The last thirty years have seen information professionals working within four overlapping contexts:

While not forgetting the very diverse picture of library and information service provision and technological limits we experience day to day as librarians and information professionals, in this presentation, I shall concentrate on the following:

For a good number of years now we have been talking about the implications of the onset of the information age. And for information professionals there has been anxiety to understand both what the information age means and what role librarians and information workers would play within it.

The information society has been defined as "a society where individuals use information intensively" (DTI 1996), and where the way we live and work is modified fundamentally by access to information, computers and telecommunications. In an information society, the intensive use of information and the changes in society are indeed brought about through the convergence of these three areas that were previously seen as separate:

• Telecommunications - including telephony; satellite networks; cable networks; broadcasting; mobile networks

• Computer technologies - including hardware, software, as well as interfaces and protocols

• Information content - including information services, reference tools, databases, publishing; AV products; films, video, music, graphics.

This convergence "enables us to process, store, retrieve and communicate information in whatever form it may take - oral, written or visual, unconstrained by time, distance and volume" (Bangemann, 1994). In other words we can use ICTs to access information, data and knowledge in unprecedented ways.

For librarians, it has meant moving beyond merely automating our traditional library housekeeping processes of acquisitions, cataloguing and lending - the main concerns of our profession when computer technology first became available to us in a big way about thirty years ago. My first professional encounter with computers was with a mainframe, so large and special that it had to have a spacious white painted air-conditioned room all to itself. This important machine had been carefully and laboriously programmed to run MARC tapes from the British Library and to triumphantly output printed cards which as a junior, I then had to interfile in the card catalogue - it seems incredible now to think that this was once the cutting edge of library automation!

Librarians have within the so-called information age concentrated on facilitating their users access the information that is available through ICTs and I think that they have proved that the role of information manager belongs to them.

They have:

• Meshed their services into various wide area networks, through "Telematics". This is the exchange and processing of electronic data including multimedia, between networked computer systems, with ever more powerful ways of sharing bibliographic data, on-line ordering and document delivery and electronic publications, not forgetting the World Wide Web.

• Made more electronic resources available to users. This has been encouraged by digitization, through which library resources, which we used previously in print formats, become available in digital formats, either through changes in publication, or through deliberate programmes to retrospectively digitize important library collections and learned resources. It has also been revolutionised and democratised by the WWW, which allows every user to be simultaneously a user and a creator of digital content.

• Developed the virtual library concept - in which the entire range of library resources begins to become available through remote computer workstations, over the WWW, with access to a range of electronic library and information resources, on-line catalogues and reservations services, electronic journals subscriptions, often through a single user interface with powerful searching capabilities. The virtual library concept has made most progress in the academic library environment, and in the UK context this has been made possible on the platform of the publicly sponsored Joint Academic Network - JANET of United Kingdom.

The librarians (or information manager�s) role has been to innovate, to implement and to facilitate the development of the processes I have described above, negotiating and agreeing on common standards and protocols, procedures, copyright issues, often working closely with various players in the book and journal supply chain. In the arena of the World Wide Web, where new search and retrieval skills are required, librarians are now beginning to offer the professional knowledge they have developed over many years of debate about indexing and classification.

In university libraries in the UK, in particular, the role of the university librarian has developed and increased to the extent that it is now common for the person in charge of academic library services to also manage the entire campus IT network, as overall director of information services. Strategic and financial responsibilities have vastly increased. And it is expected that UK public and school library services will do much more to develop services appropriate to the information age, with the implementation of the recommendations of the UK Library and Information Commission for the people�s network (Library and Information Commission, 1997).

At this information age stage, much professional development work still remains to be done, not least in areas such as efficient use of the WWW, appropriate copyright/intellectual property rights regimes and enforcement, and in the area of preservation and archiving of electronic resources.

And we cannot as information professionals dedicated to equity of access to information, forget that there are terrific unevennesses in terms of access not just globally, among countries, but perhaps even more, within individual countries. The gap between the information "haves" and the information "have nots" is widening rapidly and has become another indicator of social exclusion and poverty (Mansell, 1998; WDR 1998/99, 1098; Panos, I996 and 1997). Much strategic thinking is required of us as We wrestle with problems of access in the 21st century.

To give some indicators of that gap:

Even though we haven�t sorted out issues of inclusivity and access within the information society, the so-called knowledge driven economy is upon us. The World Bank Development Report of 1998/99 stresses the importance of harnessing knowledge for development, while a recent UN sponsored report (Mansell, 1998) discusses ways of establishing innovative knowledge societies.

