Commitment to Lifelong Learning

When an information professional first starts their job, they may find that they are able to perform their tasks with relative ease. However, as technology and the field of information science continues to advance, professionals may start to fall behind. The feeling of unease that may come with newer technologies is common and happens often in a field that changes so quickly. Still, it is important for information professionals to be able to adapt to ever-changing and growing job demands.

A commitment to lifelong learning is such an important philosophy, that even the American Library Association (2003) has it listed as one of its competencies for reference and service librarians. When new technology comes along, or even old technology that one has never used, there must be a drive to understand its importance and the positive changes it can bring about in a community.

To happily succeed in this field, one must be okay with knowing that they don’t know everything. Approaching life as a student will not only help one's job satisfaction but one's patrons as well. Keeping up with “understanding how people learn and with the best ways of facilitating learning” (ALA, 2003) by reading educational journals is just one major way, sans technology, that professionals can utilize to connect with their users.

References

American Library Association. (2003). Professional competencies for reference and user services librarians. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 42(4). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/rusa/resources/guidelines/professional