Training, skills
and
competencies of
the information
professional
a new paradigm,
a new training
model
maria elisa cerveira
Prague
2010
THE LIBRARIAN AND THE ARCHIVIST: THE
TRADITIONAL TRAINING MODEL
In most countries, professional training of
archivists and librarians took a long time to
become institutionalized within universities
and was assured by other organizational
bodies, including associations and professional
schools.
2
THE LIBRARIAN AND THE ARCHIVIST: THE
TRADITIONAL TRAINING MODEL
• Education and training of librarians and
archivists was deeply technical and
conservative because it was linked to
institutions whose mission was the safeguard
of the Nations documentation legacy, such as
national libraries or archives.
3
THE LIBRARIAN AND THE ARCHIVIST: THE
TRADITIONAL TRAINING MODEL
• Some of the courses were shared by librarians
and archivists (as in École des Chartes) but
most of them were separated and established
near important libraries or archives that
provided in-service training.
• This training model emerged with the French
Revolution and was widely disseminated
throughout the nineteenth and twentieth
century.
4
THE LIBRARIAN AND THE ARCHIVIST: THE
TRADITIONAL TRAINING MODEL
• In the beginning of the twentieth century
many professional associations such as the
Society of American Archivists, the Library
Association or L’ Association des
Bibliothécaires Français were the promoters of
library and archivists' courses that were
essentially practical and provide the basic
knowledge and upgrade to the professional
activity.
5
DOCUMENTALIST: THE NEW INFORMATION
PROFESSIONAL
• At the beginning of XX century a new group of
professionals emerged, the Documentalists,
as a result of the pioneering work of Paul Otlet
and the International Institute of Bibliography.
• In 1909, within the American Library
Association emerge a new professional
association - the Special Libraries Association
(SLA)
6
DOCUMENTALIST: THE NEW INFORMATION
PROFESSIONAL
• Documentalists didn’t want to attend the same
training courses as librarians for several reasons:
– The perception that the informational phenomenon
goes beyond the paper documents.
– Their work context was different from libraries. They
work in companies, in information services, in
business enterprises.
– Their background was also different because most of
them were engineers, mathematicians, physicists and
didn’t come from humanities’ areas.
7
INFORMATION SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF
NEW TRAINING MODELS
• After 1960, when the Information Science was
recognized, the landscape of education tends
to diversify, with a multiplicity of courses and
curricula models.
• Although it is not easy to identify trends and
stable structural lines in the curricula because
everything was changing rapidly.
8
INFORMATION SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF
NEW TRAINING MODELS
• It was the beginning of wide-ranging training
programs, offering an education in archives,
librarianship and documentation (or
information science) and the establishment of
new specialized courses, encompassing either
the library (library science) and
documentation / information science or
restricted to the area of the archives.
9
INFORMATION SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF
NEW TRAINING MODELS
• In the new courses the conservative, technical
and historicist model prevails even if they
seem renewed with new names (Library
Science, Archival Science) and new
technological disciplines.
10
INFORMATION SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF
NEW TRAINING MODELS
• The new "sciences", Library Science, Archival
Science, Museum Science, were simply
“practices”, as regards Yves Le Coadic “they were
organization empirical practices “(pratiques
empirique d’organization). These practices are
visibly transformed by Information Technology
(IT) but we can observe the failure of the
traditional librarian and archivist in
understanding the "information" phenomenon
and process.
11
INFORMATION SCIENCE AND THE EMERGENCE OF
NEW TRAINING MODELS
• The concept of document prevails - the threedimensional “artifact” (object), where the
man registered information, and in second
arises the “mindfact” (Information), it’s
producer, and the origin of the infocommunication phenomenon and all his
complexity.
12
THE PRIMACY OF INFORMATION
When do we begin to realize the primacy of
information over the document (information
carrier)?
• It began with the photography, the movie, the
radio, the microfilm, the television and at last
the new information and communication
technologies that brought a dynamic
approach to the informational process.
13
THE PRIMACY OF INFORMATION
Now we can see that information is not
attached to any support, it is something that is
possible to transfer to other carrier without
losing quality, and now we can recognize there
is no document without information but the
opposite is possible.
14
THE PRIMACY OF INFORMATION
Social information is the structured set of
coded representations (symbols, signifiers)
socially contextualized and able to be
registered in any tangible medium (paper,
film, magnetic disk, etc.) and / or
communicated in different times and spaces.
15
THE PRIMACY OF INFORMATION
• From this definition we can notice the
importance of language (ability to articulate
ideas, sounds and signs) and code (the
language spoken and written, the numerical
rating, drawing, etc.) which are the basis of
information and characterized as a social
phenomenon.
16
THE PRIMACY OF INFORMATION
• We can also observe some of the properties of
information such as
(1) Structure by the action (human and social)
(2) Dynamic integration
(3) Meaningfulness
(4) Quantification
(5) Reproducibility
(6) Transmissibility
17
THE PRIMACY OF INFORMATION
The centrality of social information as an object
(and not only as a source) of knowledge has
deep, wide and even unpredictable
epistemological implications. The key is to
establish a new paradigm we call the “scientificinformational” marked by the following essential
features:
• Appreciation of information (human and social
practice / process), its own background (organic contextual) and its legacy / cultural importance;
18
THE PRIMACY OF INFORMATION
• Declaration of the constant and natural informational
dynamism opposed to document immobility.
