In recent years we have become increasingly submerged by information. As Information Professionals we are called to help our users to cope with this wealth of content: it is not only a matter of quantity, it is a question of quality (improvement or obsolescence),and of rapid change of tools of selection and so on.
We are discovering that technological improvements cannot be efficiently incorporated in the day by day professional activity without an appropriate context and a purpose built plan to renovate/refresh our skills, the ways in which we relate to the social environment.
These are the reasons why the awareness of the importance of communication is becoming so fundamental.
Let us look at some of the most important new services that libraries and their funding institutions are called to provide in the present digital era.
E-publishing services: why our doctors and researcher should prefer self-archive their papers and publish them on an open access journal? It seems proved that good communication about purposes and social utility is the key to change old publishing habits.
E-learning: why librarians should be interested in this area ? As experts of information organization and retrieval maybe we can help to support networked learning.
Digital reference: this is definitely something that belongs to our profession but… again, communication role awareness is very important in setting up the service in appropriately.
We need to be patient and learn to listen: our behaviour is another way of communicating. |