This apprenticeship is in development and is subject to change
An apprenticeship is only available for delivery when both the standard and assessment plan is approved and a funding band (core government contribution) has been assigned to the standard.
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Proposal approved
Occupational standard approved
End-point assessment plan approved
Funding approved
This occupation is found in small, medium, and large organisations in the public, private and third sectors including public institutions, health, legal, commercial, educational, government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), heritage/cultural, environmental, media and entertainment. Library information and knowledge management (LI&KM) professionals work in varied environments, including in an office, onsite or remotely.
This occupation is found in organisations where there is a requirement to manage the lifecycle of information and knowledge assets from identification and curation through to preservation and destruction as appropriate, in line with relevant national and international legislation and internal policies.
The broad purpose of the occupation is to promote education and knowledge through the establishment, development, and operation of libraries, information, or knowledge services. LI&KM professionals manage information and knowledge services and associated resources. This occupation requires ethical leadership and driving an ethical approach to the provision of information without bias or agenda in the management of the information asset or the provision of services to any user.
In addition, they need to ensure the ongoing development of green and sustainable libraries which may be of any size. LI&KM professionals will have a clear sustainability agenda, which includes green buildings and equipment, green office principles, sustainable economy, sustainable library services, social sustainability, environmental management and commitment to general environmental goals and programmes. LI&KM professionals actively enable equitable access to information in all forms to their communities. Typically, the role will enhance professional practice within the LI&KM community.
An LI&KM professional's daily work is governed by frequently changing complex legislation and regulations. They have a professional responsibility to ensure compliance from their organisations and users on matters such as data protection, intellectual property, privacy, diversity and equity, copyright, and licensing restrictions in the provision of LI&KM services. This technical and specialist role requires a thorough understanding of the legislative landscape in which the LI&KM professional operates as they advise and contribute to organisational policies in these areas.
They are required to ensure there are strategies and procedures in place to mitigate risk for their organisations in these areas. LI&KM professionals set and review information and knowledge strategies in line with business and operational goals. They are required to develop strategies, and analyse and manage the whole information and knowledge lifecycle.
They utilise their specialist knowledge and skills to identify continuous improvement and efficiencies to meet operational targets within budgetary parameters. Technological developments and the evolving needs of stakeholders and wider society mean that LI&KM professionals continually innovate and reformulate their specialist professional practice.
In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a range of internal stakeholders, including colleagues, other departments such as IT, legal, HR and marketing, senior management, and the board of directors, to deliver library, information, and knowledge services. The LI&KM professional is instrumental in building and managing strategic relationships. They liaise directly with external stakeholders, such as the public, students, researchers, academic and professional staff, library suppliers, and external agencies. They work in partnership with external stakeholders to achieve common goals across the library, information, and knowledge professions, such as negotiating costs with publishers, collaborating on information sharing, or advocating for LI&KM services. These include professional bodies, government bodies, pressure groups, members of the public, service users, and NGOs.
An employee in this occupation will be responsible for providing leadership and advice to their organisation on the needs of their service users. The technical and specialist advice and decision-making will be on the creation, collection, curation, storage, and provision of access to information, resources and knowledge. They will be responsible for ensuring that information can be retrieved, understood and used in all its formats for the purposes of work, education, research, health, wellbeing and entertainment. They do this by managing budgets to identify and select relevant resources to support stakeholders and organisational objectives.
LI&KM professionals will use practices such as cataloguing and classifying to industry standards in conjunction with LI&KM systems to ensure resources are searchable and retrievable for stakeholders. This would include how resources are made available in a LI&KM setting, through the purchase of databases and e-books/e-journals and the creation of digital resources and systems.
LI&KM professionals are responsible for policies concerning collection management, including which resources are collected and in which format, how budgets are spent, and information retention periods. As part of the role, they consider the carbon and climate change impacts of their strategies for the use of online data versus paper resources when selecting carbon neutral cloud providers for holding large stores of information and data. An LI&KM professional needs to be aware of issues such as critical librarianship, equity, diversity, and inclusion, misinformation and disinformation, and how the profession can act on these issues.
An LI&KM professional uses their specialist knowledge and skills to understand how their services, collections and metadata may exclude and marginalise groups in society and take steps to counteract this. The high-level responsibilities of LI&KM professionals include delivering leadership in conjunction with expertise to enable high quality, responsive LI&KM services. They take a lead on promoting and facilitating the development of information, media and digital literacy and knowledge mobilisation. This is done through delivering information sessions to stakeholders to share best practice in topics such as literature searching, accessing and searching databases and information systems, evaluating information and sources. This requires the development of teaching and presentation skills as well as professional knowledge of topics such as expert searching, critical appraisal, and information literacy.
