15. Information Professionals

INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS Competency Competency is defined by the Council of Europe's (CoE) document as "the set of knowledge and skills that enable an employee to orient easily in a working field and to solve problems that are linked with their professional role."

Competencies cover areas of management, organizational, creative, informatics and legal skills and personal attitude – are ones that forward-looking information professionals would see as core competencies.

Competencies Have Been Divided Into; 1. Professional competencies which, relate to information professionals in various areas. 2. Personal competencies representing a set of skills, attitudes and values.  

Personal Competencies  

.Is committed to service excellence .Seeks out challenges and sees new opportunities both inside and outside the information world. .Far-sighted .Looks for partnerships and alliances .Creates an environment of mutual respect and trust .Have effective communication skills .Works well with others in a team  

.Leadership. .Plans, priorities and focuses on what are critical. .Is committed to lifelong learning and personal career planning .Recognizes the value of professional networking and solidarity .Is flexible and positive in time of continuing change

INFORMATION PROFFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT   The new information professional must be:   able to acquire and process, mediate and market information products, aware of the characteristics, potentials and limits of digital media, aware of the various needs of different users groups, both professional and private; able to process the production and dissemination of information and have market and serviceoriented work attitudes, and evaluate appropriate services and products

VARIOUS CHARACTERISTICS AND SKILLS FOR INFORMATION PROFFESSIONAL   1.Analytical skills, consisting of combining and summarizing complex information must lead to a sophisticated capacity to identify and solve problems. 2.Capacity to judge marketing strategies and economic reasoning, regarding the production and promotion of a cultural product or service.

3.Organizational skills, with the capacity of organising working teams, co-operation with specialists in the same field, and to understand and fulfil the requests of the public. 4.Creative capabilities, with visionary thinking, and innovative, long-term planning.

5.Technical skills, with the mastering of latest multimedia techniques, and a deep understanding of computer programmes, of standards, and of navigation tools and search engines. 6.Cognitive skills, with the willingness to engage in a life-long process of learning. 7.Legal skills which will be a crucial element in successful strategies

An Information Professional Bears the Following Responsibilities: ·Uphold the profession's reputation for

honesty, competence, and confidentiality. ·Give clients the most current and accurate information possible within the budget and time frames provided by the clients. ·Help clients understand the sources of information used and the degree of reliability, which can be expected from those sources.

·Accept only those projects, which are legal and are not detrimental to our profession. ·Respect client confidentiality. ·Recognize intellectual property rights, licensing agreements and other contractual agreements with vendors, and to explain to clients what their obligations may be to these agreements

·Maintain a professional relationship with libraries and comply with all their rules of access. ·Assume responsibility for employees' compliance with this code.  

Roles of the Association of Information Professionals  

1. Advance the knowledge and understanding of the information profession; 2. Promote and maintain high professional and ethical standards among its members; 3. Encourage independent information professionals to assemble to discuss common issues; 4. Promote the interchange of information among independent information professionals and various organizations; 5. Keep the public informed of the profession and of the responsibilities of the information professional.