[Publib] Jobs and People

[Rob Amend]

The "haves" tend to dismissively think of us as glorified bookstores (which
they think they don't need) or as repositories of information which they can
already get on the Internet. The "have nots" seem to know us better, but
they're not typically the ones who influence votes on property taxes or
other things that finance libraries. How *do* we convince the "haves" of our
value?

They do have access to information they can use through the Internet, book
purchases, contacts and professional knowledge. Can we provide them with
better tools to help them process and filter the information they receive?
Can we show them better ways to interpret the information or cut through the
garbage? of course we can, but they don't seem to know that.

We do offer more than reference, but the people who tend to pay our bills
don't always care about these things. Personally, I think that the things
that we provide for the "have nots" are the most important things we
provide, but many patrons I speak with think of these things as glorified
social services. It's hard to drum up support unless we can offer something
tangible to the "haves."

Rob Amend
Reference Librarian
rob.amend at gmail.com
blog.reftechrob.com


On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 5:15 PM, Kathryn Bloomberg - Rissman <
kbr at ci.upland.ca.us> wrote:

> This is an interesting discussion, however it seems to limit the value
> of libraries to reference services only.  Surely we provide much more to
> our communities than reference. Yes, reference services seem to be the
> one service that is under pressure to change and it will be interesting
> (as in the old Chinese curse about living in interesting times) to see
> what reference services look like in 3,5 and 10 years.
>
> Kathy Bloomberg-Rissman
> Library Director
> Upland Public Library
>    for all the chapters of your life
> Upland, CA
>
> I GoodSearch for the Upland Public Library
>  www.goodsearch.com - powered by Yahoo!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
> [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Jesse Ephraim
> Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 1:21 PM
> To: publib at webjunction.org
>  Subject: Re: [Publib] Jobs and People
>
> >I strongly doubt that the average librarians abilities to perform
> >searches, research, instruct, and use information technology is at the
> >same level as the average library user. Anecdotally, I've not found
> this
> >to be case in libraries that have a dedicated reference department
> staff
> >with full time degreed librarians in any library I've ever worked for
> or
> >used. Anyone who says different I'd like to see your evidence for such
> a
> >sweeping claim.
>
> It would be difficult to provide evidence for either argument. It's all
> anecdotal, since nobody out there (to my knowledge) is doing a study on
> it.
>
> Keep in mind, too, that more and more public libraries don't have
> dedicated reference staff with Masters degrees anymore.
>
> The average librarian probably does have stronger skills in those areas
> when it comes to "have not" patrons.  With "have" patrons, however, the
> gap is closing in many cases.  Many "power users" are very competent
> when it comes to online and technologically-based information gathering
> and research.  If we are to claim to be expert "information
> professionals," the average librarian should be several levels higher in
> skill and knowledge in that area than "power users."
>
> It goes beyond research skills, though.  Many patrons are far more
> willing and driven than the average librarian to learn and use newer
> technological tools on their own time (not waiting for training), such
> as mashups.  If we are to present ourselves as experts, we need to be
> ahead of the curve, and make sure that we all have basic data skills,
> such as SQL.
>
>
>
> Jesse Ephraim
>
> Director, Roanoke Public Library
> 308 S. Walnut
> Roanoke, Texas 76262
> (817) 491-2691
> jephraim at roanoketexas.com
>
>
>
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