Library staff: identifying, qualifying, employing and training

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The role of libraries is changing rapidly. This raises the question what kind of staff libraries need to make these changes successfully. Competent staff is crucial for positive user experiences, but which competencies do we require? We see a tendency to move away from ‘classic’ library skills like towards more generic skills like tech-savvy and entrepreneurial. How do we recruit our future colleagues? It can be a challenge to attract the people we need if the first association with libraries all over the world is ‘books’ rather than ‘databases’. What can library schools like in Germany contribute to training our future staff? Or should we focus more on training on the job like in the Netherlands?

Lecturers