This document discusses the skills and knowledge needed for information professionals and how an MSc can help develop them. It raises questions about what skills will be needed in the future and how to design an MSc to meet those needs. It also examines the types of skills employers want, such as digital literacy, advocacy, and data management. The document argues that developing professionals requires a lifelong, collaborative process between individuals, educators, employers, and professional associations.

1. UWE Bristol
Knowledge, skills and reskilling –
where does the MSc fit in?
Judith Stewart
Associate Lecturer, UWE.
Aliss One Day Summer Conference 2014: Developing Staff:
Innovation and Creativity

2. The next 45 minutes
Why we need to consider this?
What questions does it raise?
What skills will you need in the future?
How do you make your MSc fit what
you predict you will need or want?

3. The knowledge and skills debate
Education - or training?
Subject knowledge
Professional skills
Personal or key or transferable skills

4. What knowledge and skills will you
need?

5. How does the (UWE) MSc fit in?
CILIP
PKSB
April
2014

6. What do employers want?
• Practitioner input
• Good relations with employers
– Project management
– Bid writing for funds
– Knowledge management
– Records management, legislation,
governance

7. What do employers want?
• Advocacy
• Partnership working
• Digital literacy
• Research support and data management
• Library environment – physical and digital
• Flexibility

8. Which job?
• Data curator
• Academic support librarian
• Research data support manager
• Technical sales manager for an energy company
• Senior public affairs advisor – water company
• Web/database developer
• Information analyst in public health

9. We are all in this together
The process of developing innovative, visionary and
successful library and information professionals is not
the sole responsibility of the LIS educator but must be
viewed as a career long process that involves the
individual, universities, training providers, employers
and professional associations.
Hallam (2007) Education for library and information service. IN S. Ferguson, ed. Libraries
in the Twenty-First Century: Charting New Directions in Information Services. Wagga
Wagga. Charles Sturt University.

10. We are all in this together
The process of developing innovative, visionary and
successful library and information professionals is not
the sole responsibility of the LIS educator but must be
viewed as a career long process that involves the
individual, universities, training providers, employers
and professional associations.
Hallam (2007) Education for library and information service. IN S. Ferguson, ed. Libraries
in the Twenty-First Century: Charting New Directions in Information Services. Wagga
Wagga. Charles Sturt University.