A few weeks ago, I finished a chapter I was writing (not for my book — another one) on the topic of technology in LIS Education. I think Rachel asked me to write it because I had complained about my own library school education in the past and the fact that many schools create this false dichotomy between “library work” and “information science work”. I see so many schools that seem to promote the view that learning about technology is not necessary in library schools if you plan to go into “traditional” librarian roles such as reference, instruction and other public service areas. At my school, you could easily go through the whole program without ever having taken a technology class and our traditional classes certainly didn’t have tech subjects integrated into them at all. What I realized once I started looking for jobs was that a large number of public service jobs these days require tech skills. Whether the ads ask for HTML skills, knowledge of scripting languages, the ability to deal with the back-end of the OPAC, the ability to translate library services into the online medium, the ability to troubleshoot basic computer and printer problems, or just a good healthy knowledge of emerging technologies, it has become increasingly important that librarians keep up with technology and have certain basic skills. If you’re reading my blog, chances are good that you already agree with this supposition.
Before writing the chapter, I started to think about what library schools should be preparing new librarians for. Sure, most of the topics covered at my library school were inportant, but so many, such as collection development, are perhaps better learned on the job. Even with reference work, I found I learned much more in my first month at Norwich than I did in an entire semester-long class on reference work. Probably the only thing I learned of value in the class was related to the reference interview itself, though as a former therapist, I’m accustomed to that kind of inquiry. I just found that the skills that are most important to my job (and probably to the jobs of most public service librarians — as well as librarians in other areas) were not taught in library school. The two most valuable classes I took were Introduction to Network Multimedia, where I learned HTML and CSS, and my Management class, where I learned about management theories and how to do a stragegic plan. Otherwise, while some of my courses may have given me a firm grounding in the theories that undergird the profession, I don’t find them relevant to what I do on a day-to-day basis.
So what skills should new librarians have in this first part of the 21st century? At first, I was thinking about specific tech skills like HTML, network administration, PHP and MySQL, etc. While those are certainly important, what I really think library schools aren’t teaching students is the “big picture” topics; how to really be able to keep up with technology, make good decisions about its implementation, use it and sell it to others. Here are a few of the things I came up with:
Basic Tech Competencies
- Ability to embrace change: Our patron populations are rapidly changing as are the technologies for serving them. We need to be able to look at how we are serving our patrons and to change our strategies if what we are doing is not working (or is not the best we could be doing). Change should be looked upon as an exciting thing — as a positive thing. We should fear not providing the best services to our patrons much more than we should fear change.
- Comfort in the online medium: Librarians need to do so much online these days, way beyond basic catalog and database searching (which sure isn’t easy either). Librarians have to be able to use search engines and use them well. They need to be able to find quality online resources. They need to help patrons set up e-mail and teach basic Internet skills. They need to be able to troubleshoot problems users are having accessing online library resources, at least to the extent where they can figure out if the problem is on the library’s side or the user’s side. Reference librarians are often providing reference services online via e-mail and synchronous chat. More important than knowing specific tools is a general comfort in the online medium. You just can’t provide reference services without basic Internet and search skills.
- Ability to troubleshoot new technologies: I know many of us may wonder from time to time, did I get an MLS to fix paper jams? But that is just a part of the good customer service we provide in libraries. When I’m working an evening reference shift and am the only librarian in the building, I need to help students and faculty use the scanner, fix the printer, and troubleshoot any other technology problems they may be having. As we get new computers, printers, scanners, etc. I will need to learn how to troubleshoot those. The key is just being able to have a decision-tree in your head of what to ask or try when there is a problem. I know many librarians cannot troubleshoot this stuff. I know where I used to work, if there was a technology problem, people would just throw up an “out of order” sign because they just didn’t have enough computer knowledge to figure out what the problem was. It was really bad customer service. Librarians should be able to play with the technologies in the library, to learn what problems commonly come up, and to fix them if necessary, because it is often our responsibility to fix them.
- Ability to easily learn new technologies: One of my colleagues often comments that there are so many new technological things at the library that she can’t keep up. She was really intimidated by the new scanner we got this past year and asked IT to send an expert to the library to teach her how to use it. In my opinion, the best way for her to learn the scanner is to play with it. It’s hard to learn the scanner for the first time when a student is asking you how to use it. It’s easy to learn the scanner at a time when no one is using the scanner and you’re just casually playing with it. When I want to learn a new technology, I put it through the paces. I try to do all of the things it’s supposed to do. Sometimes I read the documentation if there are things that I find confusing. Learning about technology is definitely a skill. People need to learn how to learn about new technologies without having to ask other people for help all the time.
- Ability to keep up with new ideas in technology and librarianship (enthusiasm for learning): Keeping up with new technology is often not an explicitly listed part of one’s basic weekly job duties, but its importance can’t be stressed enough. Five years ago, few people were talking about blogs and IM in libraries, but now so many libraries are using these tools to provide services to patrons. We need to be able to keep up with what’s new in technology and what libraries are (or could be) doing with it. And we need to be able to keep up in the shortest time possible because we are busy. Try and take some time out of your busy schedule to keep up, whether you are reading the professional literature, browsing blogs, or attending a Webcast.
What library schools can do: Library schools could help by teaching students how to develop a strategy for continuing their education once they are out of library school, how to develop skills for learning new technologies and how to develop a strategy for troublshooting technologies. No library school student should be allowed to graduate without basic Internet skills and search skills.
