This document discusses how LIS schools in South Africa are responding to the changing skills needs of the LIS profession due to the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR). It notes that 4IR has increased the demand for IT skills and pedagogical skills from LIS professionals. LIS education needs to provide a blend of traditional LIS knowledge with new technical and teaching skills. The document examines core competencies, new professional profiles, education and training needs, and how LIS schools can update their curriculum, pursue lifelong learning, and collaborate with stakeholders to prepare professionals for a technology-driven information environment.

1. LIASA Northwest branch
LIS schools in South Africa and how 4IR
has shaped the profession
Dr Andiswa Mfengu
Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship
University of Cape Town
27 September 2023
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2. Revolutions and LIS
•‘Newer’ opportunities and challenges for the
profession
•LIS professionals took a new shape - require
some of the special competencies
(Machendranath et al., 2018)
•The speed of change has created a new
librarian landscape (Nonthacumjane, 2011)
•Rapidly evolving ICTs have dramatically
transformed LIS
•Impacted on the technological and
pedagogical knowledge, skills and
competency requirements of professionals
practising (Raju, 2021) 2

3. LIS in current times
•Ocholla and Ocholla (2020) - response
to 4IR and other emerging
technologies cannot occur without
sufficient conceptualization and
contextualization
•LIS curriculum needs to refocus to
respond appropriately to the
knowledge and skills gap
•Question about the competencies that
LIS professionals require to be
effective and efficient in this changing
environment
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4. LIS professionals in current times
•Emerging technologies and the digital information landscape have
greatly influenced the competencies necessary for LIS
professionals, scholars and educators to navigate the highly
digitized, evolving, technology-driven global information
environment
•LIS education and training in South Africa needs to be repositioned
and re-imaged
•Technological innovations have led to an increase in demand for IT
•Increased need for pedagogical skills on the part of LIS
professionals for them to empower users with knowledge and
skills to navigate a complex digital information terrain
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5. How are LIS schools responding
•Core competencies of LIS professionals
•New profiles and new skills
•Education and training needs (stakeholders)
•LIS and 4IR responses
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6. Core competencies of LIS
professionals
•A pluralist information
environment
•Blend of traditional LIS
knowledge and skills, IT, and
pedagogical competencies (Raju,
2021)
•Respond to “disruptive
innovations” of digital
information technologies
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7. IT knowledge and skills
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8. Preferred IT knowledge and skills preferred by not covered by
LIS professional preparation degrees (Raju, 2021)
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9. New profiles and new skills
•Traditional LIS knowledge and skills are being reconceptualized
with the use of new technologies
•Shank and Bell’s (2011) - librarian blending the traditional skills of
librarianship with the information technologist’s hardware and
software skills, and the educational designer’s capacity to apply
technology to teaching and learning
•Corrall (2010) - “content, conduit, and context” approach
•Corral suggests hybridization of the competencies of an
information professional
◦ academic librarian (a content professional)
◦ IT (infrastructure/conduit)
◦ professional and the teaching and learning/pedagogical professional working
in different disciplinary domains (context) 9

10. Teaching & learning knowledge and skills which academic
librarians would like to see covered in their professional
preparation degrees
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11. Education and training needs
(stakeholders)
•Increase in demand for IT skills in contemporary library and
information environments
•“Disruptive innovations” - impacting LIS services - created a need
for pedagogical skills
•Disconnect over the years
◦ between the increasing importance of pedagogical knowledge and
skills in LIS services and the
◦ response from LIS schools globally
•Required IT is being contextualized into LIS disciplinary
specialities
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12. Top skills – 4IR
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13. LIS responses to 4IR
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Curriculum
updates
critical thinking,
ethical thinking,
digital literacy, etc.
Digital skills Digital libraries
and
repositories
Open access
and open
science
Partnerships
and
collaborations

14. LIS responses to 4IR
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PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
AND LIFELONG
LEARNING
ADVOCACY INFORMATION
ETHICS AND
PRIVACY
DIGITAL
PRESERVATION
EMERGING
TECHNOLOGIES
RESEARCH IN 4IR
TOPICS

15. Considerations
•National community of professionals - no standard framework to
guide our professional work
•The transformation of libraries drives a transformation of LIS
education, re-envisioning the main principles and concepts in a
new and rapidly evolving technology-driven information context
•Use the opportunities afforded by technology
•Responses cannot be uniform across all institutions, countries,
regions and across the globe because of socio-economic and
technological inequalities (Ocholla, 2021)
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16. Take aways
•Epistemological repositioning
•Heutagogical approach or self-directed learning
•Collaboration – relevant stakeholders
•Encouraging and developing CPD options
•Context-based and inclusive solutions to the rapidly evolving
technologically driven information context
“As scholars, educators, students and professional practitioners,
we have a role to play in this epistemological repositioning and the
way in which it shapes future LIS education directed at blended
professionals in a pluralist information environment.” (Raju, 2021)
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17. Conclusion
•Relevance of LIS schools in 4IR in South Africa?
•Collaboration of LIS stakeholders
•To reposition LIS education for the blended professional
in a pluralist information environment
•Content, conduit and context approach
•Critical embedding of technologies - cognisant of
students and user’s socioeconomic realities
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18. References
• Raju, J. (2021). Shaping LIS Education for Blended Professionals in a Pluralist Information Environment: Global
Reflections
• Bell, S. J., & Shank, J. (2004). The blended librarian: A blueprint for redefining the teaching and learning role of
academic librarians. College & Research Libraries News, 65(7), 372–375. http://doi.org/10.5860/crln.65.7.7297
• Corrall, S. (2010). Educating the academic librarian as a blended professional: A review and case study. Retrieved
from http://ira.lib.polyu.edu.hk/bitstream/10397/1731/1/Session1A_Corrall.pdf
• Raju, J. (2020). Future LIS education and evolving global competency requirements for the digital information
environment: An epistemological overview. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 61(3), 342–
356. http://doi.org/10.3138/jelis.61.3.2019-0088
• Shank, J. D. (2006). The blended librarian: A job announcement analysis of the newly emerging position of
Instructional Design Librarian. College & Research Libraries, 67(6), 515–524. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.67.6.514
• Shank, J. D., & Bell, S. (2011). Blended librarianship: [Re]envisioning the role of librarian as educator in the digital
information age. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 51(2), 105–110. https://doi.org/10.5860/rusq.51n2.105
• Shongwe, M. M. (2015). The information technology influence on LIS job descriptions in South Africa. Information
Technology for Development, 21(2), 196–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2013.874315
• Ocholla, D.N., 2021, ‘Responsiveness of library and information science research and education to the Fourth
Industrial Revolution’, in D.N. Ocholla, N.D. Evans & J. Britz (eds.), Information knowledge and technology for
development in Africa, pp. 103–119, AOSIS, Cape Town. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2021.BK262.07
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