The New Age of Librarianship? The Different Roads that Lead to 'Librarianism'
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Sponsored by Royal Roads University. Session Summary (updated Mar. 23): As new professionals working in traditional and non-traditional library settings, three librarians got together at a coffee shop one day and shared their experiences about the joys, pain, and the "unexpected" during their post-MLIS degree careers. At the end of it, a lingering, nagging feeling left them wondering: are their current jobs part of a trend towards a whole "new age of librarianism"? Or not? With the foresight of working along book stacks, managing a physical collection, and answering questions from library patrons, these librarians throughout their careers "unexpectedly" stepped into different roles, contributing to many areas of their organizations not commonly thought of as "traditional." As part of their inquisitive nature, they embarked on a informal survey to see if there were "others" like them; and what they found not only uncovered emerging trends and common values but also changed the way they view the library profession as a whole and "rediscovered" a little bit more about themselves. As part of an engaging visual menagerie, a variety of other librarians' stories and "lessons learned" will be featured in hopes to inspire "aha" moments for new professionals and students. The panel presentation will continue to invite open dialogue during the session, as well as online as part of the Library DevCamp Facebook discussion group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=241201567783 What will participants learn?: Various options for applying the MLIS. Presenters: Aleha McCauley, Community Business Services Librarian, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre University of British Columbia. As the Community Business Services Librarian at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Aleha is responsible for the development, implementation, promotion and assessment of the BC Small Business Accelerator Program, which will support B.C. entrepreneurs by providing access to freely available industry-specific information and resources to accelerate business planning. Rex Turgano, Web Coordinator Learning Exchange, University of British Columbia. Rex is an avid web technologies enthusiast since 1996 with key interests in managing the development, digitization and sharing of information. He is currently the Web Coordinator at the UBC Learning Exchange at the University of British Columbia. Allan Cho, Program Services Librarian Irving K. Barber Learning Centre University of British Columbia As Program Services Librarian at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Allan helps design and deliver programs and services to support the broader community as well as variety of learners and instructors as well as integrating other virtual resources and services to support a broad range of users.
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The New Age of Librarianship? The Different Roads that Lead to 'Librarianism'
- 1. The New Age of Librarianship? The Different Roads That Lead to 'Librarianism' Today's Presenters: Allan Cho | Aleha McCauley | Rex Turgano
- 4. In our own words- the cast of characters
- 5. The shape shifting Librarian Real Name: Aleha McCauley, Community Business Services Lib Profession: Information Former Aliases: Spybrarian Art Cataloguer, Italian Cultural Centre Lib, Auxiliary Business Librarian, Business Plan Accelerator Lib Powers: metamorphic shape shifter, able to adapt to any working environment, suppresses natural aging process.
- 7. Rex - the librarian who has yet to work in a library
- 8. Natural Resources Information Management Extension Specialist (Vancouver), Knowledge Integration & GIS Specialist (Ottawa) Website Administrator (Various Locations) Special Libraries and Archives developer consultant (Vancouver) Information Technology Advisor (Kathmandu, Nepal)
- 9. Allan Community Engagement & Program Services Librarian
- 10. Check in - What about you?
- 12. A Few Further Nagging Questions - Why?
- 13. Where do we fit?
- 14. So, we asked around...
- 16. Who we asked - Respondents’ Job Titles
- 17. Theme #1 - The (obvious) surprises, unexpected, challenges
- 18. Learn more! Always! Now there's an opportunity! Put on that "Spinning Ha" The Stereotype....
- 28. Summing up the themes
- 29. So what did "we/you" learn?
- 31. We Are Not Alone!
- 35. In their words... I am fortunate to have fallen into a non-traditional job that ended up suiting me very well and honing skills and abilities I wasn't entirely aware I had; and I am doubly fortunate to have fallen back into libraries by virtue of this initial experience. I don't expect I'll ever work as an actual librarian, but libraries remain very close to my heart and I'm lucky to be able to work on their behalf...if not in them! ...I like the path my career has taken, and I'm curious to see where it goes next. By being flexible and being willing to look outside the walls of the library for interesting jobs, you open yourself up to possibilities you might never have contemplated, but that might suit you very well. My MLIS has been truly invaluable to me - just not necessarily in the way I expected. - E.M
- 36. Is this the New Age Librariansm?