Higher Level Competencies
- Project management skills: This is a huge one. At my library, if I have an idea for something new to try, I’d better be prepared to organize and implement it, because I’ll certainly be the one doing it. When I wanted to implement IM reference at our library, I first created a proposal for my supervisor with examples of what other libraries were doing with IM and how I would implement the technology, determine which tool(s) to use, train staff, market the service, etc. I really did my homework, so when he agreed to let me do it, I had a roadmap for implementing it. It’s also important to be able to delegate tasks to colleagues and to get people to work as a team. Also we need to be able to talk to and work with people from different areas (IT, faculty, community members). People need to be able to take a project from an idea to the finishing touches (training, marketing, and ensuring sustainability).
- Ability to question and evaluate library services: As I said in my interview with Michael Stephens for ALA TechSource, “there are so many little things you can do to improve your services. I think step one is rethinking everything. Question why you are doing things the way you’re doing them. Question whether what you’re doing is really helping your patrons. Question EVERYTHING.” Oftentimes we have policies that really aren’t helping anyone. Maybe it’s a relic of a time when it was useful or maybe it’s a policy that only benefits the librarians. Either way, it’s important to keep asking why we’re doing the things we do and how these things affect our patrons.
- Ability to evaluate the needs of all stakeholders: Librarians need to understand how any changes in the way the library provides services will affect all stakeholders. Sometimes we focus on the needs of one group and ignore the fact that the changes that will benefit one group will not benefit another. With any change, librarians should create a list of all of the different stakeholders and actually discuss how it will affect each of them. When I say “stakeholders” I mean not only our patrons but staff, IT, and administrators. If you implement a project that library staff don’t support, the likelihood of success is poor.
- Vision to translate traditional library services into the online medium: With the growth of the distance learning and the fact that so many patrons access the library from the Internet, it’s important that librarians can translate traditional library services into the online medium. This includes readers’ advisory, reference, and instruction services. How can we provide equivalent services to people who only access the library from online? Librarians need to know how to capitalize on the technologies out there (HTML, blogs, wikis, screencasting, IM, etc.) to provide these services online to their patrons.
- Critical of technologies and ability to compare technologies: This can be a toughie. It’s often difficult to figure out what the right tool for the job is. We need to know what the requirements of a project are and what each available technology can do. We need to be able to compare different versions of the same type of software to figure out which will best meet our patrons’ needs. We also need a sense of pragmatism about technology. We need to avoid technolust. We shouldn’t just implement wikis because wikis are cool and we really want to use them. There is nothing magical about the technologies; it’s how we use them that matters. Technology should always fill a need and we should think realistically about what technologies are actually needed in our libraries and what are just things we personally think are cool.
- Ability to sell ideas/library services: No one told me that I’d need serious marketing skills and salesmanship to be a librarian. When I have an idea, it often has to be “sold” to administrators, IT, faculty, colleagues, and students. Once we implement a service for patrons, we need to market it to them so that people will actually use the service. Right now we’re planning differnet strategies to market the reference desk — and specifically IM reference — in the Fall. I’ve really struggled to sell “information literacy” to the faculty in the online graduate program, and I’m definitely learning what works and what doesn’t. But, as large a part of my job sales and marketing are, I never heard anything about it in library school.
What library schools can do: Library schools should definitely teach students how to sell library services and new ideas to different stakeholders. Practical evaluation skills can also be taught; it’s not always easy to figure out what is working and what isn’t. Some library schools actually offer classes on project management (even technology project management!). I’ve also seen classes offered on evaluating software, which is so important. Classes on traditional library services should address how these services can be provided online. HTML skills are also really important, but it’s the “big picture skills” that matter the most.
Technologies will come and go. Change is inevitable. But if librarians can adapt to and embrace change, can easily learn technologies, can keep up with changes in the profession, can plan for new services and evaluate old services, can develop services that meet the needs of all stakeholders, can evaluate technologies, and can sell their ideas and market services they will be better able to meet the challenges of changing user populations and changing technologies.
Great post, Meredith! You have articulated a lot of what I’ve been thinking about lately. For me, so much information is now obtained and manipulated using technology, that it seems really shortsighted of me to NOT do my best to learn and keep up and to do my best to be good at using it. No, it’s not good enough to just wait for “the experts” all the time. It really makes me question what mixed messages we are giving (to ourselves) if we talk about lifelong learning and information literacy when we – librarians – are not 100% committed to it ourselves.
Skills for the 21st Century Librarian…
Meredith Farkas says everything I thought (and a number of things I *should* have thought) when I took my first MLIS class last year and was disappointed at some of the technology-wary behaviors in some of my classmates.
Meredith rocks.
Libraria…
The first time I was in library school, the core course on information technology did not really challenge me at all. (The course has since been changed to be both more challenging and relevant, and I hope to have the opportunity to take it.) I feel that I have a greater knowledge of technology than the average person, and I’m certainly not afraid of it (as I type this, I am compiling Sun’s Java Development Kit from sources as part of a Linux from Scratch installation). Yet I often feel that once I get my MLS, I won’t have enough qualification to get through the door unless I can pull A+, Network+, Linux+, and CIW certifications out of my back pocket, not to mention fluent knowledge of all the popular programming and scripting languages. And that wouldn’t be for going into systems librarianship. As a Millennial, I feel like the expectations on me will be through the roof.