What do we mean by knowledge societies? Certainly knowledge goes beyond information. Through the information society phenomenon, more and more information is produced and shared, but this needs to be harnessed by being read or otherwise absorbed, understood and appropriately applied to become knowledge.

A knowledge driven economy is "one in which the generation and the exploitation of knowledge has come to play the predominant part in the creation of wealth. It is not simply about pushing back the frontiers of knowledge; it is also about more effective use and exploitation of all types of knowledge in all manner of economic activity". (DTI, 1999)

There are a number of reasons for the recognition that it is knowledge that is key to sustainable development and continued economic growth:

It is common to make a distinction between two types of knowledge:

Our role within knowledge societies - knowledge managers?

Clearly information professionals can identify a role within the realm of codified knowledge. But having said that, how does our knowledge role differ from our information role, or more correctly, what is added to our information role to make it a knowledge role?

Our knowledge role stems most strongly, I think, from the notion of information overload. Actual information overload which is further complicated by a fear of missing important or significant information is a common complaint in today�s workplace. People just cannot sift through and cope with the amounts of information they are exposed to from all kinds of media today.

An IBM study of the global oil and gas industry has estimated that as much as 60% of all professional staff time is spent on locating, collecting, collating and manipulating information rather than on analysis of that information for better decision making. A long time ago, Simon suggested that when people have too much information to process, they will stop applying intellectual criteria to the information they receive, they will cease to analyse and evaluate, and will fall back on "gut feeling" and "simple rules of thumb" that may or may not work in changing circumstances. (Soberman, 1998)

The potential role of the librarian or information professional as information mediator and facilitator to shorten the journey from information to knowledge is therefore a very strong one. Paul Burton, for example, (Burton, 1998) has helped us to see new roles for cataloguers in addressing the mass of material available to users over the WWW, pointing out that the key issues are not new to us and they concern:

Apart from becoming better searchers and filterers of information we also have to be in a position to train and mentor information users. There is no doubt that user education has become more central to our professional role in all types of library setting.

But is there a greater role for us in this field of knowledge management by taking advantage of the tacit knowledge residing in the organization too? I think the answer is only qualified yes, because approaches to exploiting tacit knowledge seem to be a mix of

The emphasis here is on getting colleagues to choose and implement the right management styles and for many of us, management techniques (apart from a dash of customer care and financial management) have not been of great concern to us in the past - and so for us to claim strong roles as knowledge managers, I think we do have to raise our profile as managers.

Competency in the workplace is commonly defined as a mix of the following:

Needed to do a particular job. As we have seen above, there will be a mix of codifiable and tacit knowledge in each staff member in our organisation.

Global Knowledge inc. (a company and nothing to do with World Bank supported Global Knowledge initiatives), claims to have identified 300 generic activities which are responsible for 80% of all work and that these are codifiable and therefore transferable through training. It is interesting however to note that they also recognise a series of stages on the way to achieving competence.

These are:

• Define work and the required standards

• Define the learning gaps in the workforce

• Teach the worker to the stage where s/he can say "I know" and "I can do" - this is the codified knowledge, if you like

• Mentor and bring on, on the job to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviour - this is the development of the tacit knowledge if you like.

• Arrive at competence

Perhaps the most important competency for any worker today is the competency to be able to cope with change, and adapt to change through personal development. The Training the Future project in the UK has tried to produce practical guidelines to help the implementation of the recommendations of the Library and Information Commission�s New Library: the people�s network - which is the blue print for public library development in the UK (LIC. 1997, 1998). Although specific skill areas like IT skills are given due prominence. a lot of the focus is on coping with the continuing need for change, how therefore to get staff to willingly "take charge" of their own on-going life-long development needs, and what needs to be done to provide the right environment for staff development (Jones, 1999). Similarly the Special Libraries Association of the US (SLA, 1996) mentions commitment to lifelong learning and personal career planning as a key competency.

In sum, the achievement of a competent workforce in today�s ongoing climate of change involves the following:

• Coping with on-going change as a continuing fact of life, accepting the need for life-long learning

• Getting staff to take ownership of their own development, to identify their own training gaps.

• Providing the right climate and facilities for staff to achieve competencies at their own pace in their own way.

