A joint task force has released two profiles of competencies that library professionals need in order to support new roles—one profile for research data management (PDF) and the other for scholarly communication and open access (PDF). The profiles will help library managers identify skills gaps in their institutions, form the basis of job descriptions, enable professionals to carry out self-assessments, and act as a foundation for the development of training programs.
Rapid changes in technology and associated shifts in research and scholarly communications are profoundly impacting the role of libraries in the 21st century. These novel services require a range of new skills and expertise within the library community as well as a shift in organizational models for libraries. The aim of the task force is to outline the competencies needed by librarians in this evolving environment. Forthcoming will be a third profile of librarian competencies for supporting digital humanities, as well as a fourth profile for digital preservation.
The task force—a joint effort of the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER), Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), and Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)—began by identifying the avenues of service for libraries within the context of e-research, repository management, and scholarly communication. The group then mapped those services and roles to competencies required of library professionals.
For more details, see the Task Force on Librarians’ Competencies in Support of E-Research and Scholarly Communication page on the COAR website.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.
