ABSTRACT
'Human resource planning' is a term that has replaced 'manpower' and 'workforce planning'. Workforce planning covers a range of activities designed to ensure a satisfactory balance between the supply and demand for library and information workers in both qualitative and quantitative terms. At the national level, the 1980s witnessed a spate of reports on workforce planning for library and information work. In addition to information technology skills, other abilities are increasingly needed if librarians and information workers are to be effective. Skills flexibility emphasizes staff's competences rather than simply knowledge, and depends largely upon training, whilst job flexibility depends on the lack of demarcations which prevent staff from using their skills to the full. In order to achieve flexibility and reduce costs, many organizations have made considerable changes to their structures, either deliberately or by responding to pressures as they arose.
