The large-scale digital repositories that are emerging today and expected to increase exponentially during this century will require information managers with the skills to acquire, manage, organize, preserve, and provide access to massive amounts of data for use and re-use by a variety of interdisciplinary and heterogeneous communities over time. Where will these managers come from? What skills will they need? Are there core competencies that span libraries, archives, museums, and other large-scale repositories? How can employers identify a well-prepared workforce for the 21st century repository?

This workshop, organized by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the School of Information and Library Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will address these questions through presentations and discussion among educators and other interested participants. International perspectives are invited.

IMLS has invested more than $100 million since 2003 in the education of librarians, archivists and data curators through both formal and continuing education programs. This timely funding has enabled graduate schools of library and information science to reshape their curricula to address the emerging need for digital data managers. Are we prepared to meet the challenge?