I just had to go outside and smell the rain- it is glorious spring in Texas, and I’ve been inside for so long, working and writing for school. My old-fashioned azaleas are gone from the bushes, and the live oak trees are dumping tons of golden pollen on the street- I know my neighbors love it as much as I do (get out the zyrtec and flonase, everybody…) I will be heading to the country for a day or two next week, to see the bluebonnets. For those of you who have no access to bluebonnets, please see the banner.
Ok, those of you with real library jobs: tell me what you think about professionalism in our field. It never occurred to me that there was a debate on the topic (even though some of my cousins were surprised when I told them I would need an MLS to practice.) Then the new folks in the program from (insert large school district name here) began discussing an article in the paper about leadership in the school district failing to support school libraries:
“leaders were adamant that they wouldn’t hold themselves to the state’s basic — or “acceptable” — guideline for libraries, saying the standards are unrealistic and sometimes impossible…The pledge to improve comes in response to an unflattering audit released Monday that shows that 42 percent of the libraries aren’t staffed with the state recommended number of certified librarians, while 94 percent don’t have enough clerks.”
The snubs don’t end in school libraries. I read Meredith Farkas’ blog this week, and she had much more to say about deprofessionalization and the lack of support, both financially and in terms of valuing what we do. In our readings this week Farber notes that professors typically don’t like to share their classes with librarians, so it’s up to us to gain their respect and cooperation. Owusu-Ansah asserts that academic librarians have been “seen predominantly and exclusively as providers of support services… (that librarians are) a group never really considered legitimate faculty members, not even when its members had that official status.”
So how do we counter this perception? Presumably we know how to engage faculty members, to make ourselves useful to their teaching and research needs. We know how to advocate politically and in the local communities for our libraries, how to conduct needs assessments and provide desired services, to provide needed information literacy instruction. NPR and Nancy Pearl and the Prairie Home Companion do what they can to call attention to us. What more does it take?
Lissagirl,
I am glad you could take time out and smell the flowers of course with zyrtec and flonase’s help. We all have to remind ourselves from time to time that to rest is to prepare us for the journey to come.
Librarians are professionals. The process to obtain a MLS degree from UNT is not a piece a cake for majority of the people. Ask anyone who survived SLIS 5200! The education achievement and the nature of our work definitely qualify the librarians as professionals. However, respect doesn’t always come with the title. We have to earn them. Yes, I have heard and actually seen the disrespectfulness from the faculty. Request such as “could you make some copy of these papers for me even though I have a secretary in my office?” is an example of belittling our profession. We can only continuously educate and publicize the work that librarians do. We are not just people who can tell you where you can find a book on the shelf and shish you when you talk too loud. We are actually professionals who can find information that you need whether it’s in print or database. Lack of information is not a problem in today’s world but finding credible information is. Librarians are the ones who can help you. We are the yellow brick road that will lead Dorothy to the Emerald City. I don’t think we can change our stereotype image right away but time is on our side. The new generation of librarians is on blogs and social network sites which will help the new generation of library users understanding what is librarianship all about. We must not give up!
By: dkl0039 on April 3, 2008
at 5:59 pm
I love bluebonnets; it’s the one time of year I find Texas really beautiful. David, I’ve never heard the expression “we all have to remind ourselves from time to time that to rest is to prepare us for the journey to come.” That is so true, it is so important to rest and in our work obsessed world it makes perfect sense.
One thing I think librarians need to do to improve their image is be aware of the big picture where ever they are. So often I hear of librarians getting worked up over minor details and losing perspective of what is important. For example I know a librarian that spends way too much energy fussing with overdue library books/videos that faculty members have. I also agree we have to in a pleasant way make sure faculty members know our educational backgrounds and what we do. Faculty members also have clerical type tasks.
Lissagirl your suggestions are great, but they mean a librarian has to step back and look at the mission of institution and how they support it. It seems obvious, but I think there are way too many librarians that don’t get that. I also think we have to conduct ourselves in a professional manner. That seems like a meaningless platitude, but I think it’s true. The other thing I’ve found is a lot of faculty members are pretty isolated themselves and simply being interested in what they are doing or teaching results in some positive interactions that benefit the library.
By: Magensbay on April 4, 2008
at 9:50 pm
Lissagirl,
I was also thinking about some advice I got from a very successful medical librarian. She’s the librarian for a hospital in California. For another class I had to interview a librarian and interviewed her. She said one of the best pieces of advice she has for me is “absolutely never speak bad about anyone.” To me that really makes her professional. I also think it makes it much harder for anyone to criticize her or her programs – it helps keep issues from being personal.
By: magensbay on April 5, 2008
at 1:03 am