In the morning of October 23rd, 2020 the Swiss Institute for Information Science and the Swiss library association, Bibliosuisse [https://bibliosuisse.ch/], had jointly invited to a panel discussion on evolving new research-related library services, new professional profiles, and the resulting need of new training programmes.

Panellists:

• Prof. Dr. Matthias Egger, President of the National Research Council of the SNSF; Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, ISPM, University of Bern; Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, UK
• Prof. Dr. Gillian Hallam, Principal Lecturer, Digital Health Information Services, The University of Melbourne; Co-Chair, Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Standing Committee, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA); Chair, Education Advisory Committee, Australian Library and Information Association
• Prof. Dr. Michael Jäckel, President of the University of Trier, Germany; Professor of Sociology, University of Trier; member of the Council for Information Infrastructures (a committee of Germany’s Joint Science Conference)
• Prof. Dr. Rudolf Mumenthaler, Director of Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek Luzern

Presenter: Gerhard Bissels, Lecturer in Library Innovation, University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons, Chur

Perspectives for Libraries and Library Schools

Panelists agreed with the analysis laid out in the white paper ‘Digital Competencies - Urgently Needed’ recently published by Germany’s Council for Information Infrastructures: Along the border of science and information new professional profiles are currently evolving for which Skills and knowledge both from the relevant discipline, and from Information Science are required - e.g. Medical Librarianship, Research Data Management, Scholarly Communication, and Digital Humanities. So far there is a lack of suitable training programmes - not just in the German-speaking countries, but worldwide. The panelists unanimously recommended modular postgraduate programmes be established, and e.g. CAS (Certificate of Advanced Study) courses introduced which - if run via distance-learning, and in English - would attract an international audience.

Encouraging International Interest

The audience of the panel discussion was just as international and illustrious as the panel, with librarians and library scientists participating from as far afield as Canada, the UK, and Norway.

Developing New Modular Postgraduate Courses

Gerhard Bissels, host and presenter of the discussion, the panel’s consensus confirmed that his work towards a CAS “Systematic Searching” for medical librarians were in line with major development of the library profession, and library school programmes. This CAS which is hoped to be launched in 2021, will be the first in the field of medical librarianship in Europe.