I strongly agree with your “big picture” concept. I’m currently in the frustrating position of having a great deal of knowledge and interest in technology, but no outlet within the profession where I can get practice. Knowledge is great, but it’s likely to be of less value when looking for a first (or second, third…) professional position if it has not been put into practice for a long enough period of time.
Amen! Excellent post.
I am a technology trainer and I also teach courses in a library school. I think what you are saying we should expect from MLS program students is also in the spirit of what we should expect or encourage when teaching technology in any context. Transferable skills. Tolerance of ambiguity. Etc.
I did a talk discussing Michael Gorman’s “Crisis in Library Education” and tech was a big part of my discussion.
The other thing I said was “one of the big indicators on library education was that I felt I had to take an MPA to get the required skills to do work in a public library.”
Other big skills:
Communication — not just effective speaking and writing, but thinking about the varied audiences that your documents reach and their possible reactions.
Problem formulation/Policy Analysis — the ability to understand the difference between options and problems. People sometimes react to situations and propose actions that don’t really address the issue they are facing. There are basic processes and skills you can use to understand what the “real” problem is before you go proposing alterative solutions.
A little basic accounting/budgeting.
I think a big problem is that librarianship is very multidisciplinary, and if we really did learn a little of everything that we want to know in library school the course would be a decade long!
Because library education is only available at a graduate level in the US, I wonder if library schools assume that people already know some of the important things you mention?
As for teaching students strategies to continue their education once they are out of university, I agree that this is a good idea, but associations are also increasingly taking on this role – eg CILIP’s chartered professional program in the UK and ALIA’s Professional Development program.
I went to library school in 99. I’ve never stopped learning (I did another degree after it and have taken a few short courses as well as informally learning), but I’ve also never stopped using the key things that I learnt in library school. The only client service training I’ve had was in my reference classes, I still use the selection and collection building principles from my collection management class. And since I didn’t often catalogue DDC since graduating, most of my knowledge of how it works is also from library school.
Meredith Farkas on 21st Century Librarian Skills…
I just finished reading Meredith Farkas’ post on Skills for the 21st Century Librarian over at Information Wants to Be Free. Wow!! This is a great post that is really worth several readings – especially by library students (and those who teach li…
To be fair to the library schools. . . If you ask most profs about the courses they teach, they often say that the courses are, in fact, a means towards an end, not an end itself.
For example, to the history prof, teaching about the French Revolution is actually an attempt to teach communication, critical thinking and research skills (while imparting a little knowledge about what happened).
I’m going to leave it open as to whether library schools achieve what the history prof in my example is attempting, but I think course titles and subjects are not necessarily the answer to effective education in the profession. At my school, I think the biggest learning probably happened via networking, internships, participation in committees, student activities, assignments, interactions and so on.
And walks with my friend Steve to the coffee shop.
And, as always (and not to overstate it), education results from what the student puts in. Admittedly, it is hard to put in when the content, profs, facilities are not there . . .
I just finished my MLS. The last class I took was “Digital Libraries.” I thought this would help me build some technical skills for my resume. Turns out the teacher was never around, there was no real time training (maybe you could have a computer lab to actually teach this), and we were encouraged to use this crappy open source dig library software that no one could figure out how to use, let alone load onto their PCs. Basically, I read about Digital Libraries.
One of the things I wish my library school had was a clear statement on minimum technology skills one should have upon entrance. I also wish someone had clued me on on what system requirements were necessary before I started.
I have several MLIS programs in mind that I am currently applying for. All this information is extremely helpful, and I will keep it in mind. Does anyone know of any MLIS program right now that really incorporates technology skills? This is something that I am really interested in.
When I did my MLIS in 2003, the “core IT” paper had notes and a text book that were 10 years out of date!! And for one of our 15% assignments all we had to do was produce a spreadsheet and a couple of charts. Appalling.
This post displays the myopic tunnel vision that is typical of so many library professionals. You are so intertwined in the system that you are incapable of looking back and seeing the big picture. You ask what library schools should be teaching. A better question should be: why do library schools still exist in the 21st century. You can spout library lit jargon like “core competencies” all you like, but this blinds you to the fact that libraries as we know them are a dying breed.
You seem to be conversant on new technologies, so how have you missed the fact that ordinary people are bypassing libraries to do their own searching. They put together their own reference tools like Wikipedia. Our culture is so dumbed down by the capitalist spectacle that fewer people are interested in anything intellectual.
Librarians have automated and techologized themselves out of a future. Do you think that any new library jobs are being created these days? Of course not, I’ve tried to find those jobs. They are harder and harder to find. With the stupid technophilia that librarians have embraced, you all have managed to deskill our profession. Who needs a librarian when people don’t read books and get their information from the Internet? Who needs librarians when books can be procured by “customers” who don’t even have to interact with library staff?
Project management? Sheesh! Try critical thinking skills and activism.
Meredith, you’re a jewel. Brava!
Meredith, you are a great writer and have written some great things before, but this is absolutely incredibly good. As a manager (and someone who has been a library manager for many years), I have to say that you have hit the nail on the head. The people who will succeed in years to come will have all the traits you suggest. I think that is why I have succeeded, and I went to Library School at a time when “Library Automation” involved punching cards…something I also did on my first professional job, but that is another story.
