The Pros and Cons of being an information specialist

On the 11th of August, Peggy Moeng, a third-year BIS student, sent a question to the Instagram inbox: “Good morning @uplibrary. My name is Peggy Moeng, I am a third-year student currently studying BIS (Information Science) here at UP. I have a few questions regarding my degree since I am studying towards becoming an information specialist. I would like to know some of the pros and cons of this career and ways on how one can gain work experience.”

Elsabé Olivier, who handles the page, decided to reach out to the information specialists for assistance. Lesego Makhafola, the information specialist in the Faculty of Engineering, was the first to respond and offered to write to Peggy. This is the answer that she shared:

Dear Peggy,

I want to commend you on being curious about the profession that you are considering going into. When I was in my third year, I was yet to decide which career path I wanted to follow, or even if I wanted to study further. I want to believe that your curiosity and interest is what will make you a great information specialist one day in the future. That is the basis of learning and growing after all, and that is what makes an information specialist if I am being honest. You posted a question asking what are the pros and cons of being an information specialist.  The simple answer is: it depends. There are so many factors that influence and contribute to one’s success as an information specialist. You have to want to be an information specialist. You have to want to learn, grown and help people. You have to be open-minded, patient, curious, calm, friendly, kind and cool. Yes, I said cool. People need to be able to approach you with ease.

I will attempt to give you a list of pros and cons based on my personal experiences over the past almost seven years.

Here are the pros of being an information specialist:

1. You get to meet different and interesting people every day.
2. You get to help these different and interesting people every day.
3. You get to enjoy your weekends (99.8% of the time).
4. You learn about different fields of study and research.
5. You acquire new knowledge and skills almost on a daily basis (big brain J).
6. You get opportunities to develop yourself professionally through formal and informal training opportunities.
7. You get to work with kind, friendly and cool people.
8. You get unlimited access to a wealth of resources and, sometimes, you get the pleasure of being the first person to read books (I was happy when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out).
9. You get to train people and equip them with lifelong skills and knowledge that they will carry forward.
10. Sometimes, you get acknowledged for your contributions in research projects and postgraduate theses and dissertations (it is a fantastic feeling I must tell you).
11. Conferences, workshops, webinars and seminars (pre-lockdown, we could travel to some amazing institutions and locations).
12. You sometimes learn things as you do them and, other times, you learn while helping others.
13. You become part of a team and a department where you can simply ask anyone for help and they would be ready to assist you.
14. We have backup partners. When I am not available there is someone to get things done on my behalf.
15. We have information-sharing sessions for information specialists by information specialists which are really informative and worthwhile (InForum).
16. Being an information specialist is actually a multipurpose profession. We get to teach, train, research, market and interact with cool people at the same time. One can say we wear many hats, but we are certainly not clowns.
17. Information specialists are cool, down to earth, calm, patient, friendly, curious and helpful nerds and book lovers who are very good listeners.

Now to tell you about the not so cool aspects of being an information specialist. Firstly, you need to remember that every profession has its challenges or downsides. I was fortunate (or unfortunate, perhaps) to be allocated teaching and research-intensive departments. The undergraduate students stay with us for a minimum of 4 years. That is one extra year than with information science, so you can imagine that I have a lot more training to give and more people to interact with, not that I mind. In my experience, these are the not so desirable aspects of being an information specialist:

1. An undergraduate degree is a must and an Honours is a close second.
2. If you are not innovative and curious, you may get bored at some point in your career.
3. You have to build your reputation among colleagues and relationships with your departments. Depending on the people you have to interact with, this can range from being easy to a continuous process over many months or even years. So you really need to be patient, persistent and determined. Don’t let one little hill get you down. There are many mountains to climb.
4. There can be limited career progression opportunities. Make sure you know what your motivation is for doing this job otherwise you may not find satisfaction in it in the long run.
5. I, personally, have too many departments (or rather active clients) and so it can be a lot of work to build and maintain a good standard of work and juggle everything else that you are responsible for. 8 hours a day is not sufficient. You have to do the best that you can with the time that you have. Prioritise.
6. Don’t expect to be acknowledged for your contributions.
7. Sometimes, you will have to help clients that are looking for a blue book with a bird on the cover. It will be up to you to find out more so you can find the blue book with a bird on the cover.
8. Being an information specialist can sometimes be stressful. Many factors can contribute to this but all that you go through makes you a much better person.
9. You will sometimes have to make difficult decisions to cut resources.

As a last remark, I would like to say that when I became an information specialist, I changed and grew as an individual. I became part of a team of incredible people. I serve my clients with the utmost pride and dedication. I am constantly being pushed out of my comfort zone and into unchartered waters. My reward is seeing the clients I helped complete their degrees and graduate, publish research papers, get awards, and become better information users. If you are ever lucky to join the DLS, I will be there to welcome you.

Kind regards,

Lesego Makhafola

Peggy Moeng was very pleased and responded:

“I would first like to thank you for agreeing to have a chat with me and making time for me it means a lot and I appreciate people like you who value and give so much of themselves to help others. My chat with you was insightful, I discovered so much that I wasn't aware of especially in the career that I want to follow. You gave me all the information I needed and more. You helped me to become open-minded and not only look at things from one point of view because I can safely say that before I sent an inquiry to the UP library services on Instagram I always thought that becoming an information specialist is only about providing people with information but with your help and the information you gave me I discovered that it's not only about providing people with information, there is quite a lot of tasks and opportunities that come with the profession.

I cannot express how content and satisfied I was after our chat because you gave me all the information that I needed and even went beyond. You did not throw me off-guard instead you stated everything that I needed to know clearly in a manner that is understandable and fair. I would like to thank you once again and your colleagues and say that indeed the University of Pretoria has the right people in their library department, and it would be such an honour to be part of the team and fulfil my purpose. From here onwards I am going to work hard and get my qualification so that I can also make an impact and be part of the UP-library community to provide the most effective and efficient services to our clients. I am ready to learn and move forward.”

This exchange shows how being an information specialist can be both challenging and rewarding, with many ups and downs along the way. This information can be helpful to anyone looking to become an information specialist.