The role of management is to do what's in the best interest of the organization.
The role of the union is to do what's in the best interest of the people who make up its membership.
Union members are expected to adhere to the rules and duties described in the union contract and their job description.
Professional librarians often do duties beyond what is expected – whether it is working at home, undertaking professional development activities on their own time or otherwise focusing more on their role as professionals than their role as union members.
To the general public, librarian is a term that can be applied to anyone who works in a library.
To some “on the inside”, only those holding the MLIS can truly be called “librarians”.
A speaker at the Canadian Library HR Summit made the provocative comment that libraries aren't about cataloging and reference and haven't been for a long time.
Some would go so far as to say libraries aren't about books anymore either.
When people think of libraries, the first word to come to mind is likely “books”.
When people think of libraries, many librarians want the first word to come to their minds to be “information.”
Libraries receive most of their funding from municipal sources.
In the information age and for a mobile populace, libraries increasingly serve patrons from outside their civc boundaries.
Whether you did a library science degree in 1950 or 1980, you'd likely learn essentially the same things about librarianship.
If you did a library science degree since 1990, in many ways, it would be as if you've obtained a completely different degree.
Part of the selling point of librarianship is the fact that there were reports that many boomer librarians were nearing retirement which would create many job openings and allow young librarians to advance much more quickly in their careers than they may have in the past.
Unlike nursing and teaching (the two other female-dominated professions that librarianship shares many similarities with), the burn-out rate for senior librarians is much lower and in fact, many stay in their jobs long past retirement age because they enjoy the work so much.
Some librarians are among the most activist, involved people you'll likely ever meet.
Some librarians are among the most conservative, cautious people you'll likely ever meet.
I'm sure there are others I'm missing. I may come back and add more as I think of other examples.
Comments 6
Great points, Jason! It never occurred to me to look on the bright side of the boomer librarians not retiring – it means I'm entering a field that people never want to retire from.
I'm not sure that your statement that the difference between a 1950s trained librarian and a 1980s trained librarian are essentially the same.
In the late 60s and early 70s many online (not yet Internet) information services entered the library landscape — DIALOG, Lexis, UTLAS, AMICUS, etc. UofT had a Systems Department in its library by the early 70s. By the end of the 80s, OPACs were ubiquitous and sexy.
While I doubt that there was much difference in the content or format of Library school curricula between the 50s and 60s, think that that changed in 70s and 80s.
You might be grouping together two generations that probably have significant differences.
Then again, I'm no expert.
Cheers
This is just based on my experience at Saskatoon and Cambridge, but something along the lines of “Libraries espouse current and cutting-edge technological trends. And libraries often use outdated computers, email, networks, websites (and rarely have enough computers for the staff who use them).”
Does anyone else have to share computers? Why is this common practice? It's maddening!
I hope I don't get jaded as my career goes on but right now I can't think of too many professions which offer an ongoing challenges, escalating responsibility but in an enjoyable (for the most part) environment.
I think what I was trying to get at was the fact that there seems to be an old guard of librarians who are resistant to current technology and a new generation who embrace it. This is a generalization of course – some old guard have iPhones and Twitter accounts, some new librarians don't know what a URL is. But that's what I was trying to capture – even though I probably should've been a bit more accurate with my dates (or maybe rephrased the point without that focus on dates at all.)
Thanks for your thoughts!
That's a good one. I'm very happy to be at RPL which is on the cutting edge in terms of technology – hardware, software and web-based. (Heck, our new PAC's even have a BitTorrent client on them – that one nearly knocked me off my chair!)
As for the sharing, there are two groups at RPL that seem to be sharing computers – staff at branches and staff in the children's department at Central. But in neither case do the professional librarians have to share time on a machine. So perhaps we just have to draw you back to Saskatchewan but a little further south this time! 😉