Professional skills for working beyond the Library (NGLIS conference)

I attended the Network of Government Library and Information Specialists (NGLIS) conference during the week, which was looking at the professional skills that Library and Information Specialists (LIS) need to acquire so they can work in other areas outside of libraries. Presentations were made by a number of senior LIS from different government departments, who spoke about the different roles being carried out by LIS working in areas such as records, intranet and knowledge management. They showed that skills like leadership, project management, good communication and facilitation are required, as well as applying IM skills in areas like content management or intranet publishing. Roger Wilshaw, from Government Skills, the newly licensed Sector Skills Council, outlined the Professional Skills in Government (PSG) programme that provides a framework of skills which will apply for all civil servants. Key message of the day: there are relevant roles beyond the traditional information job market and LIS must develop other core skills to compete in this arena. This was in keeping with the findings from the TFPL research project on e-roles, carried out in 2006, which looked at how IT had affected the emerging and evolving job roles around information management.