Transportation Library Quick Guide: Information Professional Competencies: Core Competencies

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) recognizes the unique position of librarians and other information professionals working with special library resources:

Regardless of their job title and professional label, information professionals are connected by their focus on managing and applying the data, information and knowledge required in their setting. They take a holistic view of the role of information and knowledge in organizations and communities, and they are concerned with information and knowledge through all stages of their life cycle.

SLA describes core competencies for special librarians:

• Information and knowledge services: Identifying information needs; discovering and retrieving; analyzing and synthesizing; and generally managing, sharing and preserving information.
• Information and knowledge systems and technology: Designing, developing, implementing and operating state-of-the-art and cost-effective information systems.
• Information and knowledge resources: Understanding, valuing and prioritizing all types of available information sources.
• Information and data retrieval and analysis: In-depth knowledge of search engines and other cataloging tools; and assessing the quality and relevancy of information, and organizing and communicating it in meaningful ways.
• Organization of data, information and knowledge assets: Classifying, cataloging and preserving all information and knowledge assets.
• Information ethics: Adhering to professional standards of conduct and privacy, confidentiality and copyright requirements.

These technical or library science competencies are similar to what has long been required of information professionals. But keeping up with the evolution of information science in general and the proliferation of digital information requires increasingly technical skills.

For transportation librarians, there are minimum knowledge requirements for understanding the transportation sector, the mission and function of a state transportation agency, and national transportation issues. The Resources section of this Quick Guide provides additional guidance in these areas.

Just as important as technical abilities, certain “soft skills” enable the information professional to focus on service and research support. Similar to SLA’s “enabling competencies,” this skill set includes:

• Initiative, flexibility and problem-solving, including the ability to adapt to new roles, responsibilities and information sources.
• Influencing skills and marketing, including the ability to recognize and articulate the value of information services to important stakeholders.
• Relationship building, networking and facilitating collaboration.
• Critical thinking, including qualitative and quantitative reasoning.
• Leadership and management, including the ability to link services with organizational goals, focusing on agency needs, and actively informing decision-making throughout the organization.

Also, cultural intelligence—the ability to operate effectively across different cultural settings (ethnic, organizational, generational)—is increasingly important given workforce and societal changes.

Finally, some information professionals are taking on a new role in the agency: knowledge management (KM). This term refers to a variety of strategies and tasks related to identifying, building, sharing and sustaining the knowledge and experience of an agency’s employees. Because of the generational workforce changes state DOTs are experiencing, it is crucial that this valuable accumulation of information be retained. Among the sources for KM guidance is the TRB Standing Committee on Information and Knowledge Management. Those with a particular interest in KM can participate as a friend of the committee.

Refer to the Knowledge Management Quick Guide for more information.