Librarians' "COPIFAST"

Are you a COPIFAST Librarian?
COPIFAST is an acronym devised for some highly effective habits that a librarian must acquire in this fast changing environment to survive.

The Librarians of 21^st century are confronted with multi-dimensional challenges of providing cost-effective efficient services, living up to the expectation of agile and informed users and their complex information needs, upgrading technical skills to cope with the rapidly changing technology and constant threat from aliens (non-library professionals) entering into their regime.

Librarianship has undergone a whole paradigm shift, the concept of librarianship itself has changed, they are more commonly known as Information Specialists, Information Scientists, Information Officers, Information Managers, Knowledge Managers, Knowledge Officers, etc.

In this changing scenario the library professionals are expected to quickly adapt to the environment and provide value-added services to their patrons or else days are not very far when the profession would be extinct.

Let us now EXPAND the acronym "COPIFAST"

C - Communicative
"Skill in the art of communication is crucial to a leader's success. He can accomplish nothing unless he can communicate effectively.”
--Norman Allen

O - Organized
"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up."
--A. A. Milne

P - Proactive
"Let's form proactive synergy restructuring teams.”
--Scott Adams

I - Innovative
"Vision is perhaps our greatest strength.. it has kept us alive to the power and continuity of thought through the centuries, it makes us peer into the future and lends shape to the unknown."
--Li Ka Shing

F - Flexible
"Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."
--Lao-tzu

A - Approachable
"One should have a general attitude of welcoming to everybody" --Kenneth Blackwell

S - Self-motivated
"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success."
--Norman Vincent Peale

T - Team Player
"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."
--Andrew Carnegie