2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

Tools for Transformation
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BEST PRACTICES 2012
By Cindy Romaine, SLA Past President 2011, Romainiacs Intelligent Research with
Ken Wheaton, PNW Chapter President 2012
One major insight I had from my year as SLA President in 2011, was getting a
better understanding of the transformation happening in our profession. I talked to
literally hundreds of people, both inside and outside of our profession, to better
understand the implication of our digital future. I came away with a plethora of
energizing advice and, if there is one summary statement they all seemed to share,
it was this: “Don’t get comfortable!”
When I talked to SLA members and visited dispersed chapters, I listened as
numerous members shared stories about transformed roles for their MLIS degree.
Members are migrating into roles our predecessors never would have imagined. For
example, information professionals are now working in data management jobs,
devising meta-tags to create bigger, better databases. Librarians are now
embedded within an enterprise in roles that include archiving and curation. Here
are some examples of job skills and titles I’ve heard about recently:
Data librarian
Knowledge strategist
Developing and refining taxonomies
Digital user experience librarian
Cybrarian
Social media researcher
Real-time marketing expert
Content manager
Trends researcher
My challenge to you is to go where the market takes you, and hang on for the ride!