Great thoughts here.
How About Training in Customer Service?…
In re-reading and pondering Meredith Farkas’s Skills for the 21st Century Librarian, it dawned on me that in addition to her well-thought out (and well written) competencies, there really should be some sort of expected competency in customer ser…
It’s really no different from it ever was – a good librarian will be intellectually curious, always on the lookout for better ways to provide service (whether it be technology based or not), and never be afraid to try something new. A big picture perspective is also a plus. We just have lots of new toys to play with these days. Hate to admit it, but I remember when people were wondering if videos actually belonged in the library…and fax machines were the hot new way to provide quick reference. The difficult part, as an administrator, is coming up with the money and staffing to provide the best service – sometimes very hard choices have to be made.
Very thoughtful post, as usual. I thought I’d add my thoughts to “lost gen librarian” — to some extent, s/he’s right. Why do I say this as a happily employed academic librarian? Because the profession as a whole is not doing a good job of articulating the added value the human touch brings to the “information economy”, and more importantly why the world at large needs MLS librarians as a free (aside from taxes) civic resource.
While I was also unimpressed by the level of IT skills taught in most of my classes, That didn’t bug me as much. I’m a Librarian for pete’s sake–if I need to upgrade my skills, I can find a tutorial, sign up for a class, or *gasp* read a book.
I think the more serious threat to our profession is the poor job we’ve been doing in the last decade or so about getting our message out. And I suspect this lack of performance is due to this unacknowledged, free-floating anxiety about our future that seems to have infected much of the profession. Well, to solve the problem, we have to A: admit we’re scared instead of indulging in bravado and denial in the manner of a certain immediate past ALA president, B: figure out what we’re scared of, and C: take steps to solve the problem.
So, why are we scared? Is it perhaps because deep down librarians aren’t quite sure themselves what value they add? or are shy about self-promotion? or because they think if they curl up in a ball and hide in the stacks nobody will notice that their foot traffic and hard copy circulation is drying up? The paradigm is shifting, but it does NOT have to shift away from us. We can become the common surfer’s conduit to the invisible web, and to pay information resources. We can shift away from merely providing access to adding value to the information we provide. We can take up the desperate need to educate users in ways to navigate this ocean of information and disinformation we’re all drowning in.
Libraries and librarians are changing. this is the way of the world. because of a combination of cultural stereotypes surrounding our profession, the personality of the typical librarian, the library’s role as preserver of tradition, history, and culture, and the obvious value of the services we provide, we’ve been insulated from many of the evolutions and revolutions that disturb most professions every few years. But guess what? that’s over. It’s time to play with the big boys. We’ve been given an important job, the duty to ensure the continuing existence of our clumsy, anachronistic, slightly silly and desperately important profession in an information economy where things are thrown into flux every five minutes. It’s a tall order. And if you don’t have the courage, creativity, and flexibility that it will take to fulfill our duty…then get out of our way, before you prove the rest of lost gen librarian’s post correct.
“With the stupid technophilia that librarians have embraced, you all have managed to deskill our profession.”
So what? It brings value to the customer and it means that we can refocus our energies on new skills, new ways of bringing knowledge and access to people.
Are you suggesting that we should have been anti-techno so to artificially bring value to outdated skills, and make the rest of society pay for it? Are you kidding me? And trust me, in the long run that strategy always caves in.
“Who needs a librarian when people don’t read books and get their information from the Internet?”
“People don’t read books” is hyperbole. Recreational reading is still huge, and our circulation has continued to grow despite all these rumours about people “no longer reading.” “People get their information from the Internet” is valid, but it only serves to transform what people read in paper format. Sure, most non-fiction proper doesn’t go, but just about everyone I know these days has read stuff like “Blink,” “Dark Age Ahead” “Getting to Yes” and “Freakonomics.” War and Peace collects dust in libraries now, but The Da Vinci Code definitely doesn’t.
But there are other big picture things that are totally lost in the crass observations —
How about libraries as public meeting places and facilitators of community knowledge (including online communities). There are tons community groups just waiting to use library facilities to engage their members. And youth strategy is huge where we are.
How about librarians as information management gurus? We offer tech orientation sessions right now. Alot of the reference/readers advisory lag *could* go to that. We certainly have the demand for it.
Libraries will always be a place to inspire young people to learn. For toddlers, books are both the perfect “toy” (it’s like “extreme” peek-a-boo) and an ideal start toward understanding basic concepts like shapes, numbers and the alphabet (which you need if you want to understand all those crazy icons/metaphors on the Web).
So the issue is not that the Internet is making it hard for librarians to have something to do, but that it is setting new standards for service while our budgets are shrinking.
“Critical thinking” as an essential competency instead of project management? Well, I’d assume that critical thinking is an essential part of project management.
“Activism?” Hard call. Depends on what you mean. If you are an activist about a cause for which you are likely to have direct monetary gain, it’s a bit of a sham don’t you think? “Community Advocate” is a little better, and given the situation in Connecticut, you probably need to be even stronger than that.
“Political savy” might not be a bad thing for public libraries either, since you are always fighting for dollars against other departments that often have more emotional impact (fire, police etc.).
But based on what I see going on in Europe and elsewhere, there is no major coup going to happen on libraries soon. The situation with jobs in the states (in my view) has more to do with a slowing economy than a crisis librarianship. There are tons of good, high paying jobs for librarians here in Canada!
