Information Professions

When you think of the “traditional” information professions, such as curators, records managers, librarians, etc., the images that immediately comes to mind is probably that of an old man or woman working in solitude, obsessing over their collections of physical containers of information (such as books). It is easy to see how such professions could be regarded as outdated in today’s digital society.

In reality, however, these clichés of information professions are inaccurate and misleading. Jobs such as these may be shifting in their roles and definitions, but their functions are perhaps more important than ever. As more and more information becomes accessible through the Internet, in addition to the physical sources that still remain relevant, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage it all. With the rise of digital libraries, databases, etc., it is important to have people who can keep up with the amount of material and help make it easily accessible and usable by others.

Add to this the other information professions whose jobs include sorting through the information and making use of it for various purposes and it becomes clear that information professions are not fading in relevance. After all, anyone who has used Google to search for some rare bit of elusive information can tell you that there are still some things that only a human can do.