On 27 May the National Library of Estonia organised an international seminar „Tomorrow is T-Shaped: Work and Competencies in 21st Century Library“. The seminar was dedicated to the challenges and opportunities facing future libraries and librarians.
According to Director General of the National Library Janne Andresoo, it is the right moment to address the competencies expected from the library staff. She says: „Future librarians are recruited and trained already today, thus libraries have to forecast both the changes on the labour market in general and future work in libraries in particular. Predicting our future work enables us to select and develop the necessary skills that would give our users added value.“
The seminar focused on the role of innovative and creative libraries as seen in Estonia and beyond, and the competencies expected of future librarians to keep up with the needs of the society and the users. The T-shaped future mentioned in the seminar title refers to the competencies of an ideal future employee – with in-depth knowledge in at least one sector and ability to understand and interconnect other disciplines and people working in these disciplines.
The seminar featured speakers from Estonia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Iceland and Latvia. The videos of the presentations can be viewed on the National Library of Estonia YouTube channel.
