Sunday 25 September 2011

Defragmentation of the Information Professions

Since August 2010 there has been some discussion and debate within CILIP and some other groups about how the information professions seem to be increasingly fragmenting into different specialist interest groups with no over-arching organization to pull them together. ISKO UK has been asked to offer its opinions and possibly support for the setting up of some kind of umbrella group that could provide a unified voice for such activities as lobbying government on information issues. There is an Information Professions wikispace with more background about the discussions that have taken place so far.

What do you think about the formation of such an umbrella group? Should ISKO UK be involved or not? If ISKO UK should be involved, in what ways? Would it dilute ISKO UK's purpose to get involved, or would it be beneficial? Do you think professional fragmentation matters, or are we best served by numerous specialist groups?

ISKO UK is run by committed volunteers, not paid staff, and seeks to keep costs to members as low as possible, so becoming part of an umbrella group could be costly. On the other hand, such an umbrella group could be something that you as ISKO UK members would actively want to support as a way of promoting the information professions in general and knowledge organization work in particular.

Please tell us what you think – all comments, ideas, questions, and suggestions are appreciated. You are welcome to leave comments on this blog, to email info@iskouk.org, or to send a tweet or a DM to @ISKOUK on Twitter.

No comments: