When I first enrolled in library school (or into a school of library and information science – you can choose for yourself), I thought that I was getting myself into a profession that would help me, namely, to facilitate learning. I strongly believe in education and advancement, both inside and outside the rigors of an academic environment, and I thought that being librarian would enable me to help people help themselves. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was very much an advocate for information literacy; I still am. Librarians, I believe, have a strong desire, if not professional duty, to help people learn how to learn, to understand the mechanics of knowledge; we’re here to teach others them how to use information to achieve their goals.
But what else is there to being a librarian? At the end of my second-last term in the degree, I’ve come to realize that information literacy is not the only focus of librarianship. We are all teachers in this profession, that much is true, but teaching is not our main duty (if there is one!). If there were a few things that had to be instilled in the proto-librarian, the librarian in training, what would they be? Here’s a few ideas:
- Information Literacy. Teaching may not be our main focus, but instructing individuals on how to use information systems and how to find, locate, and manipulate information and data to achieve their goals remains vital to the profession. We’re here to help others, and we can do that best by teaching others the knowledge we have learned ourselves
- Information Organization. I’m a late convert to the cause, I must admit, but I now truly preach the faith of data and information organization. This ought to be our specialty since we have the skills, knowledge, and training to efficiently organize information and create effective knowledge systems. Information organization is far more than MARC records and “space colon space”. Information organization is a knowledge and skill set that allows us to understand the consequences of arranging our data and files in a particular manner, or of understanding the ramifications of declaring X to actually by Y in an authority record, thereby reacting to or affecting our cultural sensibilities.
- Information Ethics. Our profession needs to work on the side of good and affect positive change. Sure, we must be apolitical and unbiased when we are creating records, but even that action declares our progressive nature. Let the information speak for itself, and help others speak for themselves by protecting access to information. The public library is a public good, as is the written word, and it’s our duty to ensure it remains thus.
Would these be the tenets of a library school I’d run? Perhaps, but I don’t have that much of an ego to think that way. These three items, rather, ought to be the broad themes we talk about when we talk librarianship. If some one is looking for career advice and is considering an MLIS/MLS, or if I find myself in a conversation about our line of work, I try to touch on these areas. It’s a quick list that helps me explain what I do and why I do it, and how it affects the world on a regular basis.
How do you explain librarianship to others? What does it mean to be a librarian to you?
I've worked in public libraries most of my life and took a three-year hiatus because my kids wanted to homeschool for a few years. It was the smartest thing I've ever done. I am now the library director for a small community college in northern Michigan and as I've returned to the library world, I've realized that one of the most important thing a librarian does is to create and maintain a place. A place where a community of people can come to pursue whatever it is they want to learn.
The gurus of unschooling tell us that a homeschool parent has to stop thinking of herself as the director and start thinking of herself as the props manager. That means that the goal is not to direct learning so much as it is to systematically figure out what people need in order to learn–good computers, an excellent collection of print and electronic resources, a coffee shop, comfortable seating, open hours to suit their lifestyles.
This is a theory I'm just beginning to test out in my new position. In some ways it seems passive, but five years of watching how my children learn has convinced me that learning is a very natural thing. It's just what people do if they have the tools to do it. And librarians are perfectly positioned to create environments where this can happen.
I’ve worked in public libraries most of my life and took a three-year hiatus because my kids wanted to homeschool for a few years. It was the smartest thing I’ve ever done. I am now the library director for a small community college in northern Michigan and as I’ve returned to the library world, I’ve realized that one of the most important thing a librarian does is to create and maintain a place. A place where a community of people can come to pursue whatever it is they want to learn.
The gurus of unschooling tell us that a homeschool parent has to stop thinking of herself as the director and start thinking of herself as the props manager. That means that the goal is not to direct learning so much as it is to systematically figure out what people need in order to learn–good computers, an excellent collection of print and electronic resources, a coffee shop, comfortable seating, open hours to suit their lifestyles.
This is a theory I’m just beginning to test out in my new position. In some ways it seems passive, but five years of watching how my children learn has convinced me that learning is a very natural thing. It’s just what people do if they have the tools to do it. And librarians are perfectly positioned to create environments where this can happen.