- 37. Final Thoughts
- 39. Bibliography Scott, Allison and Terry Weech. “Are Students Really Entering Careers in Librarianship? An Analysis of Career Patterns after Graduation from LIS Schools.” World Library and Information Congress: 71 st IFLA General Conference and Council:‘Libraries – A Voyage of Discovery. August 14 th -15 th , 2005.<http://www.ifla.org/IV /ifla71/papers/059e-Weech_Scott.pdf> Myburgh, Sue. “The new information professional :how to thrive in the information age doing what you love.” Oxford: Chandos Pub: 2005. Audunson, Ragnar, Ragnar Nordlie, Inger Cathrine Spangen. (2003). “The complete librarian – an outdated species? LIS between profession and discipline.” New Library World . 104 (6): 195-202. Gerolimos, Michalis, Rania Konsta, (2008) "Librarians' skills and qualifications in a modern informational environment", Library Management, Vol. 29 Iss: 8/9, pp.691 - 699. Goleman, Daniel. (2006). Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam. Knowlton, Sean Patrick and Becky Imamoto. (2006) “Recruiting Non-MLIS Graduate Students to Academic Librarianship” College & Research Librariesvol. 67 no. 6 561-570. MacPherson, Meredith A. “Alternative Careers for Graduates of Library Science Programs: Are Library Schools Doing Enough?” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. SILS Master's Papers. Maatta, Stephanie. “Closing the Gap.” Library Journal. 130 (17): 26-33.
- 40. Bibliography (Cont'd) Maatta, Stephanie. “Salaries Stalled, Jobs Tight.” Library Journal. October 15, 2003. <http://www.libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA325077>. Maatta, Stephanie. “Placements and Salaries 2003: Jobs! (Eventually).” October 15, 2004. <http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA471018.html>. Maatta, Stephanie. “Placements & Salary Survey 2008: Jobs and Pay Both up.” Library Journal, v133 n17 p30-39 Oct 2008. Marcella, R., & and Baxter, G. “A career progression survey of graduates of the postgraduate diploma/MSc in information analysis.” Education for Information. 16 (2): 107-130. Terrell, Tom, Gregory, Vicki L. “Plenty of Jobs, Salaries Flat.” Library Journal. 126 (17). October 15, 2001. < http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA177579.html>. Willard, P., Wilson, C. S., & Cole, F. Changing employment patterns: An Australian experience. Education for Information. Vol. 21 (2003): 209-229. Weech, Terry, and Alison Konieczny. “Alternative careers for graduates of LIS schools: The North American perspective — an analysis of the literature.” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science June 2007 vol. 39 no. 2 67-78.
- 41. Where's the afterparty? Facebook - search "LibraryDevcamp "
Notas del editor
- Good morning everyone, thank you all for coming to our panel presentation: &quot;The New Age of Librarianship? The Different Roads That Lead to 'Librainism' Now, aside from reading what you have read in the program, you are all probably wondering right at this moment, &quot;what the heck are we talking about?&quot; Well, to be honest, we didn't actually know either when we first got together to do this talk. What we did know, is that we all had something in common - are our current jobs, what we are doing now, part of a trend towards a whole “new age of librarianism”??!? Or is it? Lets found out, but before we do that, we want to get to know our audience a bit.... How many of you have an &quot;ALA- accredited MLIS degree?&quot; Are there any library technicians in the house? Are there &quot;others&quot; Are there any students or recent graduates in the room? Poll: How many of you work in a &quot;Library&quot;? Public Library? Academic Library? &quot;Special Library?&quot; Now...how many of you are not &quot;sure&quot;? Do you call it &quot;Information Centre&quot;? or a Learning Centre? Finally, how many of you ever wondered in your mind, &quot;I didn't expect I would b e doing this after library school?&quot; Well, you've picked the right session to come to....
- First, we are going to briefly tell you a little bit more about ourselves and how we started this topic... After that, we'll take you on our journey on of self-discovery (or rediscovery), share our attempts to define new libranism, we'll share what we have found, our realizations and hopefully during check-ins, you'll share yours as well. Finally, throughout our presentations and especially at the end, we'll have lots of &quot;check-in's and discussions...open the flood gates questions and discussion. We want this to be as informative and interactive as possible and attempt to figure this out because remember, we are only 3 perspectives and there are many other perspectives in the room - we're just here to get the conversation started. On that note...
- DISCLAIMER INTERJECTION: First off, it is not our intention to start an evangelical debate about what is considered traditional and non-traditional librarianship. Depending on who you talk to, you will definitely get a wide range of perspectives of what is considered a “traditional librarian”. There maybe some moderate, generalizations, stereotypes of stereiotypes, so we don't want to ruffle any feathers.
