Librarians
Professional Values: Intellectual Freedom, Freedom of Information, Information Literacy
Quotes
“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” James Madison, 1822
“In Alaska, there are bush plane librarians. In Africa, there’s camel librarians. , , , In our mind, we think of librarians as the quintessential “Marian the Librarian” who puts the books back on the shelves, makes sure that everything’s tidy. Librarians are a determined bunch. They’re far more subversive than that.” Kathi Appelt. The Pack Horse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky. September 13, 2018.
Librarianship as a Profession
Pre-Internet and pre-personal computers
- No graphic user interface: printed cards, text- and command based search protocols
- Typewriter with correction tape and limited memory functions
- Modems with couplers: no wireless, no high speed connections
- Bi-weekly updates were printed pages: pull old, “tip in” new
- Online index searches were charged by the minute, with strict search protocols
Between the Master of Librarianship degree and the career:
- Mentors
- Heroes
- Professional Ethics
- Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Librarianship
- Kurt Vonnegut’s Man Without A Country (about 3/4 of the page down, with the paragraph starting “While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians…”)
Career development: Dueling images
- Spinster, Donna Reed, as Mary (w/o George Bailey ) in the movie It’s A Wonderful Life
- * VIDEO We just wanna be fancy and free , our alter-egos in Second Life
- * VIDEO What we actually appear to be , the March of the Librarians
- * VIDEO “Librarian” Lays Down the Law: but, who is the librarian here? What is their job? From Party Girl
Getting Beyond the Stereotypes
- Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Librarian
- Have a sense of humor, like the Lipstick Librarian or the folks behind Peep Research
- Job v. career: look at the big picture, Issues and Advocacy, American College and Research Libraries
- Take inspiration from the best: deep down I just wanna be Bunny from Desk Set, outwitting EMERAC
- * VIDEO Embrace your inner Librarian. Write a Manifesto [Caution: contains some nudity]
- * VIDEO “I am a librarian,” from The Mummy
- * VIDEO Introducing the Book : Must user frustration always be a legacy of information systems?
- * VIDEO But, if we take “Anything Anytime Anywhere” to heart, can we finally have cookies in the Library?!!
History of current work