Information professionals meet Arthur Prior

Abstract

The paper investigates the supporting role of information professionals in interdisciplinary digital research projects. It identifies three encounter scenarios in which information professionals meet domain researchers (as research librarian, as information specialist, and as iHumanist) and links them to the domain researchers ‘modes of orientation’. We examine these theoretical distinctions by discussing three cases from our own practical engagement in the Prior project. Our discussion shows that the scenarios help to understand information professionals’ supporting work, explain the conflicts that emerge, and explicate information professionals’ shifting conceptions of what they are doing in terms of the shifting encounter scenarios. In short, the paper presents methodological and theoretical insights that can be useful in understanding encounters between information professionals and domain researchers.

Digital Competences of Students of Library Studies: Comparison of Research Results for 2018–2020

“…It is clear from the structure and scaling of competences that it is moving towards a social dimension-competences are something to help both the individual and their surroundings; in the case of the two highest levels, there is even the expectation to change the nature of work as such and the approach to certain problems in society at large or in the field of work activity. In this respect, we can note that the DigComp framework shows a rare alignment with the model presented by Engerer and Sabir [5] and represents a good springboard for its further development and possibly also its evaluation.…”

“…Although some authors argue that digital competences are tied to a profession [15,16] or only to work on a computer [17], our view is that to consider competences as something that serves the labour market can be short-sighted. In our library context, we see as more important their integration either into the role of iHumanist [5] or into the level of the civic competence profile.…”

“…Engerer and Sabir [5] have distinguished three different discourses: information specialists, librarians facilitating research, and iHumanists. Those belonging to the last category are perceived as full-fledged members of the professional community as autonomous scientists.…”

“…In their study, Engerer and Sabir [5] placed a strong emphasis on what we call digital competences in our study. This is evident at the analytical level, at which a sound knowledge of technologies and the ability to place them in a broader social and scientific framework is essential for iHumanists, and also in the third dimension, which focuses on what we might call "engineering" skills; i.e., specific knowledge, procedures and the ability to solve a specific problem with the use of certain technologies.…”

Rethinking the roles and skills of information professionals in the 4th Industrial Revolution

“…Information professionals are those who create, collect, process, store, maintain, evaluate, and retrieve data or information in an organization in any format in order to achieve the organizational objectives. Engerer and Sabir (2020) examines the constitutive and supporting role of information professionals in research in three encounter scenarios which are as a research librarian, information specialist and ihumanist. He explained that research librarian support individual researchers, an information specialist provides the needed tools for collaborating and communicating in research and; Ihumanist builds develops information architecture in identifying the research areas.…”