- so why the shape-shifting librarian - b/c, well, guilty pleasure confession - I LOVE comic book movies. I can't call myself a true comicon nerd - but there you have it. But in all seriousness, I think it really fits because it captures a bit about my personality, and my own career path so far. I could never have imagined when I started out at SLAIS that I'd have had the opportunity to explore so many different career options, in so little time with my MLIS. My path so far gone from more traditional to less so... • First job - summer term cataloguing at VAG -- however I quickly discovered that cataloguing work was not for me! Though, reading artists vertical files and past gallery exhibition catalogs certainly was. • Landed a gig on call VPL, just as the strike happened so I had to supplement the income a bit. • Sole, p/t Librarian at Italian Cultural Centre - cataloguing Italian materials (no- I’m not Italian - though I loved traveling in Italy), managing volunteers, trying to revitalize a library with little funding and resources, managing the move of 10, 000 collection, donations, website, promotions, etc. • All pretty typical librarian work.... • Work at VPL picked up again and I landed a position back filled a yearlong contract in SCI & BUS division and became an 'accidental business' librarian. • Fifth job - business plan accelerator librarian - renamed position to be community business services librarian - my current position - and my bio speaks to what I do at IKBLC. So yes, I do work for the Irving K Barber Learning Centre/UBC Library System so you may be wondering why I consider my work to be non-traditional? I guess because I work with so many &quot;classic&quot; academic librarians – and their work really is the backbone of the system I work for, I find that it is constant reminder that my role is really different --I don't manage a subject collection, buy any books or teach to business students. • So what do I do then – in my bio – I mention the project I’ve devoted my last two + years to – but in the process I’ve been able to wear many hats from: platform tester (wiki, subject guide platforms, blogs, and CMS – to working with a contractors to develop website – using Drupal CMS – primary administrator - liaise with more technically inclined staff (internally and externally) to ensure that technical solutions and processes meet user/community needs. So I've really found that honing my communication skills - has been really important . Involved in the RFP process & overseeing and evaluating work done by web development company, project management - developing the services offered through the SBA, setting goals and objectives for the web service, developing training sessions, marketing – blogger, tweeting, supervising student staff, industry-specific business research ( and reference - at David Lam Library/Canaccord Learning Commons – just because I miss people and it makes me FEEL like a librarian) and email reference via the SBA, community outreach and engagement - consult with community members outside lower mainland around how IKB can support community economic development initiatives with the SBA and foster ongoing partnerships with other libraries and business support agencies. Collections development - mining Internet for articles, web links, events, organizations, podcasts and videos that would be of interest to BC would-be-entrepreneurs and SMEs. Program evaluation & assessment - develop benchmarks and assessment criteria. Event planner – our launch event, trainer around the SBA program. What I really love about this position is connecting with people from all over BC - and refining new skills like web design, user testing, marketing and assessment. The position I have really didn’t exist 2 yrs ago – and I’ve been working to stay relevant and convince my employers that it is full-time job.
- So yes, I do work for the Irving K Barber Learning Centre/UBC Library System so you may be wondering why I consider my work to be non-traditional? I guess because I work with so many &quot;classic&quot; academic librarians – and their work really is the backbone of the system I work for, I find that it is constant reminder that my role is really different --I don't manage a subject collection, buy any books or teach to business students • So what do I do then – in my bio – I mention the project I’ve devoted my last two + years to – but in the process I’ve been able to wear many hats from: platform tester (wiki, subject guide platforms, blogs, and CMS – to working closely with a contractors to develop website – using Drupal CMS – primary administrator - content manager liaise with more technically inclined staff (internally and externally) to ensure that technical solutions and processes meet user/community needs. So I've really found that honing my communication skills - has been really important . Involved in the RFP process & overseeing and evaluating work done by web development company project management - developing the services offered through the SBA developing workshops, events, etc. marketing – blogger, tweeting, supervising student staff, industry-specific business research ( and reference - at David Lam Library/Canaccord Learning Commons – just because I miss people and it makes me FEEL like a librarian) and email reference via the SBA, community outreach and engagement - consult with community members outside lower mainland around how IKB can support community economic development initiatives with the SBA and foster ongoing partnerships with other libraries and business support agencies. Collections development - mining Internet for articles, web links, events, organizations, podcasts and videos that would be of interest to BC would-be-entrepreneurs and SMEs. Program evaluation & assessment - develop benchmarks and assessment criteria. Event planner – our launch event, trainer around the SBA program. What I really love about this position is connecting with people from all over BC - and refining new skills like web design, user testing, marketing and assessment. The position I have really didn’t exist 2 yrs ago – and I’ve been working to stay relevant and convince my employers to keep paying me to do it! So, far I consider myself pretty lucky....
