IN DEPTH ‘‘
Rebecca Dorsett is Deputy Head of Digital & Information Professions at UK Ministry of Defence and Chair of CILIP’s Government Information Group (GIG).
Taking part in the two different events provided a good insight into what people really think about Government working and the wider information profession.
What’s it really like working in Government Information in 2026?
How government information compares to other sectors – Rebecca Dorsett, Deputy Head of Digital & Information Professions at UK Ministry of Defence and Chair of CILIP’s Government Information Group (GIG), takes a look.
CILIP’s Members’ Fest 2026 gave me two very different opportunities to explore how the topic of working in Government is per- ceived by the wider professional community. It also allowed me to discover what the big- gest topics and questions are about the world of Government working and the professional journeys within.
Taking part in the two different events provided a good insight into what people really think about Government working and the wider information profession. It also helped me appreciate that there are still many areas that aren’t understood and how this is to the detriment of the wider profession – because there are so many different career paths and development areas that people don’t know exist and also areas for collaboration that are not explored because of perceived professional siloes.
Exploring Government working
For the first event of my week, CILIP Government Information Group held a webinar with three speak- ers from very different areas of government working and in different roles sharing their routes into the Civil Service. They discussed their own career jour- neys and some of the issues and opportunities they faced in their current organisations, surfacing a wide variety of discussions, themes of questions. One of the more prevalent areas of discussion – one
34 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
that is often a commonly brought-up – is how to begin or even transition into information manage- ment or knowledge management as a career route? Traditional ‘linear’ career paths are not as clear for this area of the profession as they are for the more long-established library roles with their well-defined qualifications and frameworks.
There is also a wider lack of awareness of the roles in these areas of the profession and what skills are needed to open them up as career routes. There was a lot of interest from those with library backgrounds and experience in exploring knowledge and infor- mation work outside of a library setting. But it also highlighted how many are not sure where to start or what route to take and whether library science qualifications are needed.
Integration and understanding
There is a surprising amount of crossover between library science and information management. The perception of information management from those that haven’t delved into the subject is that it is some sort of IT role or as a dark art. And it doesn’t imme- diately seem like an obvious career route for those from a library background.
I was extremely happy to see this tackled by the GIG webinar which showed how most people in Knowledge Management come from really interesting backgrounds – with multiple and varied qualifications – which ulti-
April-May 2026
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