Core Competencies for the Information Professions and the Evolution of Skill Sets
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26443/el.v18i3.70Abstract
In this article, we consider the mechanisms necessary to distill new skill sets from the profession's core competencies along three out of four dimensions that define practice for information professionals in general and librarians in particular. We explore the emerging information universe and the environmental factors shaping it in order to cast light on the emerging professional contlicts over appropriate niches in the new universe of information work. Abbott's processes of reduction and abstraction as mechanism for the expansion of redefinition of a profession's domain are examined along three practice dimensions: (1) the tool making dimension, (2) the information management (tool use) dimension, and (3) the agency (service) dimension.
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