- Hi, my name is Rex and I’m Librarian. It’s been almost 8 years since, I graduated from Dalhousie University - School of Information Management in 2003, and I technically have yet to work in a traditional library setting (I have worked with my public, academic, and special libraries as a consultant) but never in one. I have always enjoyed retelling my story about how I went to library school because it was definitely by accident . I have an environmental science background and a love for all that is the &quot;Web&quot;. When I went to Dalhousie, I originally was in the Masters of Environmental studies program, looking to pursue a career in managing environment-related information. One day, feeling a bit frustrated with where my courses was going, I was flipping through the university’s course calender, I saw courses in “Building Digital Libraries”, “Organization of Information in Society”, and “Cataloguing and Indexing”. I thought to myself “Oh wow, this is it, this is the degree that will merge my two interests....what department was offering this? I flipped to the beginning of the section it was the School of Library and Information Studies. I was completely shocked! I am going to be a librarian? The images of stereotypes were dancing in my head. It took me a moment, but I realized that this is the degree, the community, the culture, the institution has pioneered the way people have been organizing, accessing, and sharing information
- Soon after graduation, I started my non-tradtional library path having job titles such as a Natural Resources Information Management Extension Specialist, “Knowledge Integration Specialist”, &quot;Website Administrator, a Special Libraries and Archives developer consultant. Today, as you may have read in my bio, I work as a Web Coordinator at the UBC Learning Exchange, managing their web presence and related digital initiatives. And after all that, still not having worked in a tradtional library, I still consider myself a librarian at heart, living and working in a non-traditional library world.
- I joined the staff in 2008. A graduate of the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies (SLAIS) at UBC, Allan worked in public and health libraries before joining UBC Library. Prior to IKBLC, Allan was reference librarian at the Humanities and Social Sciences Division at UBC Library where he was responsible for the subject areas of Social Work, Women's Studies, and Asian Studies (English language materials). Community volunteering, with the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C. He also serves as an editor for the Special Libraries Association Western Canadian Chapter's Wired West. the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre represents a rethinking of the traditional academic library. As Program Services Librarian, I help design and deliver programs and services to support the broader community as well as variety of learners and instructors as well as integrating other virtual resources and services to support a broad range of users.
- I think after hearing about us, you can probably tell that we think we are not traditional librarians nor do we really think we are &quot;really&quot; doing traditional library work that we learned at library (at least not full time) Now that you know a little bit about us, what about you? Where does everyone work? - How many feel that their work to be non-traditional? How many folks work in public library, academic library, special library -- or don't really know?
- So this was the essence of topic (among others about the library world) when we met up for coffee (and oh we wanted to so head to the pub after and continue the conversation). Another thing that we had in common was that we didn’t really expect to be doing this type of library. Even though Aleha and Allan work in a traditional academic library environment, it’s safe to say that our day-to-day activities are not the typical things we learned in library school. Granted, we realized that our jobs are important (we love our jobs, they pay the bills, blah, blah etc.) and we know that they revolve around the “Library” world, but we were not exactly sure at the time, and especially early on in our careers. Some of us started working in a traditional library settings and some of us didn’t, and yet over time, we found ourselves being “pushed” in all directions that “we” felt were non-traditional. Is this &quot;feeling&quot; part of this &quot;new librarianism?&quot; One one of our main objectives today, is to recreate our coffeeshop conversation with all of you. Personal Objectives -- • What really motivated me to broaden this discuss was the excuse to canvass colleagues - I guess I was really craving more contact with other librarians who felt they were working in non-traditional roles & environments. • To develop a community of folks who identify as “non-traditional” info professionals and can call on each other for support! Allan I will discuss Discusses the literature review. This is a culmination of a five-year quest since 2005, when the bibliography was created in a SLAIS class in LIBR 590. This presentation uses some of this literature, and also updates it with new findings in the literature between 2005 and 2011. The literature has really evolved over the past half decade. The second piece of this equation has also included one-on-one interviews conducted with librarians in non-traditional librarian-roles. Rex - and for those of you who are feeling &quot;different&quot; or &quot;unsure&quot; about working in a traditional library setting, (I sure was), I was also craving to hear stories from colleagues who have had similar experiences, see if there are any common themes and challenges.
