Fiona Campbell

Journalistic construction of news: information gathering

Describes the work carried out at doctoral level which investigated the ways in which journalists construct environmental news in Scotland. Focuses on the methods and tacit rules which reporters employ to locate, select and retrieve information for news stories. Journalists retrieve information from a complex range of sources. Addresses the information sources which are used in the news process. Examines the preference for human sources as opposed to library‐based information and discusses the influence of pragmatic constraints like time and space on the production of news.

Information professionals, CPD and transferable skills

Argues that the workplace of today is in a state of perpetual change and that individuals across the professions are faced with economic cutbacks, managerial reorganization and staff downsizing. In order to cope with/adapt to these changes, professionals have been forced to consider the issue of continuing professional development (CPD). Reports on a questionnaire survey sent out UK‐wide to 175 information professionals in the health and energy/oil sectors. The survey was designed to gain a flavour of these professionals’ attitudes to CPD and to identify their transferable skills. Addresses the problems of a changing workplace, the difficulties attached to career progression for information professionals and the growing need for CPD.

Professional development and the recently qualified information and library studies professional: Factors affecting success in attainment of the UK Library Association's Associate status

This paper describes a project funded by the UK Library Association (LA) which sought to investigate factors impacting upon length of time taken to achieve Associateship of the Library Association and to gather attitudinal data as to the benefits of Associateship, barriers to successful completion and continuing professional development (CPD). Data was gathered via a postal questionnaire (38.3% response rate) and telephone interviews with not yet complete and withdrawn candidates. The respondent group reflected a representative sample of the research target, coming from a range of employment sectors. Results suggested that significant factors included: conflicting pressures, lack of time, loss of interest and poor supervision. Those candidates still to submit, or who had withdrawn, tended to have received less support from employers. Associateship was seen as advantageous largely in that it conferred chartered status and professional recognition: fewer respondents felt that it had, or was likely to, lead to an enhanced career, a salary increase or prestige. The majority of respondents were interested in their personal continuing professional development (93.5%), reading professional literature as part of their CPD (85%), while between a half and two thirds attended external seminars/courses, networked with colleagues and engaged in internal training activities. A slight majority (54.2%) felt that CPD should not be compulsory: some suggested a system of reward rather than a compulsory approach should be preferred.

A framework of the transferable skills of information professionals

Describes a research project for the British Library Research and Innovation Centre which identified and analysed the generic skills and competences of information professionals in the healthcare and oil industry sectors. The study and its findings are described in a pack which is included with this issue of Library Management.

Intellectual convergence in a mass communication course for librarians and publishers

Notes the professional convergence seen in the work of library and information professionals and of journalists, publishers and broadcasters in the way that both groups are trained to locate, store and disseminate information. Discusses ways in which this professional convergence can be used to design a course in mass communications so as to investigate all the aspects and issues of the subject, how they relate to each other, and what they imply for all students and citizens. Focuses on the experience gained in designing a mass communications course for library and information science students at the School of Information and Media, Robert Gordon University, Scotland, noting: how the course was designed to develop in the students a mature critical approach to the subject; issues of course content; course content and controversy; and the place of such courses in the education and training of library professionals.