Here’s a great infographic that offers some insights into the origins of information / knowledge workers, and their evolution into future ‘knowledge web workers’. While the infographic is in essence just presenting a range of selected factors to illustrate this evolution, some predictions at the end for developments affecting knowledge workers over the next three years are thought-provoking (analytics positions will be more in demand than ever):

• By 2013, 15 % of business intelligence workers will incorporate social networking into their decision making processes.
• By 2014, 43% of US workers will telecommute.
• Broadband will become universal, allowing for greater mobility in the way we conduct business.

Future knowledge workers will, according to one analyst, become ‘hyperconnected’, with 40% predicted to rely solely on mobile technology to conduct business, rather than being tied to an office or desk, within the next two years.

How do these representations of ‘information professional’ and ‘knowledge worker’ resonate with us? Our students are already avid users of hand-held and mobile technologies – and libraries and librarians are increasingly engaging with these technologies as well.

Although the intention of this infographic might be to illustrate a broader landscape than trends in libraries, are there some signals we need to be alert to here?

Janet McFadden