Credentials for Librarians & more about varieties of libraries

PhD’s in Libraries

There is / was an interesting trend to hire 'scholar librarians' in academic libraries. The idea is to have PhD's who are active in their academic field (not LIS) working in the library and as liaisons with the academic department. The hope is the PhD will strengthen the rapport between the library and the department. At OSU the idea was hire a subject specialist, and if they don't have an MLS give them a few years to acquire the degree.  I don't know if it is still a trend after the economic downturn in 2008.

Multiple degrees – should not be a surprise – have an MLIS and a subject masters, just as school librarians need a teaching certificate. While academic libraries do not require a second degree (masters in a subject), they are either looking for one, or hope you'll get one. Some universities hire librarians with only one degree at a lower rank than if you have 2 degrees, so it may take longer to get promoted and tenure.  That said, it's not a hard and fast rule, it depends upon the institution.  Don't let that second degree stop you from applying for academic positions. What better way to get a second degree than to have the institution pay for it!

Archives / genealogy collections

Genealogy collections fit within archives and public libraries. You'll also find them in historical societies, which could be considered special libraries.  Mostly I see genealogy collections as special collections in public libraries.  There are large collections in the big public libraries, smaller ones in the rural communities. Some large genealogy collections in Ohio are at Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, at Cleveland PL, Dayton Metro, Columbus Metro, Toledo PL, and Akron Summit County PL. The second largest in the country is in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Allen County PL.

Archives are usually found in university libraries but you'll find them again in public libraries. In the case of the latter, the archives document the history of the library or the institution, and usually do not house the records of local businesses or organizations.

While the American Memory project has wonderful examples of materials found in the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov  so does the National Archive www.archives.gov look at the collections under ARC (Archival Research Collection) http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/

These are great examples of collections that were digitized and are now available for researchers, librarians, and teachers to use. There are images, documents, and audiovisual materials in these collections.

Archives is an excellent career for a librarian. Many archivists have a second degree or specialty in history, political science, or whatever the focus of the archives might be. Some archivists have PhDs; that depends upon the organization and the age of the professional. If you are interested in archives, there are two courses offered at Kent, and one on the Columbus campus, and you should probably take my genealogy course also.

Visiting libraries is the best way to get to know what they have to offer you and their patrons. That’s the whole point of your observation assignment. Think about how the library you visit is similar or different from those you are familiar with. The same will hold true of your interview with a librarian or information professional.

Careers as librarians

After reading your discussion from last week, I noticed you are all concerned about the type of library you want to work it.  My first reaction is that it’s much too early to worry about where you will find a job. You still need to learn what it is to be a librarian and how libraries work. Yet, many of you are already working in libraries or have careers and see this degree as the next move in your life.

When I’m asked about planning a career, I often feel at a disadvantage for my career just happened. I stumbled into librarianship, love the field, and then moved from job to job as they came along. There was no purposeful planning as to what I wanted to achieve in my career. Maybe that’s why I’ve had so many interesting experiences. Maybe it’s why I learned so much about libraries, books, and research.

My usual response to up and coming librarians and library science students is to get a broad education, learn all you can about the core skills and, today, about technology. These will provide the basis for your first job.  In many instances, that first job is where you actually train to become a librarian.  Library school is where you learn the ‘theory’ and the concepts. And I’m old school, where I think that library science is a practical degree and my colleagues often tell me the field has lots of theory. I think that’s a generational difference. How do I know? I mentioned the Buckland article today to a colleague who said it’s important to get the theory, because the MLIS is not just an apprenticeship. If the MLIS was an apprenticeship, you would all come out of the degree with all the practical skills you need for your new jobs, and that’s also not the case.

Anyway, I ramble. So to continue with my advice, learn about cataloging and technology; learn about reference tools, print & online; learn to reason and analyze materials, questions, and answers. All these skills will stand you in good stead. Learn about the history and ask “why” often to have a background and grounding in the field. Remember, my focus is reference and research, so I want to know why and I want to think about how to find sources, information, and answers that are complete and to the point.

Enough on this topic for now.  I have snippets of things to say about academic credentials for librarians and archivists in my next blog posting tomorrow.

