Beyond the library: library professionals working in diverse emerging roles

ALIA National 2022 Conference, 16 May - 19 May 2022 Canberra: Diversity
 
Session description: Library professionals have traditionally worked within a library setting and often in roles with the explicit job title of librarian. Beyond traditional library roles, there are diverse emerging roles and job titles ideally suited to the knowledge, skills and experiences of library professionals. Library professionals are utilising their skills to gain employment in roles as diverse as technologists, user experience designers and knowledge managers. This paper will explore the extent to which Australian library professionals are already working in diverse roles which draw on their library and information professional skill set. It will examine the various pathways which library professionals have taken to move into such roles and their motivation for taking a career path beyond libraries. It will consider how traditional library and information professionals' knowledge, skills and attributes can be adapted to such emerging roles and the ongoing identification of people in these roles with the library profession. Finally, it will consider what the increasing diversity of roles available to library professionals might mean for the wider profession.