Challenges of the 21st Century Librarian

I was asked recently about the challenges of a 21st Century Librarian. So i answered, so many challenges and so little time.

    The Ability to embrace change: Technology is forever changing and we should embrace it as our best friend. After all Librarians are the nest techno- guineas, and also chance is good as it is a part of development.
Online Mediums:
Librarians need to do so much online these days, way beyond basic catalog 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.
We should have the ability to easily learn new technologies: Troubleshooting paper jams in scanners or printers is part of Library services.  Learning about technology is definitely a skill. People need to learn how to learn about new technologies to help our patrons.

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.  A few  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.We need to keep up with  reading  professional literature, browsing blogs, or attending a Webcast.
Continuous learning has to be a part of a Librarian's life  because it is  how to develop skills for learning new technologies and how to develop a strategy for troublshooting technologies.


Project management skills: The ability to implement the technology, determine which tool(s) to use, train staff, market the service,The importance of being 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: Questioning how and why the changes will affect the patron is a very important skill.

Ability to envisage change Librarians need to understand how any changes in the way the library provides services will affect all . 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 discuss about  how it will affect each of department . Not only 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, IM, etc.) to provide these services online to their patrons.

Critical of technologies and ability to compare technologies: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 technolust. 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.

Ability to sell ideas/library services: We 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. Using and planning differnet strategies to market the reference desk  and specifically IM reference. I personally like to  sell “information literacy” to all. and I’m definitely learning what works and what doesn’t. It is perhaps a  part of the  sales and marketing area, which is not covered at Uni.