Intellectual freedom

1/31/2012

Intellectual freedom is the other major topic for the week. The main themes of this chapter are access to information and books, selection vs. censorship, confidentiality, and ethics. That’s a lot of ground to cover. Here’s what you should take away from the chapter. Libraries, Archives, Historical Societies, and Museums should collect a wide range of materials within their mission and collection development policies, and make those materials available to their patrons. The materials should cover the subject in a balanced manner. For example, if you acquire materials about abortion, you need to include items that support abortion and are anti-abortion. Here’s another example. There was a long and difficult debate amongst librarians about collecting “Holocaust Denial” materials. Should libraries collect materials that say the Holocaust never existed?  In the end, the decision was yes, they should have such materials balanced by all the materials about the Holocaust, otherwise, how would historians and researchers know what the deniers were publishing and arguing.[1]I’m certain you can come up with other topics where you need balanced coverage.

I don’t want my blog to turn into a written lecture, so let me reflect here a little about intellectual freedom. The topic is really about providing access to all types of information, to making certain that those who seek information can find it in the library or archives. Now we may request that individuals come to the library or into our special collections, but the information will be there to share and use. This means that you, the librarian or archivist, need to give the information to the patron. You also need to be neutral in your comments, and to provide balanced recommendations. When I was in library school the prime example was encyclopaedia recommendations. You might give a patron World Book because the articles are simple to read, there are pictures, and the information is easy to get at. On the other hand, Encyclopædia Britannica provides in-depth coverage of a topic at a higher reading level. If a patron wanted to know which was ‘better’, that was the answer. No evaluation, no preference. Today, I’d say the same is true of Wikipedia, it is fast, has pictures, etc, but you need to balance that with whether the links work, go where you expect them to go, and who contributed the article. FYI, the basic info for Wikipedia was from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, imagine that! Can 1911 information be current?  They built up from there.

I think it’s difficult to always be neutral, but that’s what the codes of ethics teach us. We must provide access to all, and balanced information. Perhaps that’s the crux of the matter when we deal with internet access in the library. Should we filter or not? A sticky issue that hasn’t really be resolved.

In the end, we can only be fair, equitable, balanced, and as neutral as possible when providing resources to answer questions. And we need to protect the rights of our patrons who come to the library seeking information and not wishing anyone to know what they sought. Anonymity is important. That’s why circulation systems delete the information about what you borrowed when you return the items, and why librarians fight against the government when they want to know what you borrowed, or who borrowed which books. Intellectual freedom is a hot topic in libraries, especially since 9/11. Protecting the freedom to ask for information is an important component of the field.

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[1] For some discussion about the topic see two sites that discuss what holocaust denial http://www.hdot.org/, http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007272, and one about the premier holocaust denier http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Irving.

Information and documentation, a most confusing topic

1/29/2012

This week you will read about information and intellectual freedom. The two topics go together because they look at the creation or identification of data that will become information, and access to the information. Personally, I found the two articles about information difficult to understand, but then I’m not a theorist, I’m a practitioner. The way to approach the articles is to think about how YOU deal with information, how you interpret data to make it useful to yourself and your patrons.

Perhaps the best way to think about this issue is to consider the ways you use data to justify or support an argument. Do you look at each data element to see how it informs a whole? Do the data elements provide context or background? Buckland’s discussion of dead birds as documents is actually a continuation of the pamphlet by Suzanne Briet (where it talks about the antelope as text) called Qu’est que la documentation? [1]Buckland wrote another article that’s perhaps easier to understand.[2]Let me try to explain the concept using simpler terminology because the theory is difficult for me to put into practice.

There’s a notion that images are also texts. I have encountered this notion in art history and photography. When we look at an image, we learn a lot about a society or the individuals within the image. We see clothing, modes of transportation, goods, buildings, expressions and more. Using the image we can begin to understand the event it depicts, the people it portrays, and that time and place. Think about photographs of the Civil War, or your wedding, or the birth of a child. All tell us about the event and the participants. What I’ve done is applied the theory of documentation or information to the real world. I’ve shown how it can be used. Now, let’s back up to the photograph and consider the data. There are people in the photo, who are they? What are their names? What was the event? What are they wearing? Those are some of the data elements. When you catalog the photograph, you might include some of that data, especially if you are cataloging the data into a database where researchers are looking for people or clothing of a particular era, or they want images of particular types of buildings or cars. The data elements can be combined to provide background or context for the researcher. If I understand the theory correctly, that makes the data into information that can then be used by the researcher to become knowledge. See if you can apply the theory about image as document or text to this photograph http://floridahistory.org/ybor2.htmof workers in a cigar factory. By looking at the images we learn how cigars were made, the types of equipment used, the working conditions, and more. The images document the factory and the processes of making cigars. All the photos can be considered data, or information, depending upon your perspective. I hope this example helps make more sense of the articles. Let me know.

