Empowering Information Literacy and Continuing Professional Development of Librarians: New Paradigms for Learning

Information professionals play a key role in facilitating and advocating the development of information literacy in educational, organizational and everyday life contexts. However, their information literacy continuing professional needs have not attracted sufficient attention in research. This qualitative study explores information professionals' perspectives of information literacy within their working practices. The paper reports on the preliminary findings of interviews conducted with a total of seventeen professional and non-professional librarians with experience of working in academic, public or special libraries. Librarians' definitions of information literacy highlighted a weak connection between information literacy development needs and everyday working context, when not directly involving information services to library users. However, information literacy and digital literacy were perceived as interconnected competencies, with the latter requiring ongoing development. Participants highlighted examples of blockage to their overall continuing professional development (e.g. management style, lack of resources) which emphasize the need for expanding online professional educational opportunities and promoting a culture of sharing and openness in the library profession.