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Subscribe by EmailLibrarians without books? A paper-based profession reinvents itself for the digital world
(photo “seattle public library” by aileron, creative commons via flickr)
According to the Wall Street Journal: “Hiring demand for librarians is on the rise, even as corporate-library staffs see their numbers fall. To advance their careers, corporate librarians are leaving the stacks far behind.”
A librarian now “may be called an information scientist, knowledge manager, taxonomist (someone who classifies information), information broker or market-research manager.”
Don’t those old “stacks” look kind of quaint already? Like the law libraries where I used to spend hours pulling down hardbound books, reading and then photocopying cases. Like the firm law library across the hall from me, where the old books are mostly untouched . . . .
The librarian profession is a fortunate example where the basic skills, interests, and aptitudes used by the individual in an old-economy job are readily adaptable to — and equally needed in — the current economy. How many other shrinking jobs are as readily capable of adaptation and reinvention?
“Demand for librarians is strongest at law firms and biotechnology companies.”
One example of the high-tech transformation of the profession is a corporate librarian who “now helps organize data for a . . . product-support Web site, making it easier for customers to search for information . . . [and] also manag[es] a computer database and organiz[es] technical materials, including [software] code samples, Web logs and online classes.”
Wall Street Journal/Career Journal: “Where the Jobs Are: Librarians Break Into Strategic Roles” by Laura Stevens
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check out http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com for a techno librarian’s take on the reinvention of libraries and what libraries and librarians must do to capitolize on technology. i’m an erisa lawyer who loves libraries. odd but fun.