I recently delivered a presentation discussing my perceptions of ‘What Constitutes Excellence in the Library Profession’. The presentation consisted of two halves. The first, was my own musings and ideas discussing the interrelationships of an information professional and their materials. The second half was the results of a poll distributed via Twitter and JISC’s LIS-LINK (thank you the 305 people who responded!). The slides are below, why not take a look? Alternatively, they can be seen on SlideShare.net.
My concluding remarks, which may not be clear from the slides, were that ‘excellence’ can be measured by performance in relation to your job description, but unless you engage with the profession and expose yourself to other ‘industry standards’ then you will never be able to gain a true understanding of how well your service is performing in relation to others. By interacting with others, an understanding can be gained of how your users are comparing you to other services, and therefore if they perceive you to be ‘excellent’ or just average (though of course, lets not forget that ‘Average is Over’ – see posts by the Wikiman and WoodsieGirl). Professional engagement will place you in a far better position to judge your own weaknesses.