Ryan,
You make some interesting and valid points, but I think you are looking at libraries through rose-colored glasses. Yes, recreational reading is still high, but remember that the population is larger. The number of libraries and professional positions has not kept up with the size of the population. People, especially Americans, are more functionally illiterate, anti-intellectual, and are deficient in critical thinkign skills. Remember that the U.S. recently elected a retarded man as its president.
You say that just about everybody you know is reading books and you go on to list several titles. Who are your friends? Middle class professionals with college degrees? These people aren’t the real world, buddy. I know lots of young people who are politically active and read books, but they really don’t read that many and their non-political peers read even less. Or how about visiting the mini-mansions of the rich, who spend so much money on home entertainment systems that they never have to crack open a book. I don’t know what it’s like in Canada, but many Americans graduate from college with the idea that reading is something they can put behind them.
“So what? It brings value to the customer and it means that we can refocus our energies on new skills, new ways of bringing knowledge and access to people.”
Oh right, the “customer.” That ugly, evil word that should never have been allowed to get a toehold in our profession. My first encounter with this sick word was in library school was with a professor who was my advisor. She was really big in “customers” and other half-baked management mumbo jumble. I switched advisors as fast as I could after taking an introductory course with this misguided person.
Libraries are not businesses. They are public institutions and community spaces. We should laugh at any librarian who thinks that their library is a business or that patrons are fucking “customers.” This kind of person wouldn’t last 5 minutes running a real business in the real world.
It’s good to hear that there are good, hihg-paying jobs in Canada.
They don’t exist here in the States.
I know, I’ve looked for library jobs off and on for the last 15 years. The jobs that aren’t glorified paraprofessional clerks are poorly paid and hard to find. Library employers are incredibly unimaginative when it comes to hiring professionals with vibrant, incredible backgrounds. They prefer the soulless drones who will lick boots and never question the authority of the library director. The main problem is that there just aren’t any jobs out there. New positions aren’t being created by the expansion of libraries and library systems. If there was shortage of librarians, wouldn’t we see a situation where the library job lines were advertising open jobs for months? There is a shortage of good library jobs here in the U.S.
I’m sorry if I’m sour on the profession, but some of us live in the real world and can’t pay our rents with more bullshit about “technological competencies.”
Keep this up Meredith and we’ll be disappointed by “merely” good posts. 🙂
As you note, the basic flaw wiith librarian education is that libraries are changing rapidly, but library schools have changed much more slowly (if at all.)* Still, with folks like Michael Stephens entering the field, there is some hope that the schools will get on the clue train 🙂
I was somewhat a/be-mused by Lost Gen Librarian’s posting. If there is so much techno-philia in the profession, why is it that finding librarians with good tech skills is so difficult? My organization just recruited for what was essentially a “Lib2.0” position; while some good people applied none of them had anywhere near the strong Web2.0 background/skills that we would have liked to see. I think Lost Gen Librarian is mistaking techn-philia for what is at best techno-awareness.
Sarah’s post about (the lack of) marketing ability in libraries is certainly correct (whether that’s a bigger lack than technology… well, ask me on Tuesdays and I’ll say yes, while on Wednesdays I’ll say no 🙂 But it is almost certainly part-and-parcel of item 6 on your higher-level compentencies…and needs to include technology as part of the solution.
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* And if they do change, they can loose accreditation (as did U.C. Berkeley when that school transmogrified into the School of Information Management and Studies.) So updating accreditation standards needs to be part of this equation as well.
Scott,
Don’t take my comments to mean that I don’t think that many in our schools and in our profession are in desperate need of upgrading their skills–they do. I’m a decent web designer and a novice “coder-by-marriage” whose skills should not be as far above many other librarians as they are. In fact, I think the technology issue is caused from the same insecurities as the marketing ones. However, I would note that this profession probably will never get it’s share of top web 2.0 talent until it can match (or at least get near) the private sector on salary. The differential’s just too huge.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that my IT/Marketing skills cause my colleagues to like or trust me less. However, sometimes I get the vibe that my relative fluency with all things techie as well as my interest in marketing the library with all the tools at our disposal does make some feel a bit timid about their gifts as a professional. Some of this may be a generational thing, or that I’m a freakish extrovert relative to most of the profession, or that I spent time in the corporate world before coming to LIS after the dot-com bust.
Perhaps this is what Lost-Gen Librarian was trying to articulate? I’ve found that I have to operate in a much lighter tone in my new career, and that I have to be patient with the vagaries of bureacracy from time to time. You have to strike that balance between assertive and pushy, but if you can find that sweet spot, that’s when the job opportunities and new projects start flowing your way. Of course I got extremely fortunate in my job search, and I do realize that not everyone has had the same luck lately.
I live in the real world, I have a real library job, and I have to say, Meredith, this is a bang-up post that absolutely nails my experience with library school and my experience in the real world of libraries. Thanks for writing this.
LGL has pointed out that some doors are closing. I don’t disagree with him.
I just think that “What doors are opening?” is a more productive question, and my choice of specialty reflects my sense of one answer (not THE answer, but one answer) to that question.
Lost Gen. I live in the real world (note my real name on this post, with links). I think you are being very presumptuous thinking all my friends are middle class. I started from the very bottom to get where I am. I am the son of a _Canadian_ sailor (Think military salary in a country that has no military). I grew up and worked in rough communities. I started my life in libraries at the very bottom and worked my way up.
