Students are expected to reply to at least one response made by other students in class in 100-150 words. (Note: No citations to readings are required for responses). The reply posts should be composed with “value-added” information through providing with links to news/events, publications, or online video materials that can facilitate in the discussions and expand peers’ understandings on a discussion topic.
Please read this carefully and reply to this post by considering thereply post should be composed with “value-added” information through providing with links to news/events, publications, or online video materials that can facilitate in the discussions and expand peers’ understandings on a discussion topic."Libraries have been repositories of information since their inception and continue as such to this day. Yesterday’s libraries were all about books and about librarians providing information to their users. Today’s libraries focus more on the user and their need to create, evaluate and use and share information. Public libraries were built during a time when information was scarce. Today, with the internet, we are faced with information abundance. Before the internet most information was available only in print. That is not the case today, so librarians need the skills to navigate through the variety of formats within and beyond the library (Mwaniki, 2018, p 2). The world of information plenty creates new and essential skills for library and information professionals. A state of information abundance places a premium on the ability to navigate and innovate. Librarians are required to be proficient in accessing various digital networks and digital literacy skills in order to function in our modern society.
The role of librarians have and will continue to change as technology and its application in libraries evolve. Librarians need to explore ways to improve services to users while employing the latest technology. Technology focused positions are responsible for a broad range of technologies in libraries. These include tasks that range from traditional responsibilities for library catalog and discovery systems, to database access, web services, digital library and institutional repository systems and the highly IT-centric tasks of programming and server, desktop and mobile computing support (Ratledge & Sproles, 2017, p 307).
In the digital age, librarians require new skills to succeed in the information rich environment. Building on its commitment to literacy, the library must position itself to provide access, skills, context and trusted platforms for sharing. New digital literacies should include the ability to:
- Interact with technology devices and content at a higher level than ever before
- Filter massive amounts of information and translate it into knowledge
- Select the right tools for knowledge creation and management (Action guide for re-envisioning your public library, 2016, p 35).
To what extent do librarians need IT knowledge and skills to be successful and to meet the needs of their library users? In the South African study, along with findings from the international literature, found that librarians in academic libraries require IT knowledge and skills to a significant extent. This would lead one to ask; “Should LIS educators partner with cognate disciplines in teaching IT skills” or “should the LIS discipline stake an intellectual claim on this technology-driven extension of traditional skills sets and assume this role itself”(Raju, 2017, p 757). LIS educators should work with associated partners and the LIS discipline should assume control in the stewardship of this technology driven extension of traditional LIS disciplinary space."