ALIA Keynote: All Too Hard?

Moving on from the Education and Workforce Summit

Derek WhiteheadSwinburne University of Technology

Outline

1) Qualifications2) Discontinuous change3) The Library workforce now4) The Summit5) Summit outcomes6) Where next?

Qualifications in two Senses

1) I am a library employer – about 85 ongoing/contract staff and about 25-30 casuals employed seasonally

2) I work in the higher education sector – 4142 sector library staff, down 20% in the past decade

3) Member of the ALIA Board from 2007-2009 and president 2008-2009

4) Involved with the ALIA Education and Workforce Summit in March 2008

5) Not a spokesperson for ALIA

Discontinuous Change

• 89% of students use search engines to begin a search and 2% use a library web site

• 93% are satisfied with this• “Books” are the library brand, but . . .• “When the broad digital availability of books erodes

the comparative advantage of large research collections, where will the library’s comparative advantage lie?” (Derek Law)

• Most students now have two communication devices – a phone (98%) and a laptop (about 70-80%).

Scary future

• “But the vast majority of books ever written are not accessible to anyone except the most tenacious researchers at premier academic libraries. Books written after 1923 quickly disappear into a literary black hole.” Sergey Brin, October 2009

• What’s wrong with this statement?• Google Books includes over 10 million digitised

books, “A Library to Last Forever.”• Kennan study showed 32.5% of library job advts

require ALIA accreditation, down from 74% in 1974.

Discontinuous Change

Traditional library Web 2.0 WorldCataloguing Automated metdata, del.icio.us

Classification Folksonomies, the semantic web, keywords

Acquisitions E-bay, Paypal, Amazon, Abebooks, ebooks

Reference Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia

Search Google, Google Scholar, more

Information literacy Intuitive, “smart” software

Collections Youtube, Flickr, repositories, open access, Amazon, pay for access

Library collection World Wide Web, digital collections

Library Study space, information commons, cafeteria

Discontinuous Change

In a time of discontinuous change surely workforce issues are different. How?

• Nimble wprkforce readily able to adjust to new roles

• High levels of generic skills like adaptability, fluency, customer focus, technology affinity

• Responsive, alert and integrated education and professional development infrastructure

• High level of commitment to professional standards and values

Are we like that?

Library Workforce Now

Library Workforce Now

Library Workforce Now

• We have always been concerned about the library workforce and taken some responsibility for it.

• The LAA Board of Examiners up to 1974• Current entry provisions for 30-40 years• Development of higher education for librarians and

paraprofessional education for library technicians in the 1970s

• ALIA / LAA Board of Education from 1974-2001• Strategic Review of ALIA in 1997• Current structure from 2000

Library Workforce Now

• LISEKA = Library and Information Science Education for the Knowledge Age – ran 2001-2003

• These were the issues:• Entry qualification• ALIA and professional standards• The need for a CPD program• The binary path(s) to practice• What we mean by professional• Pathways to professional status• Core knowledge, skills and attributes

• These are still the issues

Library Workforce Now

• ALIA Education Reference Group – ran 2004-2005 and revised our policy statements:

• ALIA’s role in education of library and information professionals (2005)

• Courses in library and information management (2005)

• Employer roles and responsibilities (1986, amended 2006)

• Library and information sector: core knowledge, skills and attributes (1998, amended 2005)

• Professional development … (2005)• We have enough statements for now.

Library Workforce Now

More recent developments• Standing Committee on Education and Professional

Development – created a few years ago• The NeXus Project from 2007 onwards – run by

A/Professor Gill Hallam• Development of the CPD program this decade• Meetings of library technician educators since 2006• Workforce projects in LATN, Victorian public

libraries, school libraries• Education and Workforce Summit in March 2008

The 2008 Summit

• Held on 30 March 2008 in Melbourne• With these two broad objectives:

• Secure agreement on an action plan. We identified five issues in particular.

• Agree in broad terms on changes to policy which have been discussed but put aside.

• See http://www.alia.org.au/education/summit08/

The 2008 SummitThe 2007 National Advisory Congress held in Sept-Oct

2007 had raised many issues. Twelve.• Generational issues• Being a profession• Qualifications and accreditation• New graduates• Skill sets• Attracting and retaining new recruits• What do employers want? What can they give?• Marketing and image issues• Training and development• Role of ALIA in education & workforce issues• Workforce data• Workforce summit

The 2008 SummitFour issues had been left over from previous exercises

• Review the course recognition processes for professional and paraprofessional courses

• Examine mechanisms for admission to professional membership of ALIA through widened eligibility

• Re-integrate the binary technician and professional paths to practice into a single framework.

• Work with educational institutions, qualifications authorities and employers to provide “clear and feasible pathways for future non-professional participants in the LIS workforce who seek to attain professional status.”

