Creating the Library of Tomorrow from the Ground Up

Creating the Library of Tomorrow from the Ground Up by Laurie Putnam

A great article that talks about the philosophy behind the curriculum at the new Dutch LibrarySchool.

I was first intrigued by the fact that Dutch librarian training takes place at the undergrad level and that this program is the first of its kind at the graduate level.  Personally, I’ve always thought that having a four year undergrad program instead of a one year graduate program would give more credibility to the profession as well as give students a broader set of skills to leverage both in libraries and non-library settings. 

More importantly, however, I was fascinated by the four ideological buckets the school is using to guide the curriculum.  I think these buckets speak to why librarians can be so helpful in so many different environments.  In my own situation and from what I hear from colleagues at other companies, a major problem seem to be that non-library employers don’t understand the skill set librarians bring or how to leverage it.  They’re hung up on librarians as people who manage libraries.  And that’s understandable because that’s what we’ve done for the past hundred years. 

I’ve tried for a very long time to articulate why my background as a librarian gives me an edge over the other 25,000 analysts at The Company.  But this program seems to finally define it: 

It’s the knowledge of the intersections and ability to meld skills in technology, organization, culture and society in delivering contextual information that makes librarians powerful.

This ideology makes librarians more cross-functionally relevant in both traditional and non-traditional setting.  Of course I’m biased, but this is particularly valuable for those of who are mercenaries in non-traditional settings.  Because let’s face it: It’s not like the amount of jobs in traditional settings is growing. 

Libraries and librarians will always be around in some form, and I think this new ideological mix creates a new form of librarian that allows us to continue to be relevant.  I’d argue the LibrarySchool is not building the library of the tomorrow, but the librarian of tomorrow.

An Embedded Librarian at CES

Going to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has been a minor dream of mine for a while.  I’m a science fiction fan, so getting a chance to see the lasted tech and gadgets and talking about emerging concepts was gleefully mind blowing.  (And Las Vegas is one of my favorite cities in the world to visit!)

CES was the first non-library, professional conference I’ve attended.  I’m only speculating, but at least anecdotally, I think many librarians (myself included) are guilty of going to primarily to the conventions attended by peers (ALA Annual, SLA Annual, Internet Librarian, etc.)  While those conventions help me develop as a specialist in my field, the problem is that they only help me.  Unfortunately, The Company can sometimes view this as an empty expense because it’s only helping me. 

So what’s the value of going to non-library conferences?  Primarily that you’re adding more value to your organization.  More importantly, that translates into you being seen as more valuable. 

I went with the idea that I would be on the lookout for certain topics and tech that would help inform the groups I support over the next year. (Looking back on it, I should have also sat down with each team and asked if there was anything specific they wanted me to look for.) I was essentially acting as an information broker for The Company.

In addition to bringing back pure data, embedded librarians can also bring a special perspective to intelligence gathering at trade shows.  As I’ve said before, because we work with a variety of teams we’re in a position to see how concepts and gear may affect multiple groups and make connections.  The Company had multiple people going from specific areas with specific foci, which allowed me to look at focus on more overarching themes and how they tied together. 

Further think librarians might consider sharing the information they bring back a bit differently than others.  I had intended to post updates to my in-house blog while there, but technical difficulties didn’t allow that.  I’m not sure if anyone else considered doing this.  And, on returning from the show, I set up a roundtable Lunch-And-Learn for my department with speakers from the areas that sent staff to the show.  (Perhaps this was the librarian in me wanting to programming? Or maybe just the showman in me wanting to be ringmaster?)  The hope is that together, we’ll be able spread the information we gathered beyond individuals and individual areas.  Again, the benefit to the mercenary librarian is that as the host you get a bit of credit for pulling it all together (even if that’s all you did). 

A final side note from my experiences: It was immensely useful to have colleagues back home emailing me stories they saw coming out of the show and asking me to look for specific items.   CES was 4-5 times bigger than any professional conference I’ve ever been to and it’s just not possible to catch everything.  Having an ops center helped me to stay aware of things I might have missed. 

Library Science without the Library

Library Science without the Library by Jane Greenstein.

This was a great post that appeared on Library Journal’s site.  To summarize, Greenstein points out that LIS programs continue to churn out employees, but many of them are working part time at lesser jobs (bookstores, coffee houses, etc.) because jobs in the industry aren’t forthcoming.  She encourages universities and students to look beyond libraries as potential landing spots for librarians. 

