USB/Firewire

port is – understanding of into where your mouse, keyboard &

monitor & possibly barcode scanner plug- familiarity with

laptops, tablets & PDAs – knowledge of mp3 players & iPods –

familiarity with printers & how to troubleshoot printing

problems – knowledge of thumb drives/flash drives – knowledge

of projectors. Ability to troubleshoot basic computer problems

– primary computer user is the first line of defense for their

own computer – knowledge of how to reboot, soft and hard

boots, and when to use them – ability to clearly articulate

and define computer problems

PERONALITY APPROACH

Following are soft skills required to become a successful

digital library professional as given by Adebisi (2009) and

Benson (2009)

Listening skills: The library professionals must have good

listening skills as he/she has to interact with different

types of users all the time. By carefully listening to users’

he/she can identify the exact requirement and then provide the

service accordingly.

Communications skills: Command on language especially English

and also regional one will improve the communication. Good

communication skills also require understanding people, self-

confidence. With this one can achieve lot and solve problems

too.

Interpersonal skills: Librarians have to deal with all levels

of people like Management, users, colleagues in library,

vendors etc. To deal with each one on them in rightful manner

requires interpersonal skills. When you work in large

organization, it is most important to build rapport with all

departments, which helps in managing the library and providing

better services to ever one.

Public relations: One needs to use PR very effectively to

attract users in libraries through various ways. It also helps

to bond with users and vendors too. Also gives ability to work

with other professionals.

Customer service: Customer is library user and to satisfy his

information needs is customer service. The librarians are

always giving attention to their users and providing services

through CAS, SDI or other specialized services. The customer

service emphasizes the customer satisfaction, which guarantees

that user will always come back to library.

Leadership skills & Teamwork: Library management especially

the big library is team exercise. Hence it is required to have

leadership skills to manage and guiding the team time to time,

as every subordinate is important for carrying out their work

efficiently for smooth running of library.

Negotiating skills: These skills are required on special

occasions such as handling bulk purchases, specialized

databases subscription with vendors etc. Also some times in

delicate situations like library committee meetings or

avoiding undue requirements from arrogant users etc.

Writing skills: The librarians are sometimes asked to

submit/help in writing research proposal/ business

proposal/project report, which requires good writing skills.

Today there are many library professionals who are

contributing to various publications even in-house or even by

blogging for sharing their experiences and helping users.

Project management skills: In corporate sector many times,

librarians are part of some project team and assigned

specialized jobs such as knowledge management or digital

institutional repository. These require dedication,

understanding of the project, time management for completion

of work, teamwork and reporting back the results etc.

Presentation skills: The presentation skills are required in

report writing, library committee meetings and even in daily

work which represents the library management overall for

users. It not only emphasizes the individual skills but also

from library presentation by means of its decoration, users

guides, and library ambience.

Teaching skills: This is essential for new user orientations

or in case new service is introduced such as online database

searching. It also includes motivating reading habits in

users.

Meredith (2006) said that she was thinking about specific tech

skills like HTML, network administration, PHP and MySQL, etc.

While those are certainly important, what she really thought

library schools are not teaching students is the “big picture”

topics; how to really be able to keep up with technology, make

good decisions about its implementation, use it and sell it to

others. Here are a few of the things she came up with:

Ability to embrace change: Library patron populations are

rapidly changing as are the technologies for serving them.

librarians need to be able to look at how they are serving

their patrons and to change their strategies if what they are

doing is not working (or is not the best they could be doing).

Change should be looked upon as an exciting thing — as a

positive thing. Librarians should fear not providing the best

services to their patrons much more than they should fear

change.

Comfort in the online medium: Librarians need to do so much

online these days, way beyond basic catalogue and database

searching (which sure isn’t easy either). Librarians have to

be able to use search engines and use them well. They need to

be able to find quality online resources. They need to help

patrons set up e-mail and teach basic Internet skills. They

need to be able to troubleshoot problems users are having

accessing online library resources, at least to the extent

where they can figure out if the problem is on the library’s

side or the user’s side. Reference librarians are often

providing reference services online via e-mail and synchronous

chat. More important than knowing specific tools is a general

comfort in the online medium. You just can’t provide reference

services without basic Internet and search skills.

Ability to troubleshoot new technologies: Many librarians may

wonder from time to time, did I get an MLS to fix paper jams? But that

is just a part of the good customer service we provide in

libraries. “When I’m working an evening reference shift and am

the only librarian in the building, I need to help students

and faculty use the scanner, fix the printer, and troubleshoot

any other technology problems they may be having” (Meredith,

2006). The key is just being able to have a decision-tree in

your head of what to ask or try when there is a problem. I

know many librarians cannot troubleshoot scanners, printers,

network, computer and other accessories. Librarians should be

able to play with the technologies in the library, to learn

what problems commonly come up, and to fix them if necessary,

because it is often their responsibility to fix them.

Ability to easily learn new technologies: One of my colleagues

often comments that there are so many new technological things

at the library that she can’t keep up. She was really

intimidated by the new scanner we got this past year and asked

IT to send an expert to the library to teach her how to use

it. In my opinion, the best way for her to learn the scanner

is to play with it. It’s hard to learn the scanner for the

first time when a student is asking you how to use it. It’s

easy to learn the scanner at a time when no one is using the

scanner and you’re just casually playing with it. When I want

to learn a new technology, I put it through the paces. I try

to do all of the things it’s supposed to do. Sometimes I read

the documentation if there are things that I find confusing.

