In this four part-series, Tony Zanders, Founder & CEO of Skilltype, Matthew Weldon, Library Patron Consultant at Technology from Sage, David Erlandson, Head of Cataloguing and Metadata Services at Rice University Fondren Library, and Marcy Simons, Director of Hesburgh Libraries Organizational and Personnel Development at the University of Notre Dame, discuss the current landscape of librarian skills and career advancement. A partnership between Technology from Sage and Skilltype, Librarian Futures Part III: The Librarian Skills Landscape white paper came together after Matthew and Tony saw an opportunity to combine their perspectives to investigate how librarians navigate career changes, upskilling demands, and comfort levels adapting to new technology. In this series, our guests chat about key report takeaways, the importance of cultivating soft skills, and how generative AI tools will impact future careers in librarianship.

In this first episode, Tony and Matthew provide background on the report’s origins and goals. Beginning in April 2023, the white paper captured real-time institutional responses to GenAI entering campus and affecting librarian workflows. Further, Tony and Matthew share why they chose to focus on job categories rather than job titles to make the report more flexible for the future and account for the lack of uniformity across title descriptions. Last, Marcy and Dave characterize the state of professional development at their respective institutions, sharing procedures, budgetary constraints, and novel uses.

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