Circulation is increasing far ahead of population growth where I live. Sure, the middle class benefits most. The history of taxes in the past century has been governments taxing the middle class to provide services that largely serve the middle class. Whether libraries are socially just is a separate issue from their future relevance, however.
We cover 600,000 hours of computer time in a city of about 350,000 and if we could add more computers in the space we have, we would be able to increase that number _no problem_. When I see those labs I see people of all colours, shapes and sizes.
Youth strategy tends to focus on the most vulnerable. That’s because demographic changes are causing low-wage workers to move out of the city and into the outskirts where there are no services for teenagers — just the library. We have no choice but to have a youth strategy, because the youth are here and they outnumber us.
Re: “customer” vs “patron.” Can we please recall what a “patron” is? First, its derived from “father,” which implies male. It’s what people use to call rich nobility way back when. So, its no better or worse than “customer.” A true public-service name would be “citizen” but that is just weird. Bottom line is that the nomenclature battle is old. Customers / Patrons / Users don’t really care what we call them.
Libraries are more like a business than a “true” public service like the Department of Justice. We don’t regulate (other than borrowing materials) or enforce laws. There are public-servicey type things about librarianship, but they about equal to the businessey type things. In Canada, the policy structure is very ambiguous. Public Libraries fall under Community Services departments, education departments, culture departments and departments that are so unique I can’t remember what they’re called. Trust me, I spent most of my MPA looking at the question of libraries as public services. It’s not an easy one to answer.
But now that I have done my best to convince you that I am “from the real world” I am *not* going to deny that I have Rose Coloured Glasses (RCG). It is my contention that the optimists are the ones who bring positive change to this world. So, if I do not have RCG now, I am going to go buy some. Then I’m going to complain that my library school didn’t provide them free with the mortar board.
Ryan “RCG Librarian” Deschamps
i sort of glossed over all the entries until i got to lostgen librarian. i think you have something to say and i agree with most of it. ryan has some valid points, also.
i graduated from a library school with an MS not MIS or MLIS. the big push is to take the word “library” out of the degree and program and replace it with information science or some such word. i started library school in 95 and all my classes we “traditional”. there were tech classes available but, unfortunately, i was naive and initimitdated by technology back then. i would give anything to go back and change that! in fact, i wish
i could go back and change my degree!!!! oh well! library jobs, as i see them, are about kissing ass and not making waves about the incompetence of co-workers and library directors!!! i am trying to make the best of my decision and move forward.
and talk about critical thinking. it doesn’t exist at this academic library. it is scary how many stupid people are out there. we have a credential program for teachers and let me tell you these stupid people will be going out to teach our children. YES, someone voted for our retarded president and as i see it, forget terrorism. our stupidity as a nation will bring us down.
enough said!
I can’t argue with the “drones who won’t disagree with the director” comments but I don’t think that is the case in *every* library system, either.
One technology class is required in my school; I took two. The second one was more challenging. They offer more challenging third-level classes as well which require programming skills. Those I skipped due to other interests.
Yes, I fix paper jams, locate the proper size cartridges, reboot W*****s computers, replace mice or keyboards, install software, reconnect cables, fish broken floppies out of drives, help set up email occasionally, oversee word processing problems, etc. (none of these are officially part of circulation staff duties!) I don’t think of those as ‘techie’ skills but rather as mechanical. I don’t have much opportunity in my present library system to get a more tech-oriented job – and I’m not at liberty to move yet. So my fresh, shiny degree isn’t being put to use currently.
A big AMEN to the section on project management skills! I have only grasped this lately; it is good to make suggestions for a new tech or piece of equipment but even better to be able to see places it fits into your services. One thing Meredith didn’t mention, but I bet she included in her project, is getting cost estimates as well, for the man-hours involved as well as the hardware costs.
It’s good to hear there are good jobs in Canada, and if I ever shed my allergy to snow, I may do some job hunting there. 😀
It’s interesting … I got my Grad Dip in Information Services (the first or second year the Uni hadn’t called it a Librarianship) way back in 1992, on the back of a straight BA. I knew computers as something one wrote a thesis on. Some libraries had computers, many still had card catalogues.
By the end of the one-year degree, I was teaching the staff there about the Internet. Core to the degree was IT courses; about the Internet, about computers, about these new things called “CD-ROMs”. They opened my eyes to a new adoration, to the extent that I now switch between the IT sector and libraries without blinking (except at the different pay scales; atrocious, how we undervalue our profession).
Have we become so accustomed to the intertwining of infornation and technology that it’s no longer seen to be a required taught skill? Or was I just lucky at attending a Library/Information degree at a technical university in Australia?
Does becoming an “Information Manager” or a “Knowledge Manager” devalue being a “Librarian”? Despite being practically the same things, just with different perspectives and expectations, the role of Librarian is seen as outdated, irrelevant, technologied out of existence, bypassed by Internet search engines; in fact, by the Internet itself.
Funny thing is, though, that people said exactly all this about the advent of computers into libraries in the first place. “Librarians will become redundant!!” people screamed. Funny; we’re still here. And we’re worming our way into places that never had librarians before … corporations, businesses, Government. People and places who have a huge information need and tried to employ KM people, and IM people, and eventually fell back on the people who had been trained to handle, catalogue, sort, manage, annotate, and disseminate information – and, more to the point, had been trained not to think that multitasking wasn’t beneath them.