They manage information and knowledge resources (physical and digital), including acquisition and creation, decision-making regarding choice of platform, storage, and retrieval, organisation, and categorisation as well as preservation and deletion. They are responsible for ensuring services are delivered within regulations and legal compliance for data and information use and in adherence with internal policies to mitigate risk for their organisation. Working at this level this occupational role will be responsible for reviewing and identifying potential risks and opportunities whilst continuously improving existing policies and procedures of the LI&KM function.
The LI&KM professional will work both independently and in a wide range of team settings usually accountable to a head of service. They work within agreed budgets and available resources. They will be responsible for decision making, alongside guiding, or influencing the decisions of others.
Their management responsibilities may include managing functions, budgets, people, and/or projects. They lead, mentor, coach, evaluate, anticipate resource requirements, and share best practice within their teams, across the organisation and with wider communities, both stakeholder and professional.
They work in a variety of environments and work patterns, including evenings, weekends, and public holidays. Some tasks in certain sectors may involve manual handling and working at height.
Whilst any entry requirements will be a matter for individual employers, typically an apprentice might be expected to have already achieved GCSE Maths and English on entry.
| Duty | KSBs |
|---|---|
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Duty 1 Design search strategies and undertake and evaluate complex searches for users to facilitate high quality learning, research, and evidence-based decision making. |
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Duty 2 Analyse, manipulate and interpret data from multiple sources to produce detailed reports and presentations for end users. |
K1 K2 K3 K4 K11 K16 K19 K20 K25 |
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Duty 3 Implement, manage, and support the development of digital technologies and sustainable specialist systems. |
K1 K3 K4 K5 K6 K8 K9 K11 K13 K14 K15 K19 K20 K22 K23 K24 K25 |
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Duty 4 Develop and ensure adherence to policies and regulations regarding processes and procedures for information use, while retaining the balance between information availability and information security. |
K1 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K11 K13 K14 K15 K17 K19 K20 K21 K22 K23 K25 |
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Duty 5 Create, maintain, and develop classification systems for data, information, and knowledge resources with appropriate metadata to enable searching, retrieval, and use of collections for end users. |
K1 K2 K3 K5 K6 K8 K9 K11 K13 K14 K15 K19 K20 K23 |
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Duty 6 Manage and develop resources, information, data, or knowledge assets to ensure accessibility of information and knowledge for all users. |
K1 K2 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K11 K13 K14 K15 K17 K19 K20 K22 K23 K24 K25 |
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Duty 7 Plan, deliver and evaluate information literacy training and reading development for users. Improve users' ability to take advantage of the resources/information collected, managed, and made available by library, information, and knowledge management (LI&KM) services. |
K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K8 K9 K10 K11 K12 K14 K15 K16 K19 K20 K22 K25 K26 |
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Duty 8 Assess the impact of service provision and continuous improvement through the evaluation of service data. |
K1 K2 K4 K6 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 K18 K19 K20 K21 K22 K23 K25 |
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Duty 9 Curate and preserve assets to ensure their relevance and/or availability for future use. |
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Duty 10 Lead day-to-day support and specialist advice across the organisation on information and literacy skills. |
K1 K2 K3 K4 K6 K10 K11 K13 K14 K15 K18 K19 K20 K23 K24 K26 |
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Duty 11 Manage and contribute to the internal and external marketing of the service, including advocacy and promotion, particularly in relation to managing relationships, strategic planning, and development of services. |
K6 K7 K11 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 K18 K20 K22 K23 K24 K25 K26 S3 S4 S7 S11 S12 S13 S14 S16 S17 S18 S20 S21 S22 S23 S24 S26 |
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Duty 12 Cultivate and maintain collaborative relationships with key stakeholders to influence key decision makers and further service objectives. |
K7 K11 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 K18 K20 K21 K23 K24 K25 K26 |
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Duty 13 Contribute to development of the organisational strategy through the development and implementation of operational and business plans for their area of responsibility. |
K1 K6 K7 K11 K14 K15 K16 K17 K18 K19 K20 K21 K23 K24 K25 K27 |
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Duty 14 Keep up-to-date with technological advances and emerging technology and review their impact on the organisation and service. |
K1 K4 K11 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 K19 K20 K22 K23 |
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Duty 15 Promote innovation to address changing requirements and to take advantage of new opportunities for a green and sustainable service. |
K1: Specialist library, information, and knowledge systems and how to evaluate them within the context of organisational needs.
Back to Duty
K2: Sources of up-to-date and reliable data and information from trusted bodies and how to assess their quality.
Back to Duty
K3: Tools and information retrieval techniques used for discovering information and evaluating the quality of outputs to meet stakeholder requirements.
Back to Duty
K4: Techniques and tools for research, analysis, and critical appraisal.
Back to Duty
K5: Principles of information and knowledge architecture.
Back to Duty
K6: Information and knowledge flows within their organisation.
Back to Duty
K7: How to write and implement an information or knowledge strategy through influencing and negotiating with stakeholders.
