Competency Statement: Describe and compare different organizational settings in which information professionals practice.

Introduction

Upon entering an organization, information professionals may find themselves having to adapt to roles and situations with different information needs beyond managing documents and data. It is critical that information professionals understand the working environments that rely on their skills and experience and how to best leverage them in that environment.

Information professionals possess valuable skills, such as “gathering evidence to support decision-making, communicating the value of their organization to key stakeholders, and applying design thinking approaches when launching new services” (Hirsh, 2022, p. 595) that can contribute to any organization with the intention to advance and sustain itself. Below are three organizational settings that utilize them.

Public libraries

In the reference services at public libraries, gathering evidence to support decision-making can be seen in the selection and evaluation of materials that are relevant and meet the needs of the library’s users, including “identifying new reference material,” “management of the reference budget,” “ongoing assessment of the reference collection,” “weeding the reference collection,” “writing and updating a reference collection development policy,” and “promoting and marketing new reference materials to the library’s users” (Cassell & Hiremath, 2018, p. 348). For instance, librarians may perform periodic reviews of existing materials and identify new selection material through review sources to see if the candidate meets evaluation criteria, such as CRAAP (Currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose), arrangement of material, ease of use, appropriateness to the audience, format, and cost of the content, before deselecting or purchasing it (Cassell & Hiremath, 2018). Knowing how and when to gather user data from electronic resources and feedback from surveys and interviews to assess user satisfaction of the collection is vital to reference services and collection development for public libraries.

Academic libraries

Academic libraries are unique information organization settings that values research and expect their information professionals to be involved in research and disseminating their findings via presentations and publications. The Association of College & Research Libraries (2010) published A Standard for the Appointment, Promotion and Tenure of Academic Librarians, which recommends that academic librarians make contributions that includes “activities related to inquiry and research” (Promotion in academic rank section, para. 3), as evidence that meets the criteria for promotion in rank or continuous appointment . These guidelines are to ensure that library faculty and library services “will be of the highest quality possible” (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2010, Introduction section). Academic librarians are reportedly also concerned with economic downturns and budget cuts that lead to more scrutiny over accountability and justification for their value to the university (Perkins & Slowik, 2013). By demonstrating engagement in their academic community through presentation and publications, academic librarians communicate the value of the library to key stakeholders, such as university presidents and administrators.

Special libraries

Information professionals may find themselves in special libraries in creative digital environments that create and store digital objects on digital asset management systems (DAMS). These librarians may find themselves having to design new services and workflows that are efficient and intuitive to accommodate many different users who access digital objects on the DAMS. Metadata is used to describe context for a digital object, and by “maximizing the use of metadata it is possible to implement a uniform, metadata-driven workflow” (Dittmer, 2012, p. 179). With metadata-driven workflows, DAMS administrators can use metadata to automate or enforce standardization processes, such as ensuring filenames for new objects follow the agreed upon nomenclature, or make visible specific context to resources, for instance, a status label to let users know whether they have access to it (Dittmer, 2012, p. 179). Identifying inefficiencies and designing services to improve use and accessibility is a valuable skill to have at special libraries.

Evidence

The evidence I chose to present to demonstrate this competency include a business & government reference exercise for INFO210-Reference and Information Services, a research proposal to assess the perceived effectiveness of library services and instruction at San Jose State University for INFO285-Applied Research Methods in Academic Libraries, and a video describing my daily tasks working in the DAM during my internship at the American Film Institute.

Evidence #1 – INFO 210 – Reference and Information Services – Reference exercise

Several reference exercises were assigned in INFO 210 spanning a broad range of reference questions with instructions to explore different sources for the answer. While the instructions are straightforward, it was also an opportunity to evaluate and compare answers from different sources, such as free sources and subscription sources, and explain how or why one might better satisfy the user’s needs than another. Through these exercises, I got to know different specialized and trusted resources, evaluate the quality and reliability of the information, and select what would best suit the user’s inquiry. I chose this assignment specifically for its government & business content because it is not hard to imagine an adult patron visiting the public library to get help finding business and government information for their personal research.

This evidence demonstrates my understanding of public libraries and the importance of gathering and evaluating information when working in their reference service department.

Evidence #2 – INFO 285 – Applied Research Methods in Academic Libraries – Research Proposal

Before conducting academic research, a plan is presented to stakeholders of the institution through a research proposal. The research proposal I produced in this course utilized a structured format proposing evidence-based research that meets academic standards: an introduction, the research problem, the research question, a literature review, methodology, project schedule, researcher qualifications, research significance, and summary. The methodology section is broken down into smaller components that detail how the evidence will be measured: study population, sampling design, data collection method, instrument design and variables, instrument, and data analysis technique. Through this assignment, I learned how to produce an effective research proposal by breaking down the research problem and question into operational and measurable definitions that would support and solidify my methodology plans before conducting actual research.

This assignment serves as evidence demonstrating my understanding of academic libraries and their expectations for high quality and evidence-based research to meet the standards of the academic institution.

Evidence #3 – INFO 298 – American Film Institute internship – A Day in the Life presentation

In this Day of the Life presentation, I described the work that I did in a special library at the American Film Institute during a summer internship. It included cataloguing born-digital student films, digitized beta cam interviews of actors and directors from the late 90s and 2000s, and digitized cassette tape interviews from the 70s. I was not required to use any standardized metadata schemes or classifications, but there were rules to consider, such as making sure certain metadata fields were entered for different types of resources. This was easily done with the help of the head archivist, who created templates requiring metadata fields for different resource types, so that users who were interns, such as myself, only had to make sure the resource type field was correctly selected to bring up the correct template. I also had to consider what descriptive terms and topics about a resource would be worth surfacing to the user who would do research at the AFI Archives, such as movie titles, names of actors and actresses, character names, and filmmaking terms.

This evidence demonstrates my awareness and understanding of digital archives as a kind of special library that relies on user-centric design thinking for building new services.

Conclusion

Public libraries, academic libraries, and special libraries are three types of organizational settings where information professionals practice that serve different user communities. Understanding their expectations and working environments gives other information professionals an idea of what skills we need to leverage or strengthen to successfully serve those communities. This competency not only provides a common language when interviewing and networking with other information professionals, but also the knowledge to teach others the benefits of our shared skills. 

References

Cassell, K. A. & Hiremath, U. (2018). Reference and information services: An introduction, (4^th Ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.

Dittmer, J. (2012). Bringing order to the creative department using metadata-driven workflows. Journal of Digital Media Management, 1(2), 176-182. https://doi.org/10.69554/NQCI2638Links to an external site.

Hirsh, S. (2022). Managing information organizations. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (3rd Ed., pp.. 595-916). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

The Association of College & Research Libraries. (2010). A standard for the appointment, promotion and tenure of academic librarians. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/promotiontenure