- And so we had some nagging questions, some of which we have mentioned in our &quot;Objectives&quot; slide. Working in UBC Library, but in a very non-traditional role of &quot;community engagement and outreach&quot; - What is Program Services in an academic library context? A lot of the leading publications (Feliciter, Information Outlook), speaker events, and even the job postings and the courses that we took in library school are generally geared towards public libraries, special & academic libraries (SLA Information Outlook). For some reason, it was sometimes hard to relate to some of the articles written in them. Granted I didn't read them all but was I and the jobs that I am doing now moving me away from the traditional library field? It's a scary thought to think about, especially since I haven't really applied most of the courses I have taken from library school.
- I still consider myself a pretty new professional and I guess because I've found myself in a variety of very different roles, in a relatively short period of time: I've started to wonder if flexibility, adaptability and change are the key requirements of being a librarian. I know accepting this has been really important for me. In my current role, I've been fortunate enough to be able to plan, develop, market, and assess a new initiative from scratch – but this came a steep learning curve at times...and I often struggled to figure out what I was doing as I went. I was wondering if others felt that they had to learn a lot the fly – and how others felt about adapting to the changing job market, and roles for librarians, to stay employed? Also, along the same lines as Rex, I was feeling that librarian roles (and assumptions about their work) were defined by the type of library they worked in – special, school, public, academic – and I wondered were this left me…who are my peeps?
- So, like any good librarian, we were curious and we wanted to ask around, unknowingly continuing our innocent “coffee shop” conversation to a broader scale. And during the last couple months, researched the web and also contacted a few of our fellow colleagues, alumni, and networks from across the country who are working in non-traditional library roles and settings and asked what their thoughts were....
- I started with a general email to all Dalhousie alumni who are currently working in non-traditional library role or setting about what their jobs are and various careers paths that they have taken in terms of applying their MLIS degree. I followed Rex's lead and sent out a general email to SLAIS and followed up with respondents and tried to get input for FIS – Toronto but didn’t really get any leads. I also tracked down a number of UBC Library staff members who work in fundraising, communications & web promotions, manage an information commons – that offers technical and student development assistance, and a colleague that works in digital initiatives - to hear from them. Some of my specific follow up questions that I asked everyone where (based on my interests) were: -Where there any skills, MLIS courses or experiences that provided the foundation for you in your current work? What do you enjoy most about your job? What have you found most challenging or surprising about your chosen career path or current role? How does your role fit with your definition of &quot;new librarianship&quot;? What does a day-in-your-work-life look like? What do you do? How could a new grad prepare for your type of work and do you have any words of wisdom you'd like to share? ***So you’ll note that our findings are a result of this type of casual questioning. A combination of the above questions and he also did Lit Review summary In person 3 INTERVIEWS + facebook survey
- Allan (2 minute) We had learned a great deal thanks to our interviews and online survey about non-traditional librarian positions. In particular, our first question was: what is the title of your position? Altogether, we had surveyed 27 librarians and of these 27, they voluntarily responded to our emails. 2 were in-person interviews at their actual libraries. Rex did two phone call interviews.... We should emphasize that this is a small sample size of the population of librarians. And we came up with quite a few titles which we were unfamiliar with. Here is a listing; in no particular order: Web Coordinator Research manager Digital Initiatives Applications Librarian Discovery Systems Librarian Geospatial and Data Services Librarian Digitial Outreach Librarian Community Business Services Librarian Program Services Librarian Assessment Librarian Information Management Consultant Special Libraries Consultant Learning Services Librarian Records Specialist Managing Editor, Ricepaper Magazine Web Systems Analyst Sales Representative, EBSCO forest worker and principal at Freya Forestry Provincial Park Librarian Community Development (Librarian) Manager Reporter - Halifax Herald Executive Director - Library Association Virtual Librarian Services Senior Manager, Strategic Planning Functional Analyst (Student Administration), Director of Professional Development,
- We’ll touch more upon some of these points in the next few themes, but as you have probably guessed, the first obvious theme that popped up among the respondents is theme of surprises, the unexpected, and the challenges during their post-library school career
- A lot of the respondents mentioned that they had to learn on their own particular skills and courses in order to balance the theory they learned in library school (such as additional management skills, outreach and marketing, technical computer programming skills, or additional courses/classes/certifcation in a particular subjects). One person mentioned that best learning that they ever did were through self-directed courses ori on the job experiences itself. A few respondents unexpectedly created their own jobs by recognizing new information management trends, emerging markets, establishing unique business opportunities as independent researchers, content managers, virtual reference services, metadata developers, records management, web developers. People had to be innovative in terms of applying their MLIS skills (spinning hat) and thus do a lot advocating, pitching, or convincing not only that they were the right person for this job but also why this job needed a person who had a library degree skills. I think it is safe to say, most employers outside the library world do not have an understanding of how a librarians' knowledge and skills are applicable. Finally, on a related note, the librarian stereotype. I have asked a few my respondents if they ever tell their clients or fellow employees that they are a librarian, and usually they say yes and the immediately have to explain themselves with analogies and examples. For me, it can be tiring work.