Back to Duty
K8: Principles of organising information and collection management, such as classification systems, taxonomies, and metadata.
Back to Duty
K9: Procedures to manage the lifecycle of knowledge and information assets, from identification through to preservation.
Back to Duty
K10: The principles and approaches of information literacy and related literacies, their frameworks, application, and promotion.
Back to Duty
K11: Stakeholder needs and how they access and use information.
Back to Duty
K12: User behaviour and the use of teaching methods to enhance user information literacy skills.
Back to Duty
K13: Current and emerging trends in technology, and the impact on service provision and professional practice.
Back to Duty
K14: Best practice and latest developments in the wider information and knowledge professions.
Back to Duty
K15: Ethics and principles that impact on the role of the library, information, and knowledge management (LI&KM) professional, and implications for practice within the organisation.
Back to Duty
K16: Marketing and promotion tools and techniques to promote services.
Back to Duty
K17: The role of the library, information, and knowledge management (LI&KM) professional, and how it contributes to the delivery of organisation strategy and objectives.
Back to Duty
K18: The key stakeholders within the organisation and how they interact to contribute to the wider organisational goals.
Back to Duty
K19: The international legislative environment and relevant regulatory requirements, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Copyright, Intellectual Property (IP), and their impact on professional practice and service provision in the organisation.
Back to Duty
K20: Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and its application in the workplace and service practice.
Back to Duty
K21: The principles of environmental sustainability, legislation, and best practice, and its impact on the service.
Back to Duty
K22: Project management tools and techniques.
Back to Duty
K23: Risk identification, management, and mitigation for business continuity.
Back to Duty
K24: Financial planning, budget management, procurement, and contract management.
Back to Duty
K25: Leadership and management practice, staff development and ethical leadership.
Back to Duty
K26: Coaching and mentoring methods.
Back to Duty
K27: Negotiation and influencing models and techniques.
Back to Duty
S1: Search, critically appraise, synthesise, and summarise data, information, or knowledge.
Back to Duty
S2: Identify reliable and trusted information sources.
Back to Duty
S3: Write reports and present information for stakeholders.
Back to Duty
S4: Identify resources and information to meet stakeholder needs.
Back to Duty
S5: Assist stakeholders with information enquiries and research needs.
Back to Duty
S6: Design and develop training programmes and materials to facilitate the development of information and related literacies for stakeholders.
Back to Duty
S7: Analyse user needs to design tools and services for stakeholders.
Back to Duty
S8: Select, organise, and classify information resources to assist resource discovery.
Back to Duty
S9: Manage and develop information, data, and reading resources.
Back to Duty
S10: Use specialist library, information, and knowledge systems to manage information.
Back to Duty
S11: Analyse and evaluate evidence and data to respond to stakeholder needs to improve service provision.
Back to Duty
S12: Use evidence and data to demonstrate their service and profession within the organisation and to stakeholders.
Back to Duty
S13: Apply an evidence-based approach to decision-making and development of policies and procedures.
Back to Duty
S14: Contribute to projects and the transformation of library and information services across organisational boundaries, such as those impacted by targets.
Back to Duty
S15: Manage and use relevant regulatory requirements, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Copyright, Intellectual Property (IP), for service provision.
Back to Duty
S16: Apply equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) practices in line with organisation policies.
Back to Duty
S17: Collaborate on the strategic planning for their organisation, such as objective setting and business planning.
Back to Duty
S18: Use project management techniques to prioritise tasks.
Back to Duty
S19: Analyse problems and provide solutions.
Back to Duty
S20: Lead projects or elements of projects to implement change or continuous improvement of their service.
Back to Duty
S21: Communicate with stakeholders using liaison and facilitation skills.
Back to Duty
S22: Influence and negotiate with stakeholders to shape and agree service aims.
Back to Duty
S23: Coach and mentor individuals within their organisation.
Back to Duty
S24: Use horizon scanning to research and implement new developments in the profession within the organisational context.
Back to Duty
S25: Present information and data to stakeholders.
Back to Duty
S26: Generate, manipulate, and present digital information to assist and inform users and stakeholders of the service.
Back to Duty
S27: Identify the impact of technology on service provision and professional practice.
Back to Duty
B1: Role models ethical and inclusive behaviours and practices.
Back to Duty
B2: Works flexibly and creatively adapts to circumstances.
Back to Duty
B3: Seeks learning opportunities and continuous professional development for self.
Back to Duty
B4: Takes responsibility, shows initiative, and is organised.
Back to Duty
B5: Takes personal accountability aligned to clear professional values.
Back to Duty
B6: Works collaboratively with others across the organisation and external stakeholders.
Back to Duty
Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the End-Point Assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeship’s English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3. A British Sign Language (BSL) qualification is an alternative to the English qualification for those whose primary language is BSL.
This standard aligns with the following professional recognition:
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