Briefing: Information Management Best Practices: New Roles, New Skills

This Briefing examines the new roles available to information management (IM) professionals. Drawing on over five years of Outsell data about evolving needs of information users and the changing environments of IM professionals, it examines the often divergent paths that IM careers can take today. Drivers for the changing roles are found in evolving user behaviors; Outsell data shows that information users are self-sufficient but relying more on various forms of intermediation to get the information they need. As more IM professionals become part of global or enterprise-wide units, top-down attention from upper-level executives is also becoming an impetus for change. The Briefing describes several evolving IM roles in detail: Information Liaisons, who resemble IT business integrators or analysts and match user needs with content and tools; Taxonomists, Information Architects, and Content Engineers, who work closely with their IT peers at the junction between IT and IM; Vendor/Contract Managers, who focus on managing content spending and vendor relations; and Information Analysts, who add value to information by providing analysis as a service to internal clients. The Briefing also identifies some key skill gaps that hinder full adoption of these roles for many IM professionals, and analyzes four key imperatives for implementing changes.