Both Jago (1995) and the US Special Libraries Association (1996) have emphasised the need for information professionals to develop their management competencies stressing that the old "command and control" style of management must give way to team working, and the manager as leader and mentor. Jago identifies five specific management skills which will encourage not only innovation and creative adaptation to change, but will also support the development of an accountable, responsive workforce:

• Empowering staff, giving them the opportunity to share power, encouraging participation and accountability

• Developing and mentoring staff, delegating appropriately and ensuring that all staff have the chance to grow in the job

• Valuing diversity. identifying and utilizing each staffs individual strengths, and seeing diversity as a valuable organizational asset

• Constantly supporting change, and working for change.

• Communicating responsibly with all staff, not just delivering messages, but asking questions, listening to staff, showing empathy, but also making sure that expectations of staff are clearly understood.

Strategic and financial planning and budgetary control have also become more important in information work for several reasons:

The marketing of library and information services is, crucially, selecting and positioning library and information services to meet the needs of identified target users (or market segments) and then promoting the services. Being customer focused and market oriented has become very important because there are more and more competing ways for people to access and use information and it is likely that these choices will become greater in the 21^st century, with the diffusion of digital radio and television, access to the Internet and new ways of selling and distributing books and journals.

This is the heart of our professional work, but all the competencies already mentioned will support and facilitate our work in this area. We have already mentioned a range of areas where information professionals have made progress. A lot of the practical skills needed have proved to be a blend of practical IT skills, and understanding of the implications of new technology and traditional library skills.

The main areas seem to me to be the following:

• Up to date hands-on information technology skills and appreciation, including system management skills

• General information management skills to handle the entire range of information resources available to our potential users

• User training and education skills, advisory skills

• Management of all types of codifiable knowledge

• General collection management and development skills

The focus on knowledge and information that informs and drives the age in which we live provides us with huge opportunities to make a difference in the world. However, we know that many information professionals are frustrated by not having the tools to provide access to our users to the information and knowledge they need. We may have to start by proactively sensitising policy makers, influencers and funders on the importance of supporting information and knowledge access and a good starting point may be to advocate the establishment of national and individual organizational information strategies. With a strategic vision of where our information services are going, the right mix of management skills, IT skills and information management skills will be needed for effective implementation.

Bangemann High Level Group (1994): Europe and the global information society: recommendations to the European Council. http://www.ispo.cec.be

Burton, Paul (1998). Issues and challenges of subject access, Catalogue and index 128 Summer: l-7

Castelyn, Mary (1996). Job descriptions .for the information profession. London, Aslib.

Jago, Alison (1995) Approaching 2000: new challenges for the information professional. New roles: new skills: new people (Key issues in the information business: 5) Hatfield, University of Hertfordshire: 49-55

Jones, Bronwen and Mel Sprague (1999). Enabling staff to learn IT skills. LAR 101 (2) February: 97-99

Library and Information Commission (UK) (1998). Building the new library network. http://www.lic.gov.uk/publications/building.html

Library and Information Commission (UK) (1997). New library: the people�s network. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/lic/newlibrary/full.html

Library Association (1995). Professional librarians: a brief guide for employers. London; L.A.

Loughborough University (1998) Library & information statistics tables for the United Kingdom. Loughhorough, LISU.

Mansell, Robin and Uta Wehn (1998). Knowledge societies: information technology for sustainable development [report for the UN Commission on science and technology for development]. Oxford: OUP for the UN.

Panos (1996). The Internet: superhighway or dirt track for the south? Panos briefing. http://www.oneworld.org/panos

Panos (1997). Telecommunications: development and the market: the promises and the problems. Panos briefing. http://www.oneworld.org/panos

Soberman, David (1998) Information overload and the new dealers in data. Financial Times Mastering Information Management series. http://www.ftmastering.com/ima3.html

Special Libraries Association (1996). Competencies for special librarians of the 21st Century. Full report May 1996. http://www.sla.org/professional/competency.html

Taylor, Paul (1999). The revolutionary shape of things to come. Financial Times Mastering Information Management series. http://www.frmastering.com/imhl.html

UK Department of Trade and Industry (1996): Building the information society: a national strategy. London: DTI.

UK Department of Trade and Industry (1996): Development of the information society: an international analysis. London, DTI.

UK Department of Trade and Industry (1999) our competitive future: building the knowledge driven economy [summary, white paper and analytical report]. London: HMSO and at http://www.dti.gov.uk/comp/competitive/summary.htm

World Development Report 1998/99 (1998). Knowledge for development. Oxford: OUP for the World Bank.