Professional Standardization of Library and Information Activities

Abstract

The professional standard “Specialist in Library and Information Activities” came into effect on 1 March 2023. The state regulatory document consolidates the status of the industry and the library and information profession in the system of social production. The article highlights the regulatory legal framework and a brief history of professional standardization of librarianship, which began in 2013. The adoption of the “Strategy for the Development of Librarianship in the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2030” opened a new stage in the organization of work on professional standardization of the industry. The conceptual approaches to the development of the document are analyzed: differentiated and integrated. The expediency of the integrated approach as more rational taking into account the current tasks of the industry development is substantiated. Library and information activity is presented in the document as an integral branch type of professional activity, and its functional areas — as generalized labor functions, including all production and technological processes of library work. The functional and logical structure of the professional standard and the semantic series of concepts underlying its decomposition are considered. The new nomenclature of positions of library and information specialists recommended by the professional standard is given, their qualification range is characterized, requirements to education, regular training and practical work experience are noted. It is concluded that the professional standard is a model of competences of a library and information specialist, aimed at fulfillment of the whole complex of functional tasks of a modern library. The introduction of the professional standard creates a normative basis for the formation of the qualification range of library specialists taking into account the requirements to the profession of a librarian of the digital era, the implementation of personnel strategies of libraries of different systems and departments, determines the vectors of improvement of all parts of the system of library and information education. It is a tool for managing the development and use of human resources potential of the industry. The document plays an important role as a basis for the inclusion of library and information activities in the National Qualifications System, which will significantly increase the prestige of the library profession and the industry as a whole, as well as ensure the implementation of the state library personnel policy.