Ah. It’s so nice to have a long weekend to look forward too. I get Independence Day off on Friday but I decided to take Thursday off too. My plans? Read as much as I can. Relax. Enjoy some soy ice cream. Encourage my Bookman to make cinnamon rolls. Attempt to make pac choi dumplings from the ingredients in our csa farm box. And work on school stuff.
The class assignment this week is to go to a library and ask a reference question. We are to pay attention to whether the librarian follows reference guidelines or if the librarian attempts negative closure. In other words, does the librarian conduct an appropriate reference interview, ask good questions, provide source material and offer to do more searching if the recommended materials aren’t what I need or does the librarian try to avoid helping me by telling me I have to ask someone else or that the library doesn’t have what I am looking for any other tactic to try and make me go away. I am going to go to my branch library because no one knows me there since I only ever go in, pick up a book off the hold shelf and use the self-checkout.
My final project for the quarter, as I may have mentioned, is to answer seven reference questions at the Internet Public Library. Before I can “go live” I have to complete a sort of mini course and answer a practice question and get an IPL librarian’s approval before I get a password to access the reference questions. So I plan on starting in on all that.
The ALA annual conference is over and notes and articles from the sessions are beginning to pop up here and there. Library Journal has some notes from a session on the future of libraries. One person notes that with an aging U.S. population, libraries should position themselves as “a massive Alzheimer’s prevention program.” That made me laugh. Someone else suggested that librarians have to work to be “Nancy Pearl on steroids.” Others recommended that libraries have to start thinking bigger, be more willing to collaborate with other libraries, and librarians need to act more like professionals instead of whining about things like having to wear nametags. An intriguing idea came from someone who said that libraries need to have a sort of universal library card that will work at all area libraries. So for instance, my Minneapolis library card would work at a county library and a St. Paul library without me having to go through all the rigamarole currently necessary to cross-register my card. Wouldn’t that be cool?
There are lots of people in the profession who are worried about the future of libraries and librarianship. I think both will always be necessary, though they may not look the same ten or fifteen years from now. I can understand why some would be afraid, but I find it a rather exciting prospect to be entering such a dynamic career. I mean, there aren’t many professions these days with such opportunity for creativity and innovation for the average worker. I can hardly wait!
Stefanie,
I was delighted to read your optimistic comments regarding the future of the library profession.
I’ve wanted to do my Masters in Information Management (librarianship) as it is called here, for a couple of years now but have baulked every time mainly as a result of the negativity I encountered when I began enquiring about it. Of the four(!) Australian Universities that actually offer the qualification, only one has been enthusiastic and positive about my future job prospects, with one even suggesting I ‘choose again’ or focus on the records management side of the program rather than the librarianship if I hoped to be employed. This needless to say left me feeling angry and frustrated.
After a couple of years now working in a job that I don’t really mind, but that I know I’m not passionate about, I’ve decided that it’s time to draw my line in the sand and start moving towards what I actually want to do with life, no matter how many people tell me it’s a ridiculous goal. As my close friend says, ‘fight the good fight or die in the ditch trying!’
I agree with you and I think this is a qualification that will provide for a creative and dynamic career path. Whilst I’m (very) aware that I’m in a minority in saying this, but I truly believe that as the movement and manipulation of information becomes ever more sophisticated, there is going to have to be a corresponding need for more individuals who possess the specialist knowledge in efficiently and effectively finding, storing, retrieving and disseminating said information, especially as we are all so time poor these days. If as Foucault said, knowledge is power, then I like to think that we are actually the ones who will be in demand in the near future!
So now that i’ve said my piece, I’m off to apply for my Masters of Information Management, and it’s National Library of Australia of bust for me! 😀
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I always try and answer whatever question a patron asks, but since I’m technically not a professional librarian, sometimes I do have to pass them off to someone with more expertise if the question is really complicated and I’m not coming up with the results they need. There is so much to know these days and so many resources out there–it seems impossible to know everything (especially since I spend most of my time ordering and paying invoices). Things are definitely changing in libraries, and I am sure if you are willing to be creative and change along with all the technology you’ll be great!
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Oh, and have a nice long weekend!! I hope to get in some reading, too (and make some chocolate chip cookies maybe…).
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Have a great long weekend! What an interesting assignment that is to go ask a question from a reference librarian and analyze. I wonder what kind of experience you will have!
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I think its wonderful that you are so optimistic about future changes to a career you’re just beginning. That’s definitely the right attitude to have. And it is exciting – libraries will continue to evolve and hopefully in a good direction. You’ll have a part in that – how thrilling!
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Oooo, I was hoping you were going to go ask your question of Mike the Library and then get to write a scathing critique of how he put you off. Oh well…And those notes from ALA are great. Judging from what former colleagues from reference publisher are telling me, libraries of the future are going to be full of databases.
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Hmm, I do wonder what libraries will be like 10, 15 years from now. I think I’m still a bit upset that we don’t have card catalogs 😉
Enjoy your long weekend and hope you read a lot of good stuff!
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antipodeanowl, good for you! Don’t be discouraged about job prospects. They are mixed in the US, not a lot of growth and the pay is not great but it is expected there will be lots of librarians retiring in the next 5 years so I am keeping my fingers crossed. the way I see it, if the work is going to be something I love, I will find a way to do it. Good luck with your application. I will be thinking of you. Please let me know how it goes!
Danielle, I am not surprised you are so helpful. In my class we are told it is not bad to refer a patron to someone else if we are unable to help them, it just needs to be done respectfully so the patron knows she is not being denied help. Too bad I don’t live closer, I could has snuck in and asked you my reference question 😉 And I hope you enjoy your chocolate chip cookies!
Dorothy, thank you. It is an interesting assignment. It lets us see what it is like to be on both sides of the reference desk.
Verbivore, sometimes I think it is easy to be optimistic since I am not yet working in a library. I hope I can remain positive once I am there!
Emily, heh, wouldn’t that have been fun? Unfortunately, the assignment specifically says I have to ask a librarian with whom I am not familiar. Libraries are already full of databases. My school library has tons of them, so many in fact that they have to have an a-z index!
Iliana, I do miss card catalogs. There was something so comforting about them. I hope you have a good weekend too!
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