What type of librarian do you want to be?

This Foundations course is designed to teach you about the profession and give you a taste for the types of work each type of library / archives / cultural institution entails. 

There are four major types of libraries; public, school, academic, and special. There are archives and record centers, historical societies and museums. Special collections and rare book libraries are usually part of academic libraries or museums. When you consider special libraries, those that focus on a specific topic or trade, there are information centers, corporate libraries, law libraries, research centers and think tanks, and more. 

Museums have both libraries and collections of objects including art, artifacts, animals, and minerals. Historical societies collect objects, printed materials, and records or manuscripts.

When we delve into the information science side of LIS, there are information centers, usability labs, knowledge management functions and skills, search and retrieval centers, organizations that deal with information, data, metadata, databases, and the accumulation, aggregation, and dissemination of data, big and small.

Within this broad and expanding field there are opportunities to work in tradition jobs, such as reference and cataloging, and non-traditional jobs like scholarly communications and first-year experience. New jobs crop up every day including digital curators and digital humanists, electronic records managers, and human computer interaction specialists. 

This ever growing list is just a taste of the professionals and niches out there for LIS students and practitioners. What should you specialize in? I've always felt that general knowledge is best, but over the years I've come to realize that students need strong technology and searching skills, the ability to approach a website or database and determine how to retrieve data using the available access points and limitations. Digital skills are essential these days, even for analog librarians and those who gravitate toward the printed book. 

Most of all it is important to explore the various fields and permutations of LIS and determine how your skill set resonates with the required or perceived skills for a practitioner. Explore the field, it is ever changing and challenging, yet holds many opportunities. 

Over the past year or so, I've been reading an interesting blog "Hack Library School." 
Library science students talk about their impressions of the field, provide advice for fellow students, and suggestions on viewing themselves in Hack Library School http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/   This blog should be read by professors of LIS and by practitioners who want to know what students are concerned about. The current post http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/things-to-consider-when-applying-to-library-school/   is particularly enlightening as is today's post (Sept 23, 2013) "Working, Volunteering, or Interning Before Library School" http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/working-volunteering-or-interning-before-library-school/#more-7885

What type of information professional do you want to be when you grow up?

Two libraries - preserved and preserving our heritage

As we consider the history of libraries, we recognize that many from the ancient world do not survive. In fact, many collections of tablets, stone, and papyrus materials are records that document legal and administrative matters, such as the collections at Ebla, Tel El Amarna, and even the Linear B tablets found in Knossos and Mycenae. There are several wonderful books about the discovery of these collections and the decipherment of their records. The most recent is by Margolit Fox The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Codewhich describes the discover of Linear B tablets and their decipherment by Alice Kober and Michael Ventris. These tablets contain annual inventories of goods shipped and received at administrative centers in the ancient world (1800-1400 BCE).

We have all heard about the Library at Alexandria, founded by Ptolemy Soter and expanded by rulers in Egypt, burned by Julius Caesar, expanded by Marc Antony and Cleopatra, burned, expanded, and finally destroyed so that there are no scrolls or codices, merely archaeological ruins buried under the modern city in Egypt. One library that survives and is still being recovered is that at Herculaneum 
The city was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE spewing lava and ash over Pompeii and Herculaneum. Today, using refracted light and much patience, scrolls uncovered in the late 1700s are being digitized and preserved. The National Geographic video describes how the papyrus scrolls are unrolled and read today. http://youtu.be/rQBgoLZZjHM

Down through the ages, libraries have come and gone, some surviving and still in use like the Vatican Library that we discussed, others disappearing, known only through comments in the literature, letters, and historical references. Many of the national libraries today are working separately and jointly to preserve the historical record. The Smithsonian Libraries is one example. Again a very nice marketing video talks about the vast collections at the institution. http://youtu.be/bi75-k-7hrE

How does your library document its history? What does it collect that documents and preserves the history of your community?

Alternative Careers with a library degree

There are lots of jobs and careers out there for librarians and information scientists. Researchers and writers are just some of the traditional positions graduates seek.  Today I read the blog for Amanda Brenan, graduate of Rutgers, who calls herself a Meme Librarian and haunts forgotten places and files on the web.  If you want to know what others with MLIS degrees are doing, check out her blog http://biblioboard.tumblr.com/post/60750440586/when-i-began-library-school-in-2009-i-had-no-idea

As to my career, I've been a researcher, a consultant, a librarian and historian at large, and most of all a teacher. Somehow with all these positions and vocations, I use my degree every single day.

What non-traditional positions are you looking at?