- We noticed a number of courses that were particularly popular among our interviews. So we decided to tally up for a top 10 list of common experiences in library school 1. Project Management ,-management or communication courses -were a good start but not deep up enough prepare you for the “real world”. 2. Research methods- handy. 3. Networking - Participating in conferences/networking while completing the degree offered a support network that is still called upon. 4. Cataloguing & Classification & Indexing 5. Job Placement - Taking advantage of job placements, student positions, directed studies, professional experiences, etc.proved valuable learning opportunities, as well as often landed them their current positions. 6. Foundation - Generally people felt that their MLIS provided an essential foundation of theoretic and historical grounding for their non-traditional roles, however, they had to “stretch” or “spin” it a bit. 7. Common Culture - The MLIS contributed greatly to common culture for librarians - professional community building. 8. Previous undergrad - Previous ungrad degrees – useful in current role (allan) --Don’t discount the relevancy of your first degree! Most combined or pursued careers that utilized their undergraduate background Even though they never used the majority of the skills and knowledge gained from these courses, especially the ones that had an academic or public library focus, it was still useful to know and understand how they evolved. AM Notes from discussions: “Courses studied during my year at UBC and experiences gained throughout my career all, in one way or another, contributed to what I do...” AC Notes from discussions: “I don’t think my MLIS degree alone allowed me to obtain my present positions. My education and previous work experience combined with the MLIS were important for getting hired at museum libraries. My Bachelor of Education degree and M.A. degree in History (where I dabbled in Museology-related courses) were considered assets, as was my volunteer and paid work experience at museums in Vancouver. My MLIS degree gave me a solid foundation in the library skills that I needed for my positions, and I continue to build on this foundation with the considerable professional development support that I receive in my positions. I am responsible for overseeing library services and collections at both of my jobs and the courses I took in library management, collection management, cataloguing, and other areas prepared me very well for the work that I do. Shannon LaBelle)
- 1. Project Management ,-management or communication courses -were a good start but not deep up enough prepare you for the “real world”. 2. Research methods- handy in the work world, where good research skills & good writing is needed every day 3. Networking - Participating in conferences/networking while completing the degree offered a support network that is still called upon. 4. Cataloguing & Classification & Indexing 5. Job Placement - Taking advantage of job placements, student positions, directed studies, professional experiences, etc.proved valuable learning opportunities, as well as often landed them their current positions. 6. Foundation - Generally people felt that their MLIS provided an essential foundation of theoretic and historical grounding for their non-traditional roles, however, they had to “stretch” or “spin” it a bit. 7. Common Culture - The MLIS contributed greatly to common culture for librarians - professional community building. 8. Previous undergrad - Previous ungrad degrees – useful in current role (allan) --Don’t discount the relevancy of your first degree!
- - Technology 1. Willingness to learn new skills, software, tools, etc . Must be computer literate and tech savvy and forward thinking (but use soft skills to work with users and colleagues to make decisions) 2. Use web technologies to interact with users (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc.). Comfort being a little more ‘front and centre’ 3. Social media has become ever more important, even in the publishing world. (Patricia Lim as an example). 4. Recognizing new trends in technologies to meet their client’s needs 5. Utilizing open-source software Much of what I do is “creating the job” because I am the first in this position, which was only recently created. I am breaking ground here.&quot; (says GIS Librarian).
