Jóhanna Gunnlaugsdóttir


Jóhanna Gunnlaugsdóttir


Jóhanna Gunnlaugsdottir is an Associate Professor at the University of Iceland. Her main field of teaching and research is in records and information management (RIM), knowledge management (KM), total quality management (TQM) and E-government, E-commerce and E-business. Her research field also includes classification and classification theory. Gunnlaugsdottir has received a BA in History and Library and Information Sciences from the University of Iceland, an MSc (Econ) from the University of Wales and a PhD  from the University of Tampere, Finland. In 1985 Gunnlaugsdottir founded a consulting company on RIM, Gangskor sf., and has since then been working for more than 100 organizations in Iceland. She has also held seminars and given lectures on RIM, KM and TQM for various institutions and associations, both in Iceland and abroad, as well as put on presentations at international conferences. She has written articles on RIM, TQM, KM and E-government which have been published in Icelandic and foreign journals. Gunnlaugsdottir has been a member of the Records Management Society (UK) and ARMA International since 1987 and she was one of the founders of the Icelandic Records Management Association (IRMA) in 1988, and a member of the board. She was also one of the founders of the Icelandic Knowledge Management Association (IKMA) in January 2005, as well as a member of the board. For further information see: http://www.hi.is/simaskra/enska/1373


 


Broadening the skills of the librarian: Interdisciplinary training


According to the UNESCO Public Library Manifesto and Icelandic law, the public library is a centre for culture, learning and entertainment, offering equal access to all. It provides professional information services to individuals, firms and institutions in the community. The education of librarians at the University of Iceland offers core competences that make our students uniquely qualified to work in libraries. Our graduates should, however, have a broader view of the world. They would benefit from having a second discipline as a partial fulfilment of the course requirements towards the BA degree. The disciplines that come first to mind, given the aim of the public library, are literature, the arts, history, geography, regional studies and studies of local industry. Interdisciplinary studies should also be encouraged to broaden the knowledge of the librarian. These are courses in general management, as well as specific courses in project, quality, cultural, human resources and knowledge management. Insight into marketing, museum and cultural studies, and public administration is of value. The university, being a school of many disciplines, offers professional courses in all of these fields. This approach creates a fertile learning environment when students from different fields are brought together to exchange ideas and to share knowledge.