Several articles in the literature focus on what skills and qualifications are important
for the profession based on job advertisements. Choi and Rasmussen (2009) analysed
job advertisements for digital library positions over an eight-year period and found
that there was a need for professionals to have current awareness of appropriate
technological skills, knowledge of metadata and management skills. Their analysis of
the job advertisements also confirmed that there is a demand for generic skills such as project management, teamwork and interpersonal skills. Gerolimos and Konsta (2008)
analysed 200 job advertisements from the UK, Canada, USA and Australia in 2006 and
2007 in order to identify skills and qualifications required by the library profession.
Overall, they identified 38 skills and qualifications including again that generic skills
such as communication and interpersonal skills were highly sought after for library
professionals. They also found that job advertisements often mentioned positions that
required the development of digital collections and the ability to adapt current skills to
meet the demand of new practices in modern information environments. In a similar
study that analysed job advertisements in Australia the authors also found that
interpersonal and behavioural skills were the most frequently required skill for
LIS professionals (Wise et al., 2011). The authors also found that traditional skills like
cataloguing, collection management, knowledge of metadata and database
management were also highly sought after. Conclusions can be drawn from these
studies and job advertisements that although technical and specific skills are required
for LIS jobs, employers are more concerned that LIS professionals have the skills
needed to work in a rapidly changing environment and that traditional skills are still
sought after but the nature of these skills have changed to include technical aspects.