James Sweetland, Library Link Regional Convenor - USA

Many professions and other occupations have requirements that their practitioners engage in some kind of regular knowledge and skill updating. In the United States, for example, such groups as school teachers, hairdressers, and physicians are required to keep up on their field in order to maintain a license to practice. Unfortunately, this is not true of most librarians or similar information workers.

In fact, the US, like a number of other countries, has no licensing or other certification requirements at all for librarians. In my home state, for example, the only library workers who must show any level of education are the directors of public libraries�and the minimum qualification for small libraries is essentially two years beyond secondary schooling. Having once attained this certification, there is no requirement that any further learning take place.

Now, consider what has happened to the information professions and industry in the past generation or so: Before ca. 1970 there were in effect almost no online databases; before 1975, OCLC and similar online cataloging systems were very rare; before 1980 there were no microcomputers to speak of; before 1985 there were no commercially available CD-ROMs; before 1990 very few people were even aware of the Internet, and before 1995 the WorldWide Web was an exotic thing. Yet, assuming a retirement age of 65, we have a large number of active librarians who received their professional degrees before 1970, and a majority who received their degrees before 1990.

Now, this is not to say that formal coursework is the only way to keep up to date on one's field. Certainly, many librarians do attend professional conferences, read traditional publications and e-publications, and the like. But, given human nature, how many librarians in fact do keep up? How many are aware of what they don't know? (If I don't know about, say Library Link and similar systems; if I think of the Web as mostly a commercial sales site with primarily pornography on it, how much effort will I make to learn more about it?)

I am fully aware of the pitfalls of many certification and licensing programs. Too often, requirements for continuing education lead merely to a requirement that so many credits or hours of instruction be amassed, not that any real learning occur. However, a voluntary certification system would possibly deal with most of the problems. Professional associations could set up a system allowing those who were interested to establish their credentials, and to prove that they were current in their field. Some sort of written evidence could then be made available. Ironically, such a system has proved very successful in the US for secretaries and automobile mechanics.

I suggest that it is about time for the information professions to establish a similar system, and that the most logical groups to do this are the library associations.

Do you have any thoughts about knowledge and skill updating - perhaps from your region? We would be very interested to hear them at our discussion forum

Some recent articles of relevance are:

Raddon, Rosemary. 'Career Development', Librarian Career Development Volume 4 No.2

Ifidon, Sam E. 'Planning With and Without Facts: A Comparative Study of the Uses and Abuses of Information and Information Technology', Library Review Volume 43 No. 6

Muddiman, Dave. 'Information and Library Education: A Manifesto for the Millenium', Librarian Career Development Volume 4 No. 4.

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