Information specialist’s new role, a paper in IFLA 2012, Helsinki

Libraries will continue to be a significant part of society, although their role is changing. Therefore it is important to find and implement in practice different ways of working with others outside the library. As information specialists at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland, we took on a new role as partners in projects. We are presenting a paper in IFLA 2012 in Helsinki about our experiences. The paper “Information specialist influences when collaborating in projects” discusses two projects in which information specialists contributed as equal partners during the project process. 

The first one is a two-year national project on electronic documentation in nursing care (eNNI). The second is an EU project, Researchers’ Night, which was carried out in our own organisation. In both of these, expertise was shared among students, lecturers, working life representatives and information specialists. The projects included teaching, sharing tacit knowledge, acknowledging the importance of scientific information in practice, and getting to know true working life information needs. Important aspects are learning together in authentic environments and being part of development work.

The paper can be found under Session 162 — Libraries and librarians as forces for transformative change: continuing education the fuel — Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning