A Librarian's Worth Around the World

from Ritu Pant via the Internet Librarian LinkedIn group, check out this great infographic on the worth of librarians.  There's a lot of really interesting information in there, even for us librarians! I particularly liked the "One week in the life of a librarian" and it got me thinking about trying to create a similar thing for my own library life. Hmm...

Year In Review, Or...

...why I haven't been posting as much as I could have (or should have). It's good to be busy, though! (Not so much with the knee thing.)

• January: Attended SLA Leadership Summit. Interesting, as always. It was bracketed by two major reviews at MPOW. Began long run-up to pre-conference panic attack.
• February: Every major software package at MPOW collaborated on a huge simultaneous meltdown. There was much swearing and running about.
• March: Finished beating software into submission. Spring Break... when we went noplace. Trip to the wilds of New Mexico. Start work on major Drupal migration. Mark mid-point of pre-conference panic attack ramp-up.
• April: The amazingness that is the Kentucky Libraries Joint Spring Conference. They were kind enough to invite me to speak as the opening keynote presenter. There was much nervousness, then much relief. Last good walk outside, in Jenny Wiley State Park.
• May: Lots of household repairs. Drupal migration kicks into high gear. Nine thousand million jillion final changes for the upcoming SLA conference. Significant management change at MPOW. Knee begins complaining more than usual.
• June: More cortisone shots just before heading to Philadelphia for the SLA Annual Conference. (As a division chair this year I was responsible for all the division programming.) Back-to-back major reviews immediately after SLA.  X-Rays and MRI scans.
• July: Bad knee news... start setting up surgeon appointments and physical therapy. Major progress on the Drupal task front.

As of today, I'm teleworking full time and fairly restricted mobility-wise; I see a surgeon next week who hopefully can fix things up a bit. My plan for the rest of the year blog-wise is to get back on the horse with regular postings as soon as I can! Thanks for sticking around.

National Library Week...

...was April 10-16 of this year, with the motto "Create Your Own Story".  CNN acknowledged that librarians are "Masters of the Info Universe" but what really got my attention - made me laugh, but made me sad, too - was Craig Ferguson's opening monologue on the 11th (slightly NSFW):



Craig hit on all the things libraries are facing these days - budget cuts, facilities maintenance, homeless shelters, e-books - and even the sexy librarian stereotype. However, while he always makes me laugh, most of this was rather rueful laughing... followed by a big sigh.  

Also, we know about pants!

Again with the "librarians are frumpy and unfashionable" trend... Leanne Jernigan, who I can only assume is a librarian herself, has created and posted a fabulous, humorous, and pointedly insightful look at librarians in fashion... a major part of the stereotype that just won't die. Yes, it affects us - and yes, we should care whether major fashion houses are pimping "librarian chic" as a style when it blows back on our profession rather... unfashionably.

March was good to me!

March was good to me!, a photo by desertlibrarian on Flickr.

March was very good to me - in addition to the appearance of the Info Pro Handbook, two other articles I wrote were published.

Jake Carlson and I co-authored "Embedded librarianship in the research context: navigating new waters" in C&RL News, and I wrote the introduction to Information Outlook's theme article on librarians and their image, titled "Yes, It Still Matters."

Now I have to figure out what to write next!

I'm in this book!

I'm in this book! a photo by desertlibrarian on Flickr.

"The Information & Knowledge Professional's Career Handbook", by the wonderful Jill Hurst-Wahl and Ulla de Stricker. Jill and Ulla interviewed me for a career snapshot of an active information professional; I'm delighted to have been a part of it.

Spread the Words

Edmonton Public Library has created an amazing PSA about their values and importance to the community. Plus, they have great shirts! Check it out:

Random but Good

Not dead, just crazy busy. Here's a few things to share:

* Seen the Pearls Before Swine comic of January 16th? Those are some serious librarians! 

* Hey, cool! Wil Wheaton thinks librarians are awesome. (Well, we are.) "I beg you: please support your local libraries in any way you can, and if you enjoy reading, take a moment to thank a librarian." Amen, Wil, and thank you!

* I am pleased that I can represent STEM librarians again at this year's WISE conference, "Expanding Your Horizons". It's an honor to speak to young women and encourage them into the sciences, show them that engineering is fun, and get my techy groove on.

Kickass Librarian

I post with no comments other than (1) This is absolutely and smashingly wonderful, and (2) I want to learn the Song of the Cobra.