Learning about technology is definitely a skill. People need

to learn how to learn about new technologies without having to

ask other people for help all the time. (Meredith, 2006)

Ability to keep up with new ideas in technology and

librarianship (enthusiasm for learning): Keeping up with new

technology is often not an explicitly listed part of one’s

basic weekly job duties, but its importance can’t be stressed

enough. Five years ago, few people were talking about blogs

and IM in libraries, but now so many libraries are using these

tools to provide services to patrons. We need to be able to

keep up with what’s new in technology and what libraries are

(or could be) doing with it. And we need to be able to keep up

in the shortest time possible because we are busy. Try and take

some time out of your busy schedule to keep up, whether you

are reading the professional literature, browsing blogs, or

attending a Webcast

In the same vein, Digital Library Federation (1998), Tanner

(2001). And Aina (2004) gave a slightly higher level of

competence as expected from the 21st century librarian in order

for him to be relevant and successful; thus:

Project management skills: This is a huge one. “At my library,

if I have an idea for something new to try, I’d better be

prepared to organize and implement it, because I’ll certainly

be the one doing it. When I wanted to implement IM reference

at our library, I first created a proposal for my supervisor

with examples of what other libraries were doing with IM and

how I would implement the technology, determine which tool(s)

to use, train staff, market the service, etc. I really did my

homework, so when he agreed to let me do it, I had a roadmap

for implementing it” (Tanner, 2001). It is also important to

be able to delegate tasks to colleagues and to get people to

work as a team. Also we need to be able to talk to and work

with people from different areas (IT, faculty, community

members). People need to be able to take a project from an

idea to the finishing touches (training, marketing, and

ensuring sustainability).

Ability to question and evaluate library services: “there are

so many little things Librarians can do to improve their

services. “Step one is rethinking everything. Question why you

are doing things the way you’re doing them. Question whether

what you’re doing is really helping your patrons. Question

EVERYTHING” (Aina, 2004). Oftentimes we have policies that

really aren’t helping anyone. Maybe it’s a relic of a time

when it was useful or maybe it’s a policy that only benefits

the librarians. Either way, it’s important to keep asking why

we’re doing the things we do and how these things affect our

patrons.

Ability to evaluate the needs of all stakeholders: Librarians

need to understand how any changes in the way the library

provides services will affect all stakeholders. Sometimes we

focus on the needs of one group and ignore the fact that the

changes that will benefit one group will not benefit another.

With any change, librarians should create a list of all of the

different stakeholders and actually discuss how it will affect

each of them. “stakeholders” here mean not only our patrons

but staff, IT, and administrators. If you implement a project

that library staff don’t support, the likelihood of success is

poor.

Vision to translate traditional library services into the

online medium: With the growth of the distance learning and

the fact that so many patrons access the library from the

Internet, it’s important that librarians can translate

traditional library services into the online medium. This

includes readers’ advisory, reference, and instruction

services. How can we provide equivalent services to people who

only access the library from online? Librarians need to know

how to capitalize on the technologies out there (HTML, blogs,

wikis, screen casting, IM, etc.) to provide these services

online to their patrons.

Critical of technologies and ability to compare technologies:

This can be a toughie. It’s often difficult to figure out what

the right tool for the job is. We need to know what the

requirements of a project are and what each available

technology can do. We need to be able to compare different

versions of the same type of software to figure out which will

best meet our patrons’ needs. We also need a sense of

pragmatism about technology. We need to avoid techno lust. We

shouldn’t just implement wikis because wikis are cool and we

really want to use them. There is nothing magical about the

technologies; it’s how we use them that matters. Technology

should always fill a need and we should think realistically

about what technologies are actually needed in our libraries

and what are just things we personally think are cool.

(Association of Research Libraries, 2000)

Ability to sell ideas/library services: No one told me that

I’d need serious marketing skills and salesmanship to be a

librarian. When I have an idea, it often has to be “sold” to

administrators, IT, faculty, colleagues, and students. Once we

implement a service for patrons, we need to market it to them

so that people will actually use the service. According to

Right now we’re planning different strategies to market the

reference desk — and specifically IM reference — in the Fall.

I’ve really struggled to sell “information literacy” to the

faculty in the online graduate program, and I’m definitely

learning what works and what doesn’t. But, as large a part of

my job sales and marketing are, I never heard anything about

it in library school. (Meredith, 2006)

WHAT LIBRARY SCHOOLS SHOULD DO

Library schools could help by teaching students how to develop

a strategy for continuing their education once they are out of

library school, how to develop skills for learning new

technologies and how to develop a strategy for troubleshooting

technologies. No library school student should be allowed to

graduate without basic Internet skills and search skills

Library schools should definitely teach students how to sell

library services and new ideas to different stakeholders.

Practical evaluation skills can also be taught; it’s not

always easy to figure out what is working and what isn’t. Some

library schools actually offer classes on project management

(even technology project management!). Classes offered on

evaluating software are totally absent, which is so important.

Classes on traditional library services should address how

these services can be provided online. HTML skills are also

really important, but it’s the “big picture skills” that

matter the most.

Library schools should also include in their curriculum and

courses that are IT centred, properly seasoned with methods

and techniques for system administration, hardware and

software maintenance, library specific knowledge and

programming knowledge. Lectures should be practical-based,

carried out on the Internet, within the school environment or

outside school community. Teachers can do well to explore the

listening, writing, communication, personal relation and

presentation abilities of library students

CONCLUSION

 Technologies will come and go. Change is inevitable. But if

librarians can adapt to and embrace change, can easily learn

technologies, can keep up with changes in the profession, can

plan for new services and evaluate old services, can develop

services that meet the needs of all stakeholders, can evaluate

technologies, and can sell their ideas and market services

they will be better able to meet the challenges of changing

user populations and changing technologies. Librarians with

computer and information systems skills can work as automated-

systems librarians, planning and operating computer systems, and as

information architects, designing information storage and

retrieval systems and developing procedures for collecting,

organizing, interpreting, and classifying information. These

librarians analyze and plan for future information needs

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