New role realities: Avenues for extending the reach of information specialists

As organizations have developed enterprise-wide electronic information environments, a diverse range of job roles has emerged at a variety of levels. Some of these roles are ear-marked for “traditional” information specialists, but many are not – and although some information specialists have moved into this kind of work, others from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds occupy many of the newly-created information-related positions. This paper reports on a project undertaken by a team of researchers from the corporate and academic sectors in the UK. The project aimed to consolidate, and strengthen, understanding of the emerging information job market, with a view to indicating how those in the “traditional” information profession may extend their occupational reach. The preliminary findings of the work, as presented here, indicate that this job market has grown due to a number of factors. Individuals who can offer skills in particular areas of work that support information delivery, in particular information architecture and content management, are well-positioned to take up the opportunities that this market offers, whether or not they hold formal information qualifications. The research approaches adopted have taken this discussion beyond the natural constituency of earlier work that predicts the nature of information profession in the digital future. This paper, which furnishes an overview of main messages from the preliminary findings of the project under discussion, will be of particular interest to those keen to explore the existing scope of work opportunities for information professionals in electronic environments, and to those whose ambitions lie in preparing for, responding to, and leading the future information world