[Publib] a question from a new LIS student

[Phalbe Henriksen]

Jean said: Posting a question to this list is pretty passive compared 
to actually going out and TALKING to librarians and library 
administrators to find out what they really think. <snip>

And, Lise wrote: Ouch! Assuming that this library student doesn't 
have the time or money to travel all over the US to talk to us, I 
reckon this is a very cheap and quick way to get a wide variety of 
opinions. <snip>

_______________________________

I thought we already knew that these questions were coming from 
professors telling their students to subscribe to x number of lists 
and ask questions and report on the response(s). I thought I was 
being clever and amusing when I asked "Has summer school 
started?"(Maybe not.) I didn't expect people to come down hard on LIS 
students!

What if *no one* responds?? Is the student to report to the professor 
that there was no response? Would that affect the student's grade? Is 
the prof going to grade based on the quality of the question or the 
quantity/quality of responses, which depends on where we all are on 
any one day??

Actually, I'd like to read a discussion about LIS professors and what 
they're assigning and what they want/expect as a response, from both 
their students and from us, as pros in the "field."

For instance, do profs say, "If you're interested in ______, then 
look at this handout and subscribe to whichever library lists deal 
with that aspect. Ask a question and write a report on the responses."

What do profs want out of that? Quality of the question? The number 
of responses? The quality of the responses? The student's ability to 
bs a report if there's not much response? Is the prof slyly "doing 
research" on his or her newest book topic? (I apologize to the LIS 
community, but I got caught up in that, in 1967, when a history 
professor offered extra credit for anyone who could provide info he 
didn't already know about ________ (the subject on his forthcoming 
book which never came forth, as far as I know).

C'mon, all you profs subscribed to PUBLIB, "come clean" and tell us 
what you want. Most of the questions consist of "tell me everything 
you know about x." That's really hard to respond to. Small, medium or 
large libraries? Rural or urban? Well funded or struggling to stay 
open? What worked in the past but doesn't work now? (But may work 
starting out new in another community?) What is successful because 
lots of money was thrown at it? What didn't work, even though the 
intentions were sincere, etc., etc., but there was no money? What 
works in areas where there's generally money to fund stuff compared 
to the "least common denominator"??

Let's start a discussion, not about LIS students' questions, but 
about the issues the profs want them to learn/write about. They are 
our issues, day to day, even if we don't see them in philosophical 
terms on any one or more of our more stressful days.

These LIS students are standing where we were [fill in the blank] 
years ago, from the oldest of us to the newest of us. Don't let 
technology come between us.

Phalbe Henriksen
Director
Bradford County Public Library
Starke, FL
<http://bradfordcountylibrary.blogspot.com>