- We’ve touched on this a bit already but we heard a lot about how much work librarians were doing explaining what they can do – or DO do, whether it was to get a raise or recognition, create a job, or keep a job, people had to invest a lot of energy explaining how the transferable the MLIS skill set is (Spinning it – as REX mentioned earlier). · Along with this we heard about how important assessment & evaluation was – and a few people noted that they were exploring new and creative ways to understand the impact of our work – moving away from quantitative measures (that we can utilize e.g., circ counts, and people counters – to qualitative, user-driven, outcome-based measures. · If people weren’t demonstrating their value to their employers, they often talked about how much outreach & marketing they did in their roles: in many cases using technology - social media, blogging, skype but also looking to engage with users in creative and meaningful ways via these tools -- Just like Allan mentioned. --People emphasized that this is both a way to engage – and promote or build awareness about what we do! in a study made by Knowlton and Imamato in 2006 , they examined a case study at the University of Colorado at Boulder, In response to declining numbers of qualified applicants nationwide for librarian positions in academic libraries, when it developed a fellowship program that encourages graduate students with advanced subject or language expertise to consider careers in academic librarianship. In spring 2005, the libraries paired the first Provost’s Fellows with library faculty mentors. This article details the program and collaboration between the libraries and the Graduate Teacher Program and issues a call for similar programs to be established at other academic libraries. -- This is what librarians fear most if not enough promotion and outreach is made about our value. However, we found this not to be the case in our interviews/surveys.
- This isn’t really new or radical, but it also struck us how many people we heard from really emphasized how much work they were doing to connect and interact with users, clients, community, or partners-- in all levels of their work - from designing services or info systems -- right through to evaluation.·Examples came in about- Information usability and user experience– designing online services, data sets, information systems, websites, record management systems, training programs or digital assets, etc. that fulfill specific needs - and are accessible and easy to use. · And if I may add from my what I’ve discovered in my current role - I've found it important to recognize how much I have to learn from other professionals (i.e., economic development officers, business analysts, market researchers, etc. and my clients/users -- who all are experts at finding and using business resources and offering their own information support services the business community in their communities. In this position it became clear to me how much 'everyone' is in the info business these days, so we really need to work hard to demonstrate our expertise, and work hard to be relevant and add value to what others can already do (or think they can do - i.e. google everything!!). A few stories to highlight: • We heard from a Records Specialist who has “...professional interests lie in Information Architecture (IA) and User Experience (UX) - and they were able to apply these methodologies in helping staff use our EDRMS effectively (which was NOT the case when I first started). My boss and I realized that our EDRMS was so hated by staff because there were few assistance options, and hardly any outreach or customer service being conducted by the Records Department staff in the past. Thus, a significant part of my job is to help our staff use the EDRMS, including creating initiatives to do so. • Another, retired librarian, now author noted: “My value for all aspects of education and community interaction drives my research and interests and becomes the material that adds flesh to my writings. (writer, researcher)
- Interjecting, Check-in, Break, and Disclaimer
- From my own experiences so far, and building on what I heard from others, if I had to identify some common traits from those I connected with I’d say they were exceptionally: 1. Resourceful - one library “frontier librarian” - make the most of everything. 2. Courageous- risk takers - willing to try new things. experiment. learn what did, and didn't work. be okay with somthing not working out as expected or hoped. Repeat& try again! Soft skills – like flexibility and adaptability. Ease with “building the bridge as you walk on it”… 3. Collaborative - strives to work closely with partners, users, community and colleagues - understand the value of authentic collaboration. Have strong interaction skills (community engagement, community building, outreach, good communications for facilitation and interviewing, writing, etc.) And are humble enough to appreciate how much they have to learn from others --- ok with not being the 'expert' However, I’m only summarizing what I heard from respondents – and would venture to say that many librarians would identify with these traits…. People can weigh in on if this is just the character trait of a 21 Century Librarian, Gen X/Y Librarian, non-traditional lib, etc? - Emotional intelligence
- Part of Slide: Trend # 6: Is there a non-traditional ‘personality’ type? speaking to the people that I have conversed with and rounding out what Aleha and Allan has mentioned, the traits that come to mind are innovative, creativity, and a sense of exploration and adventured in unfamiliar territories - “boldly going where no librarian has gone before”. To be honest, in today’s information society these traits are evident in “every” type of librarian. AS we may have already said, to in previous librarian are learning new skills outside of the library skills set diving into new teriroty such as marketing, web devekionent CMS, event planning, etc, etc. Howver, I could be wrong?
- Meredith MacPherson's MLIS Thesis &quot;Alternative Careers for Graduates of Library Science Programs&quot; is a recent (2009) thesis from the University of Northern Carolina - Chapel Hill. It is a very well written piece and is a literature in itself, which examines the landscape of the profession for non-traditional librarians. Here are two key points: (1) A review of the literature indicatedthat the proliferation of information technology in private sector businesses has impacted the employment prospects for LS graduates. (2) Employers most often require communication skills (67.27%), analytical skills(54.55%), and knowledge of industry concepts and terminology (63.64%) and industry resources (63.64%).
