Rates of pay for information professionals are rarely discussed at the Free Pint Bar. However, our Jobs database has raised awareness of remuneration for information-related vacancies, and one Bar poster made the following observation last week:
"... what strikes me - as someone who entered the field 3.5 years ago and who has trained on the job - is how badly paid information professionals are. Shouldn't we be pushing to raise the status of the work?" http://www.freepint.com/go/b17329
A reply on the same day agreed that financial rewards are poor for information professionals. The respondent says that we are discouraging 'Web savvy' people from entering the information profession, and that as a result they gravitate to computing and IT. Not only does this damage the profession, but also the quality of information organisation on intranets, extranets and the Internet. He says that we are the best people to build the 'info chassis', not the programmers:
"The profession needs to blow its trumpet about the real benefits that an information professional can bring to a networked environment. Further, the profession needs to set an example and recruit info professionals for web posts when they arise ... After all, if we don't believe in the migration of traditional library skills to the web, then who else will?" http://www.freepint.com/go/b17333
I myself did a degree in Information Science at Aberystwyth. It was great because it straddled both information and computing. The Information Science half was dedicated to information management, information retrieval, etc., whilst the Computer Science half covered basic programming, databases, SQL, etc. This has proven to be an excellent foundation, both in my previous work at information vendors, and here at Free Pint. Imagine how amazed I was to hear that the year after I left they closed the course due to 'lack of demand'.
Over the last few years there have been many concerns about the future of the information industry. I personally think we've never had so many opportunities, but we need to acknowledge a few things ...
We shouldn't moan that graduates don't have basic reference and database searching skills if we're not willing to communicate this to the library schools. It doesn't matter that knowledge management is being taught in a business school, as long as the students are also getting a grounding from the information school in information science.
All good information professionals have the ability to work and communicate with other departments, functions, faculties, etc. We can raise the status and visibility of the information industry by utilising the skills of others whilst at the same time demonstrating how invaluable our own skills are; those of information organisation, retrieval, architecture, etc.
We must constantly review remuneration, both with peers and with similar positions in different industries. We have to continually benchmark our services and demonstrate the importance of information awareness within all organisations. When we do this we raise our perceived value.
So, what do you think? Is this an issue or do I have a bee in my bonnet again? Can individuals really make a difference to the status of the information profession? How can we attract people to become 'information professionals'? Perhaps this isn't a problem in other countries where information is held in higher regard? Or maybe the information industry is broadening much faster than we think?
I hope you enjoy today's Free Pint where we look at resources for international law, Weblogs, and the usual mix of job listings, reviews and tips. A big thank you to all our sponsors and advertisers, and to you for your continued support of the Free Pint community.
Best regards
William Hann
Managing Editor, Free Pint
Email: william@freepint.com
[Editorial from Free Pint No.111 at http://www.freepint.com/issues/020502.htm]
Rates of pay for information professionals are rarely discussed at the Free Pint Bar. ...
Mark Field writes in a profoundly personal capacity:
Evidence.
Evidence. Evidence. Evidence.
Five years ago I (and other advisers at CILIP) started to ...
RSS Feeds
Twitter Feed
Scroll down to read the full posting
