Moments of Obsolescence: Competences and Career Life Cycles Revisited Through Information Society Policies

This article examines the concept of moments of obsolescence in the library and information profession based on twelve career stories (career biographies) narrated by professionals working in Portuguese libraries since 1970 and 1980 with several and different professional transitions through Information Society developments and policies. We intend to highlight the importance of two cycles -
Information Life Cycle and Competence Life Cycle - by establishing connections between them in four major phases: information creation, distribution, seeking and utilization. Two topics - library and use – are combined with skills perspective and related to professional transitions, giving special attention to the major European policies towards Information Society, which have originated moments/risks.
of obsolescence in three areas: Technologies, learning and
competence Finally, we pointed to the need to have a
competency lifecycle framework for a wider variety of career
stages, supporting the new approaches of theory of career
construction and the studies of the relationships of
information competences, career transitions and information
processing paradigm as they evolve and causes another type
of obsolescence impacts