All libraries are on the pointy end of budget cuts and threads of becoming redundant. Thing is, though, that even public and academic libraries – those apparently last bastions of the “traditional” library with large echoing stacks of musty books – are still required. So people don’t read as much? They still research, and ask for information. Not everyone has access to the Internet at home (or work, or school), and not everyone actually knows how to use the Internet in ANY way. This doesn’t make our profession redundant; it makes it needed. Mind you, it does probably mean the profession needs better marketers 🙂
The jobs that give one the vital experience are fewer and further between. This isn’t unique to the library field; it’s everywhere. Kids keep saying they want to “go into IT” and then get stuck as support monkeys for the next five years. My advice; follow your actual hobbies, likes, passions. Learn the field in which _they’re_ prominent; do something other than library work if you need.
Then come back to libraries with the new perspectives, concepts, and background. You will probably have effortlessly implemented 2/3 of Meredith’s original post in the process, anyway. And it does wonders for one’s resume … 🙂
I had a few more thoughts after sleeping on this post, but when seeing how the response thread grew overnight, I posted them over at my blog (see link above).
Sara mentioned understanding how the average ILS works as part of tech competency. Outside of discussions on how relational databases work, I don’t recall any info on that topic in my classes. I have only observed our current system’s circulation functions. So what, aside from personal observation, would be some good ways to find out how all the functions of a “typical ILS” work?
Cheryl, I think the point that’s starting to come through on these sorts of posts is that there isn’t any such thing as “a “typical ILS” work?”.
I like to pretentiously summarise my jobs – all of them, the IT and the Library – thuly: “Collation and dissemination of information”. (I thought it up after I finished my degree and dust it off every now and again when I’m feeling particularly verbose).
Everything else – the content, the presentation, the tools and toys and tricks – everything else is just detail. Librarians deal in information, and in getting that to the people who need it, in a way they can best use it.
If we’re not “disseminating” that “information” – if we’re focussing too much on the details that don’t actually matter to the content we’re managing – then we’re losing our whole purpose.
I do admit that “collation” doesn’t quite encompass everything a reference librarian (my latest library incarnation; last time I was a music librarian) does in tracking down information. Any recommendations for a “research” -ion welcomed 🙂
Coming from a computer science background I found some things that those in library school assume about what should be taught in classes odd. First, we rarely were taught specific langauges, instead often we were taught things like lifecycles of software applications higher level design theory, architecture theory, or mathematical notions like completeness. Any specific language or interface we were expected to learn on our own time because they were low-level learning.
If what you are learning is simple email and attachments, go find some training courses offered by volunteer groups. If you’re looking for higher level abilities, there are many good community college courses out there.
Courtney, I hate to say it, but what did you expect? Were you hoping to take a higher-level course and to learn basic things from it? Or am I misunderstanding your complaint?
If so, would you go into an advanced swing dance class and be upset that you didn’t get taught the basic ballroom dance moves? It’s hard to tell what level of tech skills you do have, but if you want to flesh out the tech skills on your resume, why not workshops, community college/cs courses, or certificates?
One particular annoyance for me was that the few times I had to deal with a UNIX environment. I sympathize that it might be difficult to learn on demand. However, when I applied to Urbana-Champaign they made it clear that a person would need to know UNIX before coming in. Despite this, people still didn’t bother to get training. Due to complaints I believe that now the langauge has been changed to state only that you might need UNIX skills for some classes. Not sure how that’s a solution.
Jon,
I agree with you here. I am not sure of the value of an “html” or “php” course. Much better to understand the broader concepts about top-level programming and architecture.
My “database management” course was using Access to create some kind of database product. That meant we had to learn Access’s weird version of SQL and Visual Basic. Yuck!
I think an architecture course (with a couple of small exercises in some database product) would have been better. Just as nice would have been a course in evaluating and forming queries in an ILS. The hard part of the database was always the thinking about structure and design.
In my world, I never touch a database that has not already been designed by someone else (who is better at design than I am).
Meredith, as I read your post I thought “she’s describing the model employee” that any good manager would kill to get. I use the manager example because I used to be one and often think in terms of employee resources. Whether or not you learned these competencies in library school or when you got on the job, you’re really describing a person who is a self-starter, constant learner, someone willing to take the lead. In my less than two years in the library world, I have looked around and wished more librarians were like this, yet I must say I saw the same issues in my 20 years in the business world. I am alternately amused and irritated by this view in the library world that you have to walk out of school so perfect that no on-the-job training or self-motivated learning is necessary or allowed. A library director told me she encountered the same thing when she graduated 25 years ago. The library world does not like to train anyone, there’s a high expectation for previous direct experience. Though I had no previous library experience, I have accomplished more in my less than two years on the job than others around me have accomplished in seven. While you make very good points about failings in many library schools curriculum, Jon’s description of what was and was not perceived as necessary learning in computer school is also a very good point. Yes, I think some technology classes are good, customer service, communication skills and project management too, but I am a great project leader who learned that on the job via the mentoring of some very good bosses in the business world (and some self-study). You also described the best way to learn about the printer or scanner being the act of tinkering with it, or reading the manual. This ignores learning styles. (though I think you were really getting at self-motivation to solve a problem) I’m not great at just exploring something in order to learn it. I like a manual that I can read first and then walk my way through figuring things out. I liked your post because to me it really is highlighting that most librarians need to push themselves a bit more to keep up, and I think a lot of librarians are lazy. We can’t walk out of library school with all the knowledge we’ll need but we can have a good foundation. If we distribute along the bell curve those who really model what you describe we will see the ones falling towards the right end of the curve… those predisposed to and self-motivated to continually learn, challenge. You can’t teach that in library school.