- People are content with their non-traditional library jobs or how their careers have played out. No regrets ;) Librarianism itself is a play on words. In my opinion, it is just our definition of what new librarians do nowadays in the changing landscape of librarianship as a profession and library and information science as an academic discipline. Pro’s of non-traditional work - comments that I really related to and I think we all enjoy whether we are in traditional or non-traditional roles.... “ carte blanch to try new things and new ideas” “ Can directly see my working making a positive impact upon those whom I serve” “ ....continuing work through career with working with new professionals” “ working with diverse communities...[ to digitice and preserve their materials] “ being in an exciting field that is always changing” librarianism is about change...
- Before we chat about what we have learned.... let's take a moment to hear your thoughts. What do you think about what we have found so far? Can you relate to any particular story? Name one (or two things) that you have learned... (poll responses from audience) Now we will let you know what we have learned.....
- I take can take comfort that there are many of us felt a little unsettled in a role that is not as ‘identifiable’ as other more traditional roles but....once we get past that most of us realized that we are all cut from the same cloth. After spending a few years working a bit in a silo-- I was reminded how fortunate we to work amongst a professional community of like-minded folks and strongly identify with the values of traditional librarianism - whether or not we work with books, or even in libraries or other librarians directly. While we'll touch on this more, in the next few slides --but we’re all focussed on the interaction btw people and information we just have different methods & formats… .
- What Rex has learned : We are not alone.... I learned, that people like us and we are definitely not alone and that spinning and being creative about applying your MLIS skills is normal, &quot;I am normal&quot;. I often do wonder, it shouldn't be this hard and I perhaps Are what we are learning in library school really preparing us for this &quot;new librarianism&quot;? or perhaps think there are more fundamental branding challenges that needs to happen, However, it's happening through what we realized as &quot;rediscovering&quot; our core values....
- Another thing the I learned that really hits home to me. common theme that we have found during this entire experience is that all types of librarians, public, academic, special, information professionals, big or small, red and green, etc. posses a set of core values that unique defines us in terms of what we do, how we do it, and why?
- We stumbled upon iSchools web site saw their core values: Information, Technology, People Information is the “What” (expertise/experiences, data, records, books, knowledge, web sites, digital media, etc.) Technology is the “How” (the web, databases, resource) systems/centres, pen, discussions) People is the “Why” To me, the acronyms GOD really spell what the librarian should be about -- gathering (G), organizing (O), and disseminating (D). As long as an individual with an MLIS is gathering, organizing, and disseminating information, he or she should consider himself/herself to be a librarian. This was the first thing that was written down on the blackboard by a professor by the name of Martin Dowding at SLAIS. And funny enough, it's stuck in my mind. I think this acronym accurately reflects what the core values of librarianship is about; and its mantra has never left me since Day 1 of library school.
- I am fortunate to have fallen into a non-traditional job that ended up suiting me very well and honing skills and abilities I wasn't entirely aware I had; and I am doubly fortunate to have fallen back into libraries by virtue of this initial experience. I don't expect I'll ever work as an actual librarian, but libraries remain very close to my heart and I'm lucky to be able to work on their behalf...if not in them! ...I like the path my career has taken, and I'm curious to see where it goes next. By being flexible and being willing to look outside the walls of the library for interesting jobs, you open yourself up to possibilities you might never have contemplated, but that might suit you very well. My MLIS has been truly invaluable to me - just not necessarily in the way I expected. - E.M
- Bring the question back to the audience? It's not really new, state of mind of mind/set, technologies are different. fundamentally the same. So wheat--In the end, there is no “new” librarianism”, libranism may have started with books and the library, but at the heart of it all, it is connecting (through technologies) people to information
- 1. In the end, there is no “new” librarianism” , libranism may have started with books and the library, but at the heart of it all, it is connecting (through technologies) people to information 2. DIVERSITY - The librarians’ skill-set is so diverse and always has been (event planner, marketer, web designer, author, user specialist, records specialist, etc.). 3 SYSTEMS LIBRARIAN - What is a &quot;traditional librarian anyways?&quot; - We think of it as reference, instruction, & collection management. But what about systems librarians and cataloguers?
- I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone on this page for their help and support in contributing to this presentation
- An accumulation of articles since 2005 when I was in library school. An updated version of this five years later. The picture looks relatively the same. . . The profession is diversifying.
- An accumulation of articles since 2005 when I was in library school. An updated version of this five years later. The picture looks relatively the same. . . The profession is diversifying.
- The conversation will continue, online and of course offline. We'll post this presentation up online, so stay connected on our Facebook Group - LibraryDevcamp