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SI Professional Development

FeaturedProfessional Development
Aylin Imeri

Information Matters Special Issue on Professional Development

The aim of this special issue (SI) is to encourage readers to think critically about their own professional development and to take time to reflect on it. Are you looking for helpful insights? Or have you ever wondered what others are doing? Then this is the place for you. Ten submissions in this SI on professional development reflected on personal professional development journeys by referring to some aspects of professional development within academia, education and industry. Professional development is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle — it’s made up of lots of different pieces: soft skills, volunteering, networking, career transitioning, navigating work and family responsibilities, among others.

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FeaturedProfessional Development
Marta Bustillo

Developing Professional Skills for the Workplace: A Student-Staff Partnership to Create University-Wide Learning

Students often find themselves learning and using digital technologies in the course of their studies; however, they may not be similarly prepared for a professional workplace environment. These professional skills, which may range from understanding appropriate communication and digital etiquette to creation and collaboration in the online workplace, form part of digital literacy, though the importance of learning these skills can be overlooked. University College Dublin’s strategic plan includes digital literacy for education and the workplace as a core goal for both staff and students. However, we identified a gap in the university curriculum, that is, the development of professional digital skills.

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FeaturedProfessional Development
Bhakti Gala

Volunteering with International Professional Associations: Pathway to Professional Development

How do you build your professional career by volunteering with international professional associations? Can volunteering play a role in expanding your professional growth? It is known that joining an international professional association increases the possibilities of interacting with a global community and expanding domain knowledge. There are two aspects to making this work. First, by becoming a member of an international association, and second, by actively volunteering with the association.

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Professional Development
Lynn Silipigni Connaway

The Broad Spectrum of Opportunities for an Information Career

I believe that to be effective as an information professional, one must have a desire to learn and to adapt to an ever-changing environment and to be a risk taker. But most of all, to be able to relate to people. Without high-level interpersonal skills, it is very difficult to connect with users and prospective users in our communities. It is critical for an information professional to be able to listen, engage, interact, and connect with people as well as technology and knowledge. This is called relationship building.

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Professional Development
Lisa Hussey

The Soft Side of Information Science

Before becoming a LIS professional, I worked in bookstores, usually in supervisory or management positions, for about 7 years. Retail is not an easy environment, and it requires a certain set of skills to be successful, especially as you take on responsibilities that require considerations and actions beyond your own efforts. These include good time management to address a wide range of expectations and responsibilities, the ability to communicate across diverse audiences, adaptability to a changing environment, flexibility to deal with a dynamic workplace and clientele, the ability to quickly solve problems; creative and critical thinking in stressful situations, using the principles of emotional intelligence to provide good customer service, and leading by example. Essentially, retail work provided an opportunity to begin building the soft skills so often discussed in current professional literature. As a LIS professional and professor, I see soft skills as essential to Information Science.

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Professional Development
Elizabeth Hoiem

Learning How to Work All Over Again as a Parent

The COVID shutdown arrived in Illinois two weeks after my parental leave ended, just when I resumed writing the book I needed to complete for academic tenure. Instead of having the next five months to finish my manuscript, I cared for my two daughters in four-hour shifts shared with my husband and mother-in-law. Around me adult professionals stayed home, isolated, disoriented about what day or time it is, and struggling with depression. For me, it felt like the early months home with my baby. Welcome to my world, people.

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Professional Development
Rexwhite Tega Enakrire

The Fifth Industrial Revolution: Information Professionals and Skills

In the era of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), information professionals are crucial in organizations to ensure the collection, processing, acquisition, archiving, dissemination, and weeding of information to ensure it meets the stakeholder’s objectives. To be effective in this role, information professionals must possess different skills and be ready to learn, unlearn, and relearn emerging skills, technologies, and organizational demands. Two important skills information professionals should possess are multi-skilling and cross-skilling.

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Professional Development
Timothy J. Dickey

On Being a Research-informed Information Practitioner

Our 21st-century global society needs research-informed information professionals of all stripes more than ever. Librarians serve our communities more vitally than ever with valuable resources, and as teachers of life skills and information literacy; archivists and records curators preserve historical documentation against “alternate facts;” information architects and others help shape the tools and terminologies that society uses to make sense of information around us.

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Professional Development
Jelina Haines

Level Up Your InfoScience Path: Build Powerful Networks for Lifelong Learning

In today’s rapidly evolving field of information science (IS), continuous learning is no longer optional, it’s essential. But keeping up with the latest trends and developments can feel overwhelming if you go it alone. That’s where the power of supportive networks comes in. By cultivating a network of mentors, colleagues, and fellow lifelong learners, you can create a dynamic learning environment that fuels your professional growth.

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