The Evolution Begins

After completing the chapters in The Portable MLIS, I am beginning to see things differently. (Haycock, 2008). Some of my blogs reflect those of an MBA trying to apply the black and white of the corporate world to a public service institution. You can almost feel me wanting to break out a balance sheet, develop a quadratic equation and mathematically explain the librarian's value to his or her community.

Let's not forget the cost-cutting drive. Someone from Peru contacts your drained reference staff via an online chat for information? Hand them off to a Peruvian library. Do it quickly. We will be recording how much time you spend on out-of-scope activities. We will review this weekly and roll it up to management monthly.

Chapter 15 in The Portable MLIS contains a powerful discussion of the librarian's role in our shared global community. (Ford, 2008). As the author Barbara J. Ford states, "The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that human beings have the fundamental right to have access to all expressions of knowledge, creativity, and intellectual activity." (Ford, 2008, p. 196). Contemplating those words, I find myself changed.

I considered going back through and retrofitting some of my posts to fit my newly developing librarian consciousness. Thankfully, I read Sutton's "The Weird Rules of Creativity" first. (Sutton, 2001). According to Sutton, "Naïveté can also come in the form of people who are experts in some other area, which allows them to see-and perhaps solve-problems from a new perspective." (2001, p. 99). Maybe my different perspective will help shed more light on librarian value and provide tools for librarian advocacy.

As the blog subtitle states this is "My journey to a new career in librarianship." I am thrilled to begin the journey with all of you.


References

Ford, B. (2008). LIS professionals in a global society. In K. Haycock & B. E. Sheldon (Eds.), The portable MLIS: Insights from the experts (pp. 195-203). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Sutton, R. I. (2001). The weird rules of creativity. Harvard Business Review. 79(8). 94-103.

Reflection on Evans’ View of Information Service Collections: A Practical Perspective

With years of collection development experience in different librarian settings, G. Edward Evans provides important insight to students of librarianship in The Portable MLIS. (Evans, 2008, p. 87). His discussions on information collections versus book collections, vendor relations and media dependence were most interesting to me as an information publishing professional.

His statement that he experienced “a curious resistance to the idea that libraries are in the information rather than book business” resonated with me. (Evans, 2008, p. 91). Although my employer has been a legal information publishing technology leader with our flagship electronic product released in the 1970s, until very recently there was a strong need to offer all of our content in print as well. My interaction with customers at conferences and research sessions revealed that while they valued the efficiency of online searching, they would often use the results of the search to locate the appropriate title in their print library. Print was the preferred medium for reading. The print percentage of our business, though, has been in a steady decline as the next generation of customers focuses on searching, browsing and reading their information in electronic format.

With my aforementioned customer contact viewed as a valuable part of my work, I was disheartened to read that vendors are sometimes viewed as “’the enemy’”. (Evans, p. 94). I have participated in office visits, market research and direct phone calls with our customers to learn their needs first-hand. The same is true of many of my colleagues. We glean something (and often more than one thing) every time we meet with our customers. I do recognize that many want our information to be inexpensive, but we create significant value-add for our products including many that require attorney analysis. There are other considerable improvements in infrastructure that customers would only notice if they were not there (and a search took minutes instead of seconds).

Reading this chapter, I'm reminded that the author, as a librarian, represents one of my industry's customers. His frustration regarding the numerous purchases of Grieg’s Holberg Suite that are required as a result of audio technological advances, puts me into publisher mode. (Evans, 2008, p. 92). How can we alleviate this inefficiency Evans identifies? What if publishers sold the content and then upcharged a relatively small incremental fee for media delivery? Customers would not have to pay the full price for content they already own, and publishers might see that customers upgrade to new media earlier than they did under the traditional model.


References

Evans, G. E. (2008). Reflections on creation information service collections. In K. Haycock & B. E. Sheldon (Eds.), The portable MLIS: Insights from the experts (pp. 87-97). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Reflection on Rubin’s Foundation: Not the Ammunition I Need

In the first chapter of The Portable MLIS, Richard E. Rubin suggests that a study of the history of libraries and librarian values will enable supporters “familiar with our roots” to advocate for libraries to counteract those who feel that libraries are “expensive, inconvenient, unresponsive, and, with the ubiquity of the World Wide Web, unnecessary”. (Rubin, 2008, pp. 3, 4,). After reading the chapter, I am not convinced that Rubin achieved his mission.

Despite carefully reading the historical sections, I am not equipped with the ammunition needed to advocate for scarce funding. His description of the modern library is too general to accurately convey its societal significance (“many broad-based services have emerged”). (Rubin, 2008, pp. 8, 9). His discussion of early public librarians focuses on their low wage due to limited funding; this does little to fortify advocates’ arguments for more funding. (Rubin, 2008, p. 9).

Although enlightening, the values section also falls short. While “Intellectual Freedom”, “Service and the Public Good”, “Education” and “Preservation” are worthy tenets, how is the American Library Association (ALA) ensuring that they are upheld by all librarians? (Rubin, 2008, pp. 11-13). Does the ALA maintain a profession driven by these values with a comprehensive program of certification, continuing education and ongoing assessment?

I require more detail stripped of any temporal trappings. Card catalog, e-books and ubiquitous internet access aside, what value does the library and librarian provide our society? What are the core competencies of the library institution? What are the core competencies of the librarian? What value does our society place on these competencies? Admittedly societal value will be challenging to assess, but we need to make a worthy attempt to preserve libraries for future generations.


References

Rubin, R. (2008). Stepping back and looking forward: Reflections on the foundations of libraries and librarianship. In K. Haycock & B. E. Sheldon (Eds.), The portable MLIS: Insights from the experts (pp. 3-14). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.