The plenary panel, for me, was the highlight of the entire conference. Granted, I have always been overly excited by the theory behind our profession, but I think it is so important to consider the big picture now and again. My notes are probably fairly jumbled, as I was so entranced I forgot to to type for whole moments at a time.
I appreciated David Lankes reminding us all that we make a lot of assumptions about “young librarians” (whether that means age or time in the profession). Just because we’ve just come out of library school does not mean that you should cram us into a lot of techy responsibility because that tends to alienate us from the organization, from time spent getting to know the culture where we work. I feel lucky that I get to geek out, but have colleagues who reach out to wrap me into the fold of our culture all the same. It is a good blend but I can see how it would easily become overwhelming in many situations.
Lankes also called for big changes in LIS education. Whenever I hear a speaker on this topic I am again affirmed that I really did get a great LIS education. I know there are people who think a theoretically-based/inspired program is a waste of time but it simply is not true. Tools and applications can be picked up later (hell, they keep changin’ anyway). This is not to say that cataloging is not important ( I took it, it was mandatory) but that there’s no point to it if we’re missing the underpinnings. It’s like wearing vintage couture without a bra: expensive and it wont hold you up for long.
Carla Stoffle, like many speakers, reminded us that we need to take the library to the user, not require the user to 1) figure out what they actually want and 2)find us to ask for it. Importantly, she points out that technology is a tool, not a finite set of skills to set and forget.
Marie Radford is not a woman I’d want to get into a barroom brawl with, she’d totally win. What a spitfire! She asserts that communication, content, and cognitive skills are the most important qualities in a reference librarian. Be an agent of change, don’t just get dragged along with it is the take home message here. Well, that and, “No more lone ranger librarians!”
Jamie LaRue of Douglas County Libraries reminded me about some of the softer, but essential elements of librarianship. The heart of communication is really the ability to be in the same space as another human being. As we face the destuction of the circulation desk via RFID and self-checkout this becomes so much more important. Do the simple things: look up and make eye-contact, examine your reference desk and determine whether you’ve got a fotress or moat effect going on.
Renee and I had a brief chat (she chatted, I gawked) with Jamie LaRue about some elements of the Working Together program spearheaded by VPL. Tres exciting. Take a look at what those wacky Canucks are doing, I am really impressed. I’m also impressed by the idea of bottom-up community mapping, also being done by VPL. Jamie was the perfect person to talk to about this as his talk during the plenary panel was really about outreach and putting ourselves where we need to be. He used the example of a librarian he “assigned” to attend community meetings (town council perhaps, I neglected to note it). Initially the meeting folks treated her like a mascot, not a useful member of the group. Within a short period of time they came to recognize how essential her presence and contributions were and the culture shifted to one of, “We can’t begin the meeting yet, the librarian hasn’t arrived.” How can you engender this in your community/library/environment? Continue reading…
