Building the Skills of Library & Museum Professionals

I was honored to participate in the group devoted to building the skills of librarians and museum professionals. Lead by Dr. David Lankes, the group worked hard over two days at the Seminar. Above is the mission statement the group used to frame an example of future curriculum for educating in LIS and museums. The curricular topics include:

Management for Participation
Asset Management
Cultural Skills
Knowledge/Learning/Innovation
Technology
Transformative Social Engagement

Under the heading of technology, this statement speaks well to my ideas about teaching and how LIS students should learn to learn:

“ability to engage and evolve with technology”

This speaks to the need to continue that scanning of the technological landscape as one begins professional practice. Learning how to blog is good for now but transferring those skills forward is even more important.

I also wanted to share the most interesting and dynamic section – transformative social engagement. Here is the full entry:

Transformative Social Engagement

activism
social responsibility
critical social analysis (participating deeply within the community)
public programming – fitting to larger agenda
advocacy (organizing communities to action-political, policy)
sustainability of societal mission
conflict management
understanding community needs

How many of these are currently taught? How might we teach them? How can utilizing these skills enable our users – guests – constituents – to learn, create social change and improve their lives.

There is truly much to think about here. I am eager to continue this work.

Special Thanks to the Salzburg Global Seminar and IMLS for the invitation to participate in this event.