Expressing My Value

So, I won a contest that I didn't realize was really a contest! Neat. SLA has been running an "Express Your Value" contest, encouraging members to submit videos (or other media type) to share what we do and why it matters - in other words, to express our own value. I had a lot of fun with my video, and was pleasantly surprised when I won the contest!  Here's what I said:



Thank you, SLA, for the opportunity to channel my inner TV ad-man!

Speaking to Truth

Kathy Dempsey over at "The M Word - Marketing Libraries" has written an excellent post titled "Be Clear About the Value You Deliver!" that every librarian needs to read.

Go, now; I'll wait.

Why do you need to read it? Because it addresses the never-ending question of relevance in the Internet age in a better way than I ever could:

"So next time someone asks why you still matter in the age of the internet, answer thoughtfully, using words that will make sense to whomever you're talking with. Otherwise, people will just keep asking the question and never understanding why libraries and librarians are still essential."

Well said, Kathy. Takeaway question: Do you know your applicable org-speak? On pondering, I'm not sure I do. I'll be pondering more, you can be sure.

The Little Librarian... really?

"Be a Real Librarian. Just Add Books!" I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this new toy. I'm all for encouraging reading, but... Hm. As someone who's been obsessively organizing her books at home for years (decades?) this would probably have appealed to me as a kid, but then again, so would a copy of the AACR. Nowadays, I'm not so sure; it doesn't quite represent the modern library anymore. But does that matter, really? This toy is going to appeal to any kid like I was, with a love of books and of categorization, who likes to keep track of who has the books.

(Then again, a gift subscription to LibraryThing would serve the same purpose, I think!)

Another Car Like a Librarian

...Or something like that. With shades of the 2002 Honda ad, the new 2011 Volvo S60 is being compared to a "naughty librarian". At least they acknowledge it's a stereotype:

"You know the sexist stereotype. A supposedly shy, near-sighted librarian, who when given the chance, lets down the hair, doffs the glasses, and becomes the out-of-character 'naughty' librarian.  So by adding more performance, more athletic driving dynamics and less-boxy styling to its “'Naughtiest Volvo Ever' new-for-2011 S60, Volvo wants to throw off its stereotypically staid image and help accelerate the brand’s struggling sales."

Naughty, sexy, car, librarian - yeah, ok. Based on past on-the-spot polls at conferences, most folks don't mind being compared to a great car. Do you?

Don't forget to play!

National Gaming Day @ your library. Join the thousands of folks across the nation (and around the world!) who'll play games on Saturday.

You know you want to!

I Has a Drupal Happy

Today, after a longer time than anyone would have ever thought necessary, I finally took our site upgrade to Drupal 6 live. (Just in time to start planning for 7...) It was an illuminating process, not least of which was learning what password exactly was set for the mysqladmin account (it wasn't any of the ones I thought, and I lost A MONTH over this little wee tiny datum. I can't tell you how gosh-darned smart that made me feel.) Thanks to the patience and digging of my Drupal guru, we got everything migrated and updated and transferred over. Then I - through the power of CSS! - fixed the dramatically-changed template back to the basic layout my staff knows and loves. (That made me feel a bit smarter.)

I am thoroughly pleased with the new functionality in the D6 versions of my modules; I swapped editors to FCKeditor and love it; I'm no longer quite as trepidacious about Views; my image galleries now look nice and streamlined; and my users can now even upload files to the server! (Doesn't mean they will, but at least now they can.)

I am a happy, happy person. (Cary, you rock.)

Why is it always "versus"?

As I've mentioned once or twice before, I've got definite warm fuzzies for people who work in libraries and do library tasks and duties but who may not have an MLS (hereafter known as "paraprofessionals"). Andy Woodworth strikes again with his posting "The Master's Degree Misperception" - his post itself was intriguing in discussing the worth, or lack thereof, of the degree in relation to the tasks done in most (public and academic) libraries. The reference desk got its own particular commentary... and I recall the drama stories I heard both from my mother (at a community college) and a close friend (at a public law library) relating to who manned the desk when and what questions they were allowed to answer, and what they were not. (I never did understand that.)

My own thoughts are that, while I didn't learn anything practical in grad school that I could apply to my jobs (my first professional presentation was titled "Things I Didn't Learn in Library School"), I did learn quite a lot philosophically, and that helped me with the larger questions and exposed me to issues I hadn't been before. When they came up again (as they always do), at least I had a clue of what they were and where to go to get help. But, in day to day life? My MLIS doesn't do a thing for my job skillset, security, or capabilities, nor is it a factor in how my coworkers see me.