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[1] http://martinetl.free.fr/. Reviewed by Jonathan Furner, “What is Documentation? English Translation of the Classic French Text” (review) Libraries & the Cultural Record, Volume 43, issue 1 (January 31, 2007), p. 107-109 [available through Kentlink].

[2] http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~buckland/whatdoc.html

Type of Libraries - a wrap up

1/26/2012

As a wrap up for the week, we read and heard lots about Librarians and our roles within libraries and other cultural institutions, particularly how librarians deal with technology.

I thought you might enjoy watching these four short YouTube videos about librarians and IT professionals. You can watch the first three in any order. Save the fourth for last.

http://youtu.be/RFzHH5LRK2M

http://youtu.be/VWY8OBMlroI

http://youtu.be/lYwoHCdIDKU

http://youtu.be/p6uWmT2TXlQ

Enjoy!

Personally, I use technology as a tool for my writing, my teaching, and more. I don’t really see myself as a techie, yet I have decades of experience. Where I see technology fitting into librarianship is my ability to use technology to find answers. By that I mean, I use databases and catalogues to find the information I seek. I am less interested in designing the databases and catalogues, their structure and how they work. But give me a database and I’ll figure out its method of madness, its order, arrangement, and access points. That’s the skill I’ve cultivated for print and digital reference tools. What about you?

And now for some comic relief: A cute video about books at play http://youtu.be/SKVcQnyEIT8

Independent Librarians

Someone asked me to expand upon what it means to be an independent librarian.  In my case, I take on private contracts to perform research for companies and individuals. Most of my research is done in cultural institutions and courthouses around the state.  I use the internet to confirm that resources are in particular locations, and then travel to the site to use and consult the primary sources. In some cases, I use digital collections, but for the most part, my clients want me to consult the actual items.  Some independent or free-lance librarians / researchers search for information about companies and products. That type of research is usually called "corporate intelligence". I don't know how many of this variety of researcher is still out there. They were pretty rare in the early 1990s when I started my research business.

Where do I get clients? Well, I do some subtle advertising and then I have my website. Most of my clients come from referrals from other clients and librarians. I've been doing this a long time, so I have lots of happy clients. It's a fascinating way to use my degree and keeps me fresh.  What I love most about being "independent" is that I get to use libraries and archives. I have a really good idea of what researchers need, which institutions have the best materials, and how to ask questions. I can interact with all types of librarians and archivists and learn more than I ever imagined. 

Here's where I put theory into practice. I use research materials. I think about how they work and are arranged. Then I teach about the tools to my students. In the meantime, I'm probably reading about the tools and the documents so I understand how the agencies and organizations collected the information, why they wanted it, and what they did with it. Then I can apply that historical context to the documents and think about how I can use them or teach them to my students.

I apply my library research skills to my work every day. There's never a dull moment.

Reactions to Reflective Journals

It's late and I've just finished reading all the journals.  I continue to be overwhelmed by your comments and ruminations. I've had requests for some idea of what you are all writing about.  Most of you commented on the Library of Alexandria and what a loss the fire was. I'll agree. It would have been wonderful to have all that literature and knowledge. Fortunately, we have hints in other writings of what was in the library and can reconstruct, or have reconstructed some of those writings. Others are lost forever.  Whenever I think of the Library of Alexandria and it's loss, I wonder about whether all our digital materials might be lost if there's some massive war, or power surge, or something to that effect. Maybe I've read too much science fiction over the years. A Canticle for Leibowitz always comes to mind when I think loss of collections, so does Fahrenheit 451. If you haven't read these books, you might have read others like Dies the Fire by SM Sterling or The Giver  by Lois Lowry. What would happen if the knowledge of the world was lost.  Too depressing a thought for this late at night.

What else did you focus on for week 2. The convergence of libraries, archives and museums played havoc with most of you.  Consider "Special Collections" within libraries and that might help with the idea of collections with many types of materials.  I don't think the three types of cultural institutions should merge, but there are such animals out there.

Many of you voiced concerns about the profession and respect by others for librarianship as profession. It's an age old problem of image. You'll see lots of discussion in the literature which includes salary, inequality of the sexes, appearance, and reputation. Maybe you are the generation which will fix this problem.

I want to reiterate that there's no right or wrong with the reflective journals. They are for you to ruminate. I"m just reading and commenting.  Do think of substantive issues to write about. Problems that concern you. I'll do my best to respond and comment. 

Now, on to my next posting.