Whether students choose a traditional or so-called alternative path, MLIS programs should acknowledge-and embrace-that the library profession is changing. They should expand their focus by offering more degrees and creating a more fluid curriculum that keeps students aware of the evolution that is occurring in front of their eyes.

Librarian or Google employee?

To fit my own purposes, she’s telling the profession to get mercenary. 

While I believe in libraries and the mission they serve, jobs opportunities in traditional libraries are shrinking.  I have three academic institutes and two public libraries in the town where I live and I’ve seen around four openings in the last five years, two of which have been management.  I wax nostalgic about working in a traditional library.  But the likelihood of that happening is slim, and would probably be accompanied by a significant pay cut.  Maybe when I retire…

Being a mercenary, and looking to sell our information skills to the highest bidder, can help new and tenured librarians find well-paying jobs in a crappy economy.  Greenstein talks about what I’d consider some very non-traditional jobs for librarians.  But I’d add that there are also “traditional” jobs (although maybe it’s the idea that there are “traditional” jobs for librarians that’s holding us back) for those in the profession, but in wildly different settings from what we’re used to.  My embedded gig is pretty much just being a highly specialized research and reference librarian only without the traditional trappings. 

Greenstein also says:

… my impression is that library and information schools don't know how to properly court prospective "information"-oriented candidates or appeal to my colleagues in the interactive field.

I don’t know if courting the right candidates is as much of an issue as helping students discover, during the process of matriculation, how to apply the skills they’re being taught in radically different settings.  Library schools need to help students think more like information mercenaries and get beyond the altruistic nature with which we all (myself included) come to the profession.    I kind of just stumbled in to special libraries and then was kicked in to the world of embedded librarianship.  There was no training or even consideration about what one could do with a library degree outside of the traditional library walls.  I would have loved some discussion or mentorship within my coursework about how to apply the skills I was learning to other areas. 

The Embedded Librarian as Bullshit Detector

I received a request this week to investigate a web site that was viewing The Company in a rather negative light.  The question-behind-the question was essentially, how much weight should we give this site?

The site was well put together, and as it turned out, providing correct information.  Hell, they even provided citation information and links to supporting materials.  But the site also offered a very one-sided perspective on the issues in question.  In the fine print, the site itself even admitted to having a purpose that was somewhat axe grind-ey.  And the authors/administrators of the site were poets, not legal experts nor did they present any credentials that would make them authoritative for commenting on the issues the site addressed. 

I informed the requestor of all of this as well as the fact that the site doesn’t come up in the first hundred hits. So unless someone is looking for The Company’s name and uses some pretty specific topical search terms, the general consumer isn’t going to find this site easily if at all.  Ergo, low threat.  (As a total side note, the site will be a great example for the next time I have to teach a freshman information literacy course.)

The whole analysis took me maybe ten minutes, because I was trained (and train others) where to look for and how to judge whether information is credible.  I assume everyone can do and can do it as quickly.  But the fact that my colleague even asked the question maybe shows that this isn’t a skill everyone has or at the very least I can do it faster and more thorough.  Maybe I take for granted that I can do this. 

In any case, providing “bullshit detection” services is certainly another services and “added value” that embedded librarians can offer their clientele.  We shouldn’t take it for granted and should actively market it during outreach. 

The Embedded Librarian as a Triage Doc

I’m often jealous of other areas in The Company. 

The Company has several (small) units that can do research that a single librarian (or even a team of librarians) cannot.  They do “big data” analytics, usability studies, qualitative and quantitative consumer analysis, even some electrical and physical engineering.  Their services are top notch and highly specialized.  Because they are doing primary research in topics selected by clients, it’s hard to compete with their specialties when it comes to questions that secondary research can’t reach.  So sometimes I feel like I’m the second tier research.

(That said these areas were also the library’s best customers when it existed and most vocal when it closed.  I also count a lot of my colleagues in those areas as friends.)

The problem is these units often have huge backlogs and waitlists.  Their services are highly sought out, but they have small staffs.  So they can’t handle all of the work. 

That’s where I sweep in to save the day… Kind of.  While I can’t do the detailed primary research like the other groups, I can often find secondary sources that are close enough or supplemental.  And while it’s often not dead on topic, sometimes it’s enough for the project groups to make some assumptions and extrapolations.

So like the triage doctor, embedded librarians can help project groups stay alive when the kind of information they would prefer to have is not available.  In fact, I’ve turned this “bug” in my position into a marketing feature.  When I do outreach, I often tell prospective clients that if they can’t get in to see the specialists or if they’d like me to see what I can find while they wait to see a specialist, I’m happy to help.