What's been reeeeeally interesting is the comments and Twitter discussion. Some folks are gettin' downright feisty about the whole thing. It's been fascinating to watch the flames. I'll be watching this one for a bit.

---

Update September 9th: The conversation continues to evolve.  Emily's responses are well stated, and Kendra had a very good point; I'd rather be out with my patrons (albeit not at a reference desk in my case) than tucked away somewhere, unseen and unknown about.

How do you feel about it?

Over on Will Unwound, Will Manley is hosting a series of guest posters. The first one was Andy Woodworth, of Agnostic, Maybe, and his post is titled "How do you feel about the Librarian Image?"  It was an interesting post about how his attitude towards the inevitable stereotype of librarians has changed - originally irksome, he has "learned to stop fretting and embrace the stereotypes." Here's to intelligent and passionate!

Just as interesting to me were the multitudinous comments, both accepting and dismissive of the stereotypes, including plenty of examples and stories. One subtheme I learned about - being unaware myself as I've pretty much only worked solo - is the intra-library stereotype situation. Much was made of the sexual stereotype as well, and we even delved into pop culture via Project Runway.

As I noted in my own comment, I can only hope that the view changes in the next 25 years more than it has in the last 50... and it's up to us to help those changes along!

Bookworms, Indeed

On August 9th, Jason Smalley mused in a blog posting for American Libraries on the importance (or lack thereof) of the name of the job. In "A Bookworm by Any Other Name," he points out that it isn't always so easy to answer the seemingly-innocuous question, "So, what do you do?"  As another librarian who doesn't work at a library, and as a librarian whose job title doesn't include "the L-word", Jason has some really interesting thoughts on the matter.

When I stopped to think about it, some of what he said rings true for me as well - I almost never get away with saying simply "I'm a librarian," because I always then have to go into what kind of librarian I am, and no, I don't work at the public library, and yes, there are librarians who don't work at public librarians, and yes, there are librarians who spend their entire day working on computers, and....

I must say, however, that I disagree with Jason's statement that he's not a librarian, because he doesn't park his car at a library and "there aren’t thousands of me doing the same job that I do." I think this is just another case where we can stand up and say loudly, "Yes, I am a librarian!"  Yes, many of us do things you don't expect, and there are a whole lot of us who work in places that aren't labeled "library", and there may only be a few who do what we do individually (there certainly aren't a lot of folks doing the same job that I do!).

I hope Jason is able to reconsider his statement of belief. What about you? Do you believe you're a librarian, even if you don't work in a traditional library, or don't have a job title that states such?

Random Librarian Humor

* There is nothing we can't do, including hypnotizing lobsters.

* Bulgari's fall eyewear collection is "fit for a librarian with its tortoiseshell rims and blocky design." Sigh. At least they're "luxurious and stylish" this time around.

* "85 Reasons to be Thankful for Librarians."  Check #15.

* Visit "Three Turtles and their Pet Librarian" on those days when you really can't figure out what to read next. The turtles will tell you.

* Once again it's time to Pimp Your Bookcart!

* Last but not least, I can't believe I didn't post these here! Of course by now you've probably seen them (or at least heard of them), but hey, I can't not put 'em up here. Here are Old Spice and New Spice... now look at them. Now back at me. Now back to them. You're on a cart!

Does your job title get it done?

Thanks to Meryl and Guy over on LinkedIn, I recently read a blog posting at the Harvard Business Review by Bill Taylor titled "Does Your Job Title Get the Job Done?" It got me thinking a lot about the ever-present discussions about job titles - how what we are called impacts so many things. It's a light-sounding article ("Lodestar of the 21st century"? Really?) with a serious focus in the middle.

There are two lines in the article that really got my attention: "Their work truly mattered to them, and how their work got described to the world mattered as well," and "People do their best work when they do work they love — which means it's work that somehow connects with their unique skills, talents, and passions."

Isn't that us? No matter what we're called - and every year the list gets longer - we tend to be in this profession with a passion; because we love what we do. (Sadly, it's not to get rich.) While, yes, I'm one of those people who feels strongly that "the L word" shouldn't be discarded, when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what we're called as long as we get that job done.

(PS: I am now starting a campaign to get my formal title changed to what everyone here calls me, which is Information Goddess.)

Currently 85° and 63%Rh. Yes, it's monsoon season!