Tina says “I am alternately amused and irritated by this view in the library world that you have to walk out of school so perfect that no on-the-job training or self-motivated learning is necessary or allowed. “.
This, again and however, isn’t unique to libraries; it characterises the workforce today. New employees in all industries – from waiting on tables onwards – are pulling their hair out in frustration at job ads that ask for 3 years’ experience and an improbable list of personal and work attributes for entry-level positions. The real concern is that these jobs get filled – often by highly experienced people who have been forced out of their previous positions and who will take anything to keep in employment.
No course, these days, seems to be adequate for employers to accept graduates. Employers are feeling the squeeze as they’re told to do things faster, cheaper, smaller, and for longer hours, and they pass that squeeze on to their hapless employees; who don’t get any further training because their employer can’t afford the time or money.
It’s a vicious circle, often only broken these days by the workers themselves saying “I’ve had enough!” and doing their own education, and hauling themselves to their next ideal level by main force and sleeplessness.
I hope that one day this cycle will be broken, but in the meantime I’m not so convinced that it’s the task of the educational institutions to try and break it, by trying to be all things to everything. That way meaninglessness lies …
Your post has been very helpful. I am a library student at San Jose State in California and am currently completing an intership with the county of Los Angeles and what you say is so true. Though my course work was technologically savy, working in an actual library gives you all the experience you need. I realized that my courses actually prepared me to work the reference desk.
Great blog!
L.
Tina,
I agree with you immensely, but I’ll say it again: I learned alot of things in my Public Administration Masters that were as much or more relevant to my job than alot of what I learned in Library School.
That, of course, begs the question “why did I have to do the library science degree? Why didn’t I just take the MPA?” The answer right now is “because the ALA says I need the MLIS.” That message ought to set off alarm bells to anyone who is an educator in this field (and, actually, I think it does — otherwise programs would offer the dual degree option in the first place).
I think on-the-job is important, but I also think alot more can be done to prepare people for the job. Self-motivated or not, there is alot of stuff that librarians need awareness of, otherwise we will just do the same old things we’ve always done. In a Google world, I don’t think this is possible anymore.
Having read the mixed thoughts and opinions on this subject, I feel compelled to make my statement.
Library systems will always be needed and library systems will always need people to run them. The sheer vastness of information available today means that trying to find the right media, information or data is seriously hard work. I work for a charity and my job is Librarian, I run a small postal lending library service of about 5000 books and media and this small service is used by approximately 700 members, who never would have had access to the material had we not found it and localised it.
The second part to my job as Parent Support Assistant entails researching and answering queries on behalf of our members, who don’t have the time to do it themselves. Their queries are unsual and lengthy and it is our job to find the right information which is also understandable and not academic. Again this service caters for approximately 7000 clients, each with differing queries. This proves beyond doubt that people will always be needed in a librarians post. The definition of the old reference card type librarian has changed, it has and will continue to evolve much like all jobs in the 21st century.
Meredith Farkas has highlighted the key areas that we librarians need to listen to if we wish to be of service to the population at large in the future. My library has changed so much in the last year and had I not evolved with the tech side of it, well it could well have been a problem in the future. In a world made up of search engines, you could be forgiven for thinking that the job of a librarian is dwindling and fast. But it really isn’t, search engines are great tools for searching but they are not great at providing you with a good solid resource as an end result. Big companies still implement knowledge management systems because they are are a great way of archiving all resources which each company has at its disposal but you still need a person to run, update and maintain these sytems. The role of the librarian is safe, we will continue to be needed for a while yet.
I apologise for the generalised comment, I felt that being specific would lose the essence of my sentiments!
I’m 34 years old and don’t have technology skills. Frankly, I haven’t needed to know how to create a database or a spreadsheet, or make a PowerPoint presentation in my library career. The last time I fiddled with web page design was in library school almost ten years ago, now. I know that not having these skills preclude me from applying for some interesting jobs, but I have no incentive to learn this stuff. I am not interested in making databases, spreadsheets, et al. They bore me. So, I feel stuck. I have no incentive to learn because my job doesn’t require these skills. And I’m not going to learn on my own initiative because Office applications don’t inherently interest me. What’s a person to do? And I want to work to rectify my situation. With what should someone like me start? Re-learning how to create a web page, since I find that the more interesting of technology applications? Where would my fellow librarians recommend I start?
Really a great one for Digital Librarian
Excellent!
You are really a librarian for the 21st century!
I highly agree with you that library schools should integrate technology with the different library subjects. The later generations librarians are luckier ‘cuz they can enjoy this; but the earlier generations librarians should strive hard to be a computer savvy; be a project manager as there are many projects in the library; learn how to conduct user needs studies in order to deliver relevant information services to our users; digitize information sources if possible; and most of all, a librarian should also do information marketing to perk up users to use the library. We librarians have to learn to accept and embrace “Library 2.0” or the automated library & library services.
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