I tried to go to the session on evidence based librarianship this morning, but it was too full and they wouldn’t let anyone else in. Shows I should have gotten there earlier, obviously.

Instead I went to my second choice, knowledge management. The first speaker, Margaret Paine, gave TFPL’s Angela Abell’s presentation. She was followed by Robert Mason from the University of Washington, Abdus Sattar Chaudry, from Nanyang Technical University in Singapore, and Michael Koenig, Long Island University. Although each approached the topic slightly differently, the takeaways for me were that although there’s general agreement that knowledge management and knowledge sharing is growing in importance and would seem to be a natural fit with the culture of librarianship, it’s not all that easy to create an environment that encourages true team working, real collaboration, and genuine networking. All the speakers pointed to new roles, opportunities and challenges for librarians. A question from the audience, however, highlighted the underlying dilemma for the profession. “Are librarians prepared to fill these new roles?” The answer from the panel was not a resounding Yes. Philosophically, librarians understand and support information sharing and enjoy working in a collegial, collaborative manner. However, when called upon to step out of the confines of the library and be more assertive, they hesitate. Mason suggested a new skill set needs to be developed to extend the present skill set, Abell’s paper listed such new roles as content manager, information coach, and compliance officer. Chaudry said information professionals are unprepared for new roles, even though they think they are prepared.

Now it’s on to more sessions.