Summit Outcomes

In May 2008 the Board set out eight Summit outcomes1. Defining who we are – library & information profession2. Skills shortages and competencies in demand by

employers3. Forum of higher education educators4. Educators and employers getting together.5. Stronger relationships with other information

associations.6. Enhancing ALIA course recognition or accreditation7. Recruitment strategies8. Continuing professional development

Summit Outcomes

Who would do it all?• ALIA and its members, led by the Education and PD

Standing Committee• Library employers• Library educators• Library and information professional entities outside

ALIA• Expert knowledge, research and data in the workforce

planning area

Summit Outcomes

Progress Reports• “Progress so far” in July 2008 and March 2009• Provided input to the NAC in late 2008• http://www.alia.org.au/governance/nac/2008 and

there was a briefing document• The remainder of this presentation is an account

of where we have got to with the 8 issues over the past year, and where we might go

Where Next?

1 Methods of enhancing recruitment, or, how to attract the brightest and the best

• Victorian recruitment and careers working party – how to make it national?

• More careers fairs, promotion, more work experience, good practice manual, staffing

• Involving all library / information players• The issues are resources and message. What

is the message?• In a time of change, the message is more

difficult and more important. What are we selling?

Where Next?

2 The need to define the library and information profession

• Helen Partridge (ALIA Board) is convening a working party on this.

• The issue loops back to recruitment and more widely, marketing.

• Is our core knowledge and skills policy the right statement for a world of discontinuous change?

Where Next?

2 The need to define the library and information profession

• How do we distinguish ourselves from other “information professionals”?

• The iForum discussion series refers to “the information disciplines” – what are they?

• Maureen Henniger cites managing digital resources as a notable absence.

• How to make core skills dynamic? Can we?• What is the balance between values, generic

skills, and professional knowledge?

Where Next?

3 Forum of higher education educators

• Educators need to get together on a common approach to these questions.

• Ten higher education institutions• Six provide undergraduate degrees, 9 provide

postgraduate degrees, 2 are seeking recognition

• Graduate enrolment up from 1425 to 1539 from 2001-2005, undergrad decline from 1209 to 811

Where Next?

3 Forum of higher education educators

• There is now a lively forum, initially convened by Damian Lodge (then a member of the Board)

• And an annual meeting of organisations educating library technicians.

• Mari Davis has also convened an I-FORUM to explore issues relating to the iSchools movement

• If we are serious about coherent answers to educational issues, we need coherence in educational provision.

• Educators must be a bridge between education and our profession, straddling two worlds.

Where Next?

4 Educators and employers getting together

• Educators need to get together with employers to work on a common approach.

• There is no ALIA consultative body• Local bodies like course advisory committees

exist.• Keys to successful courses

(a) educators & employers working together(b) Responsiveness of course content to

changes in libraries(c) Involvement of practitioners

Where Next?

5 Continuing professional development

• Major push on this by ALIA• NAC in 2008 was Staying Smart in as

Complicated World – discussion papers• ALIA has taken over the CAVAL public

training program• Member survey was divided on “compulsory”• New PD newsletter listing opportunities• Or do we want to move to something like the

LIANZA approach

Where Next?

6 Defining and addressing current and future skills shortages / what employers want

• What do employers want in the way of skills?• We have some evidence from the 2007 and

2008 NACs• They said things like adaptability, customer

focus, marketing and promotion, influencing skills – all generic skills

• The NeXus study will help• Employers need to talk to educators

Where Next?

7 Enhancing ALIA course recognition processes

• There is a review of the course recognition processes is well under way.

• HE Course recognition day 22 January 2010• LT national meeting on 23-24 October• 2009 visits to all of the 17 TAFE courses plus

some HE – CDU, UniSA, RMIT, Curtin, Canberra (December), UTas (Feb 2010)

• How does discontinuous change affect our education?

Where Next?

7 Enhancing ALIA course recognition processes

The five issues on the wiki are• ALIA core skills and knowledge• From course recognition to accreditation.• Review of the content of the course

recognition questionnaire – now revised• Reviewing every five years instead of seven.• Course length – inconsistencies in the length

of courses. Recognition of prior learning.How will they be resolved?

Where Next?

8 Stronger relationships with other information associations

• ALIA is developing this as a strategy.• No body can deal with this individually, and it

relates to all of the seven areas above

Workforce for the future

1 Clearer about who we are and a rethink for the present times.

2 All on board with a common strategy

3 Stronger focus on recruitment of the right people

4 Education of library workers more together than it is now.

5 Education which is nimble, flexible and responsive to workforce requirements

Workforce for the future

4 Professional education a lifelong commitment, not just a oncer

5 In education, a focus on the best people, generic skills and imparting core professional knowledge

6 Accreditation with bite – maintaining standards.

As you can see, it is about new thinking, coherence and unity – all a big ask.

The scary vision of the future is the filter through which workforce thinking should run

Acknowledgements

Derek Law, “Academic digital libraries of the future: an environment scan”, in New Review of Academic Librarianship, 15(1) 53-67

Sergey Brin, “A Library to Last Forever”, The New York Times, October 9, 2009

Maureen Henniger, Peak Bodies Forum – May 22, 2009. Item 4: LIS Education: ALIA Course Recognition Review – Challenges facing the profession in the 21st century. May 2009.

MA Kennan, P Willard and CS Wilson, “What do they want? A study of changing employer expectations of information professionals”, in AARL 37(1) 17-37

Thank you

Derek Whitehead

Director, Information Resources and University Copyright Officer

Swinburne University of Technology

dwhitehead@swin.edu.au