Professionals in
Information and Documentation

Mr. John Teskey is President of the Canadian Library Association.

Mrs. Teskey, you seem to have a privileged perspective as a librarian... Could you tell us a little about yourself?

I am unsure that I would characterize myself as privileged, but I have long experience! I started my profesional career at the University of Saskatchewan in 1974, moving to the University of Alberta in 1980 and then to the University of New Brunswick in 1991. Many years and many roles.

You have been active in professional associations throughout your career, and now you are the President of the Canadian Library Association, Why this association?, What is its mission?, What is your role as President?

The Canadian Library Association is the national association and as such carries special responsibility to advócate and lobby on hehalf of library and Librarian issues with government. As president I will have the opportunity to meet with students at the various Library Schools accross Canada, to listen to their ideas and provide information to them regarding the importance of profesional associations, I will also have the opportunity and responsibility to meet with Members of the Canadian Parliament as well as other senior government officials to present CLA’s views on various issues, not the least of which is Copyright.

As information professional, what books were most influential and important to you, and why?

It is difficult to list individual books, our field changes on a day to day basis and I spend a lot of time Reading our literature, as well as newspapers and journals from the wider information and communication fields. However, a couple of titles that I found influencial are Charles Handy’s The Age of Paradox, and James Belasoco and Ralph Stayer’s Flight of the Buffalo.

As funding decreases and population and technologies change, what are some of the biggest challenges faced by the Canadian libraries?

The global recession is a major constraint on budgets in all sectors. However. while budgets have been constrained usage of libraries has increased. I believe that Canadian Libraries continue to look for ways of being more efficient or more productive in order to balance costs with increased services.

What do you see the future of the mass digitization projects and their implication in the libraries?

Our users expect everything to be available in digital form. Every digital Project adds to the available corpus but we need to ensure that all of the digitized material is easily discoverable Libraries will have access to a growing digital collection and our skills will be necessary to ensure that our users get full value. In a couple of months we will know whether the Google settlement has been accepted and if so this has the potential of making a huge amount of material available in digital form. I can’t wait to see the positive effects on inter-library-loans.

You have a great experience in libraries, what advices can you give to everyone who want to be a good "information professional"?

Our profession is one that does not require continuing profesional education to maintain our qualification. This is a concern as our world is changing with increasing speed. I feel that staying current is an absolute requirement as we need to be flexible as well as adaptable to take advantage of opportunities.

Let’s talk about the formation. Are well-trained the librarians in Canada?

Believe that our librar Science programs provide a terrific group of young Librarians, the area where we need development is continuing education programmes.

Some people think that the New Technologies could replace the information professionals, because their participation wouldn't be necessary as intermediary between the user and information. What is your opinion? What are the opportunities and challenges for information professionals in the twenty-first century?

I am sure that over the years there have been many technological changes that prompted people to think that librarían s could be replaced. The transition to digital publishing has certainly been disruptive but the opportunities for Librarians abound.

A growing number of professionals worldwide are joining to associations. Why this boom?

Associations provide many development and leadership opportunities. I hope the boom will add to the number of professionals who will be ready to take on major leadership opportunities that will be available in the next few years.

What impression do you have of Spaniards information professionals? Are there any differences with Canadian professionals?

Unfortunately I do not know enough Spanish professionals to identify any differences.

Finally, is there anything that you have thought about doing that you haven't been able to do yet?

I would love to be a luthier, perhaps I need a skills development opportunity in Spain!

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