Adapting the information professionals to the digital collections universe

Libraries, Archives and Museums (LAMs) should respond as one articulated entity to the user informational needs and to the demands of the scholarly electronic communication. LAMs are stepping forward into the arena of digital stewardship and this move requires new skills and abilities.

The specialists are adapting practices and instruments to the pressing needs for digital curation and preservation. The necessity for an active and continuous partnership between the information-intensive organisations, the scholarly community and general public, must be ensured while incorporating the paradigm of guiding the user and empowering the researcher. There are important questions that future digital stewardship raises related to how the professional profile will look like for those powering the specialised structures put in place to safeguard cultural and scientific heritage.

What will be the core competences based on what set of skills and abilities? How will the facilities look like? What will be the general environment, and most importantly, will there be a space for common knowledge exchange for those entrusted with maintaining vast bodies of information