Panel on LIS Careers and Opportunities
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Panel on LIS Careers and Opportunities SLA Asian Conference 28 November 2008 |
I would like to talk with you not about the curricula of library schools, but of the need for information professionals to keep up their professional development throughout their careers . . .
- At one time, we called library science degrees such as the MLIS and MLS "terminal degrees." This implies that when you received such a degree, your education has terminated. That was probably never true--and today that attitude would end your career before it even started.
- The information professional who does not commit to lifelong learning will be unable to function. He who stands still on the Information Superhighway will surely be run over!
- We live in a fast-changing world. Your value as an information professional is directly connected with your ability to track the changes and information that affect your organization.
- Doing so successfully will mean mastering new technologies as they emerge.
- Technology that helps organizations collaborate will be especially important. Collaboration breeds innovation, and all organizations will need to innovate in order to succeed.
- It will probably also mean learning more and more about business and finance so you can help your organization function in a changing global economy.
And speaking of the changing economy...
- Virtually every organization on the planet is looking for ways to cut their spending right now.
- But it's interesting to note that they don't intend to cut spending on professional development for their employees.
- A recent study of workplace learning and professional development spending, done by the American Society for Training and Development, shows that corporations around the globe plan to spend 6 percent more for each employee's learning activities than they did last year.
- In IBM's most recent Global CEO Study, 75 percent of CEOs said that continuing education is vital to the future success of a company.
- Meetings like this one are a wonderful place to learn.
- But e-learning has fast become the most cost-effective way for most organizations to provide their employees with professional development opportunities.
You have probably heard a lot already about Click University, SLA's e-learning portal.
- Click University has grown about 300 percent a year for the past three years.
- One reason for the success is our self-paced courses. You can take them when it is convenient for you.
- We intend to continue to grow by offering some terrific free online sessions as well as discounts for multiple registrations for our certificate courses in Knowledge Management and Competitive Intelligence.
- Through Click U, you can also get free access to special e-libraries and free handouts and podcasts from SLA Conferences.
Another way to learn online is through the SLA Innovation Lab.
- If you want to learn about all those new Web 2.0 tools, the Innovation Lab gives you a chance to not only learn but also try out these tools.
- Web 2.0 tools are fun, but that is not the point. These tools are helping organizations everywhere collaborate more effectively than ever before.
- Information professionals who master these tools will become valued for their ability to facilitate innovation--and innovation will become increasingly vital in the new global economy.
These are just some of the ways SLA makes professional development convenient for our members.
But the most important way SLA promotes continuing education is by linking together our members around the globe. When you are an SLA member, you have 11,000 colleagues in 75 countries ready to share their knowledge.
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