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In 1991 the Special Libraries Association (SLA) started on a quest to define and refine our profession's competencies. A critical milestone was reached in 1996 with the publication of Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century. With the demands on the profession continuing to change and increase, the competencies needed to reflect these changes and therefore revised competencies were adopted in June 2003 as Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century.
Why is there such emphasis on the profession's competencies? Our competencies are the very essence of our profession; it is our unique competencies that make our profession indispensable to our communities, clients and constituencies. Put another way, what are we without our competencies? As G. Allport wrote in 1961,
"it would be wrong to say the need for competence is the single and sovereign motive of life. It does, however, come as close as any ... to summing up the whole biologic story of life. We survive through competencies and we become self-actualized through competency."1
It is critical for a professional association to invest in the competency development of its membership. Although there is no easy way to measure the financial 'return' on this investment, the qualitative return is priceless. Competency development begins by identifying those competencies that make the profession unique and indispensable; the association can then further its ROI by facilitating the continued growth of these competencies among the membership. The revised competencies identify what makes our profession so increasingly more valuable, and the toolkit now being developed will ensure that all association members have the opportunity to develop their competencies and to continue to contribute to both the association and the profession.
The first edition of competencies was very well received by the SLA membership and a broader audience of librarians and information professionals worldwide. This revision is the next step and builds on that exceptional ground-breaking work. The original document will remain on the SLA website at www.sla.org/competencies1997, linked to this revised edition, to show the continuity, advancement and maturation of SLA's pursuit of competency definition and development for the profession. A PDF version of the revised competencies is available for easy reference at www.sla.org/competencies.
As Sylvia Piggott said in her introduction to the first edition, "The criteria...