Social Media could give librarians something to shout about
Eleven years ago, I was just digging into the routine of being a student in Library School. I was working towards getting a Masters in Library Science, and at the time, librarianship was considered one of the hottest professions in the nation. Why? Well, the logic was that a lot of librarians had been librarians for quite some time and would be hitting retirement age. The hypothesis was that as these librarians began to retire, lots of new jobs would open up for, well, for people like me.
Fast forward to now, and as you might have heard, the talk couldn’t possibly be more different. People are talking about libraries becoming a thing of the past. Librarianship is being called a dying profession now rather than one that is worth pursuing. A lot of people with MLS degrees like me have found ways beyond the library to use their skills.
Is librarianship really dying?
Here’s the thing about saying that librarianship is a dying profession (or art, because really it is). When we think of librarian, we think of a person, probably with a bun in her hair, who is sitting at a desk checking out books and hushing people. Is that mode of librarianship coming to an end? Perhaps. But there is an important aspect of librarianship that could grow dramatically if given a chance, and that is the librarian’s capacity to organize, research, and find information.While some dictionaries define a librarian simply as a person who “assists with library services, there is often a tantalizing second definition:
“A person who is responsible for a collection of specialized or technical information or materials.”
How Social Media could transform librarianship
A year or so after I left graduate school, I volunteered for awhile at the Internet Public Library. The IPL was Quora before Quora existed. People would ask questions in different subject areas, and we librarians could tag the questions we were working on. The questions spanned the spectrum of questions you could imagine. One particularly memorable question I got was why medieval scripts always used “f” where “s” should be. The idea was not just to answer questions but also to refer people to resources online where they could go for more information.
Think of the possibilities that exist for these kinds of knowledge transactions six years later!
For librarians today, the sky is really the limit if you think about it. What is everyone complaining about these days?
-> “Too much info!”
-> “Not enough time to filter through the dregs to get the really good info!”
-> “So many resources, but which ones are reliable?”
Librarians are, believe it or not, not trained in hushing techniques. Rather, we are trained in how information is organized on the web. We are trained in how people go looking for information, and we are trained in how to make information accessible based on those research techniques.
A person with an MLS can become a curator of specific kinds of information – perhaps a “humanities” online curator, or maybe a curator of curators. A person with an MLS could help you analyze resources and determine whether and why they were credible. A person with an MLS could look at your blog and with professional know-how offer suggestions on how to tag, categorize, and organize your content.
To the best of my knowledge, though, none of these skills are being maximized in the online world. Instead, we are calling librarianship dead when it has a chance to be reborn.
Librarians and Engagement
How could librarians benefit from more engagement in the world of Social Media? Here are a few ideas.
• Opportunities to become a curator of information (like my #30Thursday posts) also afford an opportunity to promote others. It’s a win-win.
• Helping people on a professional basis to maximize the organization of their blog sites could earn the librarian online credentials that currently do not really exist right now. It is not SEO but rather organizing the information so that people, not just search bots, can find information.
• Constantly learning about new online resources can be a great way for librarians to engage with people. When I was studying to be a reference librarian, my biggest fear was how I would ever be able to keep up with all of the new resources that were popping up. There are online databases that are immensely powerful that people simply do not know about.
In short, if librarians begin to embrace Social Media and online engagement, librarianship as a profession could once again become one of the hottest professions out there. And guess what? Steel rim glasses and hair in bun are no longer required.
What do you think? Do you see places in your online presence where a professional organizer of information could come in handy? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
This is post #66 in the Engagement Series. If you are worried about missing a post, please feel free to hit the subscribe button. Thank you!
Image by Leslie Watts. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Legley
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This is awesome creativity, Margie. I didn’t know that stuff about you. Incredible idea. This would save a lot of people a lot of overload (and time) and you laid out the benefits for the librarian quite well.
Thanks, Ryan. Glad you enjoyed it!
Margie,
I have a lot to do today for my clients…but I just need to weigh in on this conversation. Some of my fondest childhood, teen-age, and college-age memories are about time spent in the library. In grade school going to the library right after school and during the summer was an “acceptable” activity. Of course, we checked out books and actually read a lot of books, but it was also a place for “socializing” with friends, smiling at the boys, passing notes, etc. In high school, (a private girls’ school complete with priests, nuns, and lay faculty) the librarian was a lay teacher and her substitute was a really crabby old man who didn’t want us to make a sound. We learned to behave and to do research. They taught us well. College—I think I still have a note passed to me from the head cheerleader inviting me to the Military Ball. Yep…University of San Francisco Spring 1968!
Enough about me. Did you complete your masters? I can’t remember if you have told us this or not. I knew you studied library science.
Back to me for a minute: Here is what I have encountered with writing my posts – both personal and business. I want the posts to be accurate. If I make an historical reference I don’t want it to be just about how I remember something, but what really happened. (You see, I too, was a history major for a year…and the one thing I learned is how one should research a topic.) This takes TIME. I get drawn into the subject and the next thing I know hours have passed.
A few years ago I was working on a project for a client. In doing my research I came across one of the most interesting on-line digital collections which I want to share with you. I think you would love working for Duke University Libraries Digital Collections. The collections are fantastic – photos, advertisements, etc.
Let me know what you think…I might just have to move this comment to my personal blog and write a post about you!
Judy
Hi Judy,
What a fabulous comment!
Yes, I completed my Masters in Library Science and then got my MA in History and then ended up at my family’s advertising agency. Such is what happens to the best laid plans, but I couldn’t be happier
I am very familiar with that collection from Duke. I pulled a lot of research when I was working on my thesis and I had to wipe the drool off my computer all of the time.
Thank you for a wonderful contribution to this conversation!
Hello Margie
“In short, if librarians begin to embrace Social Media and online engagement, librarianship as a profession could once again become one of the hottest professions out there.”
I think plenty of librarians/information professionals are already embracing this ethos and have been for some time, but still we hear talk of the profession on it’s last legs and libraries being closed all around us.
It seems as if our key problems are (1) Librarians aren’t being given full reign to embrace technology/new ways of working by their employers and (2) people outside the profession don’t know what “librarians are about” and that we aren’t just about hushing and books.
So, we don’t just have to do engage with social media etc, we also have to shout to the outside world that we are still here and our skills can help them.
Thanks – Gary
Absolutely, Gary. It’s educating librarians and then educating people who are not librarians that librarianship is more expansive than “one who works in a library.” This could be a golden age for the profession if only it were jumped upon as such.
Thank you for your great comment!
Margie,
This has to be one of your best posts yet. I love everything you right, but your approach and creativity on this rather important issue was nothing short of genius.
I do have one small thing that I would add to your post. If I had my way, I would charge all librarians with the job of building community around stories. Over the last few years, we have seen a massive surge of book clubs, but I think this falls short of what could be. Librarians “get” stories as well as the importance they play in cultures. With this knowledge, just think of the communities that could be built around stories both in the real and online worlds.
I’ll admit that I am a bit of a book snob, but putting that aside, I yearn for a world in which my soon-to-be-born baby girl can be immersed in beautiful stories that spark her inner creativity and artist. Cassie and I will make sure that she is exposed to as many books as we can get our hands on; however, nothing beats a story that is shared among others.
This same dream applies to adults as well!
Thank you for your beautiful words and thoughts. You amaze me.
@jwsokol