Technical standards on professional profiles: an opportunity for library and archives convergence

The European Qualification Framework (EQF) for lifelong learning is a reference model established by the European Parliament and Council to support improvement of education and training systems. Based on a multi-dimensional matrix where knowledge, skills, and competencies should be identified as learning outcomes and assigned their proper level of qualification, such a model may serve not only as a translation device between different education systems, but also as a tool to qualify a professional profile in a transparent and efficient way. This model has been applied to the archival and library domain: the Italian Standards Organization (UNI), together with the professional associations, has developed two national standards aimed at identifying the relevant features of both archivist's and librarian's profile. For the first time, a technical standard defines the competences, skills, and knowledge needed to be an archivist or a librarian. Such an initiative not only may support updating and re-designing professional curricula and education, but may also help identify commonalities and peculiarities of the archival and librarian profiles, hence providing the ground for a possible convergence of libraries and archives. This paper provides an overview of the EQF model and the Italian standards on the archival and librarian professional profile. It focuses on the comparison of the models promoted by these standards in order to highlight any features that may support or hinder convergence and show how technical standards may be an unexpected means of advancement towards convergence.