• Inability to maintain the division between
information professionals by the institutional or
technological space they work (archive, library
service, computer software) because this criteria is
superficial and does not cover the dynamic context
of information production (organic) or information
use (functionality).
19
INFORMATION SCIENCE - WHAT IS IT?
“Information science is that discipline that
investigates the properties and behavior of
information, the forces governing the flow of
information, and the means of processing
information for optimum accessibility and
usability. It is concerned with that body of
knowledge relating to the origination, collection,
organization, storage, retrieval, interpretation,
transmission, transformation, and utilization of
information.(…)
20
INFORMATION SCIENCE - WHAT IS IT?
“It is an interdisciplinary science derived from
and related to such fields as mathematics,
logic, linguistics, psychology, computer
technology, operations research, the graphic
arts, communications, library science,
management, and other similar fields.(...)
Librarianship and documentation are applied
aspects of information science”
BORKO, Harold – Information Science -what is it? American Documentation. Washington. 19:1
(Jan. 1968) 3-5
21
SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES ACCORDING TO SOME
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
• EUROGUIDE LIS - ECIA (European Council of
Information Associations)
• Body of Professional Knowledge - CILIP
(Chartered Institute of Library and Information
Professionals)
• Competencies for Information Professionals SLA (The Special Libraries Association)
22
EUROGUIDE LIS
Fields of expertise:
Group I – Information
Group T – Technologies
Group C – Communication
Group M – Management
Group S – Other scientific knowledge: This
particular group takes into account the competencies
associated with the users’ sectors or with highly specialized
information or documents that need to be treated.
23
EUROGUIDE LIS
Group I – Information
I01 – Relations with users and clients
I02 – Understanding the LIS environment
I03 – Application of the law of information
I04 – Contents and knowledge management
I05 – Identification and validation of information sources
I06 – Analysis and representation of information
I07 – Information seeking
I08 – Management of collections
I09 – Enrichment of collections
I10 – Material handling of documents
I11 – Organization of site and equipment
I12 – Conception of products and services
24
EUROGUIDE LIS
Group T – Technology
T01 – Computer based design of information systems
T02 – Computer based development of applications
T03 – Publishing and editing
T04 – Internet technology
T05 – Information and computer technology
25
EUROGUIDE LIS
Group C – Communication
C01 – Oral communication
C02 – Written communication
C03 – Audiovisual communication
C04 – Computerized communication
C05 – Using a foreign language
C06 – Interpersonal communication
C07 – Institutional communication
26
EUROGUIDE LIS
Group M – Management
M01 – Global management of information
M02 – Marketing
M03 – Sales and diffusion
M04 – Budgetary management
M05 – Project management and planning
M06 – Diagnosis and evaluation
M07 – Human resources management
M08 – Management of education and training
27
EUROGUIDE LIS
APTITUDES
A – Personal Relations
B – Research
C – Analysis
D – Communication
E – Managing
F – Organizing
28
BODY OF PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE - CILIP
• The BPK sets out the broad framework of areas of
knowledge and practice that characterize information
and library work.
• The BPK is presented in diagrammatic format, the
nucleus of which is a core schema (devices,
knowledge and skills exercised by the information
professional) contextualised by the applications
environment and complemented by generic and
transferable skills.
29
a
a
CORE
SCHEMA
30
Body of Professional Knowledge
Core Schema
CONCEPTUAL
STRUCTURES
KNOWLEDGE
INFORMATION
DOCUMENTATION
Curation/inf resource
management
Inf. Need/ user
behaviour
USER/CLIENT
COLLECTION/INFO
RESOURCE
31
COMPETENCIES FOR INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS
- SLA
Professional Competencies
A. Managing Information Organizations
B. Managing Information Resources
C. Managing Information Services
D. Applying Information Tools and Technologies
Personal Competencies - a set of attitudes, skills and values that
enable practitioners to work effectively and contribute
positively to their organizations, clients and profession.
32
INFORMATION SCIENCE IN PORTO UNIVERSITY
Core scientific areas:
- Information Systems (SIST)
- Information Organization and Processing (OPI)
- Information Service (SERV)
Additional scientific areas:
- Administration and Management (GAC)
- Social Sciences and Humananities (SHS)
- Informatics (I)
33
Public and private higher Education
Entities
Public and Private Higher Education Entities (2009)
14
Público
12
Privado
10
8
6
4
2
0
1ºCycle
2ºCycle
Post-graduation/
Specialization
PhD
34
Higher Education Courses (created
with Bolonha)
Higher Education Courses (created with Bolonha)
18
16
2005
14
2007
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1st Cycle
2nd Cycle
Post-graduation /
Specialization
PhD
35
Internship proposals in the public and
private sector.
Propostas Sector Público e Privado
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
Público
Privado
30%
20%
10%
0%
2004/2005
2005/2006
2006/2007
2007/2008
36
No. of internship proposals /
organizations (4 years)
Company
Local Government
University
2007/2008
Central Administration
2006/2007
2005/2006
Association / Foundation
2004/2005
Business Association
Church
Institution of Social Assistance
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
37
Total of internship proposals
Company
Local Government
University
Central Administration
Association / Foundation
Business Association
Church
Institution of Social Assistance
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
38
Thank you
39