Exploring symbols

I was thinking about the first week of Foundations of Library & Information Science, where we explored the Ampersand symbol, its meaning, origin, and definition., as we discussed the need to look up symbols, terms, and concepts for library patrons even if we know the answer. On one of the listservs I frequent, there is a posting for an article in the current New Yorker (Sept 6, 2013) about Hashtags, Manicules, and more. The article written by Keith Houston is entitled "Ancient Roots of Punctuation" http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/09/origins-of-hashtag-manicule-diple-pilcrow-ampersand-explained.html
 The article explores the origins of various symbols, including the number sign which can be used as an abbreviation for Pound, or lb. As with Ampersand, I was amazed that I use this symbol frequently and had no idea of its origins. If you are intrigued with the article, you might look at his book Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks . 

What did you learn today?

A fresh look at Libraries

Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions are changing before our eyes. In some cases they are merging into single institutions with multiple operations separated by function and format. In other cases, these institutions are merging all staff and functions into a single dynamic organization that offers its resources to the public. 
This semester we will explore how do these institutions work; where they came from and where they are going; and most importantly, where you fit in.

Here's a taste of what's to come. The Digital Public Library, as described by NPR on August 19, 2013 http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/08/19/213498478/combining-the-nations-digitized-libraries-all-in-one-place  

So follow me into the exciting world of cultural institutions where nothing stays the same. A solid intuitive grasp of how information works, how people seek information, and where the information resides is key for success. I'll help you start along that path.

All about libraries, again

Well, the summer semester just ended and I'm taking a break before I start to blog about library and information science, all over again.  It's been a great year for blogging and for learning all about libraries.


I'll be talking about libraries, archives, information science, and all those related fields. Where does the field come from? What do practitioners do? and more so. So get ready.

Here are some photos of libraries I visited last fall.  The one to the right is in Brooklyn Heights, NYC.
The one to below is one of the beautiful stone lions at NYPL.
 






Look for more posts in August.

In the aftermath of Foundations this summer

Now that the Foundations course ended, I have some time to explore library and information science and look for new books.  Two contain a series of articles examining the digital world we find ourselves in. How do we conceive of the library in a digital world? Penny Dale, Jill Beard and Matt Holland edited University Libraries and Digital Learning Environments (London: Ashgate, 2011) which prods the reader to examine the library through the eyes of a digital learner. Where do social media, e-learning, digital repositories, and digital collections fit within our hallowed walls? How do we serve the e-learner and distance student with our varied resources? Are reference interviews still effective when helping virtual students? These questions and more are tackled by the practitioners who contributed to this volume of essays.

From Lending to Learning: The Development and Extension of Public Libraries (Chandos Information Professional Series) First (1st) Edition by Ronan O'Beirne, (Chandos Information Professional Series, October 2010) takes on the changing role of public libraries and addresses the question of serving the remote patron, providing outreach to community members, and engaging diverse populations. Read about this challenge and ask yourself, how can I bring in a new group of users over the next few months?

Censorship and Intellectual Freedom were the most popular topics of the semester. Discussion was hot and heavy as you explored the difference between censorship and collection development and the need to build balanced, neutral collections. Based upon the discussion and the curiosity about why certain books are banned or contentious, I’ve changed an assignment for next time which will encourage students to tackle this topic head on. In the meantime, you might read this new compilation of articles edited by Valerie Nye and Kathy Barco, True Stories of Censorship Battles in America's Libraries (Chicago: ALA, 2012).  This slim volume contains essays about censorship in the library instigated by librarians, parents, and organizational bodies alike. “The most important lesson we hear repeated in these essays is a call for each library to have a collection development policy and a materials consideration policy before a challenge occurs”[xix]. What’s in your collection that could be challenged? This slim volume contains examples of how librarians dealt with censorship.

Finally, several people asked for books or articles about the history of cataloging & classification. I asked a few catalogers who agreed the subject seems to be a seldom studied field. When I teach my Rare Book Librarianship course, I’m likely to come across some more articles.  I did find three studies. Martin D. Joachim edited Historical Aspects of Cataloging and Classification. (simultaneously published in the journal Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 35 no. 1 and 2 (2002) and 35 no. 3 and  4 (2003)) Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press, Inc. 2003. The entire volume is available as a journal through KentLink (EBSCOhost). You’ll need your VPN to access the articles. Quite a number looked interesting, including one on the history of classification for government documents.

The second publication that looked interesting and discussed the history of cataloguing is by Mary Piggott A Topography of Cataloguing showing the most important landmarks, communications, and perilous places. London: The Library Association, 1988. I didn’t find any particular article that struck my fancy, but if you like theoretical articles, this one is for you.

The third book I found about the history of cataloging is by Donald J. Lehnus Milestones in Cataloging: Famous Catalogers and Their Writings 1835-1969. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc 1974. While this one is older, the articles focus on the theory and development of cataloging in its first 125 years. I might use the first two chapters in an advanced seminar on catalogs and cataloging, otherwise, I’d leave this one for those who are curious about the evolution of the field and terminology.

The world of books beckons. I will continue to post as I find other titles of interest. What have you learned today?