Newly qualified librarians and their professional associations: UK and US comparisons: ANTAEUS

The purpose of this paper is to argue that, for historical reasons related to the manner in which career progression and professional accreditation has developed in the UK, newly qualified LIS professionals are uniquely positioned to reshape the role of their professional association in this country.

An opinion piece based on a brief and selective conference report from the 2007 American Library Association conference held in Washington DC.

Newly qualified professionals in the UK may well find good models for reshaping the UK profession by taking some of the best examples of professional association practice from the USA.

The suggestions made in this paper are entirely value‐based, but their acceptability at the practitioner level is a potential avenue for further investigation.

This piece attempts to give newly qualified LIS practitioners some very clear ideas about how to develop their own professional practice by reference to broader principles of professional ethics, law and the role of the professional association.

This paper attempts to give an original synthesis of viewpoints from two different national perspectives.