by Connie Crosby, Toronto Chapter, KM, Legal, Taxonomy and Leadership & Management Divisions
We have a big opportunity to use our skills in initiatives beyond the library, to contribute to teams that bring together a range of skills. In the book The New Polymath (http://www.thenewpolymath.com/), Vinnie Mirchandani describes teams made up of experts with a range of backgrounds coming together to innovate in ways not previously seen.
Becoming an independent consultant has been an eye-opening experience for me. I work with teams of extremely smart, insightful people working with information who come from a range of backgrounds, not just library. By contrast, I find so often librarians want to hold ourselves apart as “us” versus “them” (librarians versus non-librarians) but really, it should just be “us”. We are all on the same side, working toward the same goals.
And I am starting to take exception to those who try to hold librarians as somehow special. Distinct perhaps, yes, but not somehow better than others. In the process of justifying our place in the universe, I fear that librarians—primarily in the United States and Canada where we do not have licensing in our profession—have inadvertently excluded others in our workplaces and industries who we really should be respecting, working with, and learning from.
Many Library Technicians have horror stories about the difficulties they have faced in working with “MLS’s”, often times being passed over for jobs or promotions, or doing the same work as an MLS but with lower pay. So much of what we know in the library industry is learned on the job, that I often wonder how this can be. I think back to my own library school education a number of years ago: while I learned a lot at the time, very little of it today resembles my working reality, and very little of the program resembles today’s program. I can’t help but think that, once we have been in the working environment for a number of years, the experience counts for so much more.
We also often forget there are others in the information world, many of whom are also without the MLS degree: researchers, information consultants, information architects, knowledge managers, records managers, user experience specialists, indexers and taxonomists among others. While those with library degrees often excel in these areas, they are not prerequisites for success in the job. Since leaving the library workplace for consulting, I have come across and worked with so many different types of people, many who (much to my surprise) know an awful lot about information.
We do not own this, folks.
I therefore have a difficult time understanding the elitist mindset of some librarians. I do realize that in an economic downturn when we are all struggling to keep a roof over our heads, the effort to survive forces us to find ways to distinguish ourselves, and promoting our degrees over others’ is one way we often do this.
However, we need to keep in mind that different skill sets and personalities on our teams contribute to successful projects. I believe we can also learn a lot from one another, and have always benefited from working with others of backgrounds different from our own. If we are all going to work together, we need to be mindful and respectful of one another.
I know we fear losing our identities as librarians. But I am here to tell you: fear not! Your paranoia is not justified! There is such a great opportunity here for learning from others. For while we learn from others, and treat them with respect, they learn from us and hopefully show us increased respect as well.
I know that when I tell people I am an information management consultant, their eyes glaze over. When I tell them I am a consultant with law librarian training, it suddenly captures their imagination and they have an instant vision of how I might help them. And when I work on projects with other consultants, they have an appreciation for my background and what I can bring to the project.
I am proud of my library degree, and continue to identify myself as a librarian. But, having worked as a technician in the past and working as an information consultant now, I can see that putting ourselves into an ivory tower is such a mistake. Exclusivity does not help us become stronger.
I would love for us to embrace the other information professionals out there, and have us welcome them into SLA more than we are doing now. It would enrich our own experience so much, bringing fresh viewpoints and ideas into our divisions and chapters. And it would give them a way to learn from us (i.e. librarians) as well.
And in your own working life, I encourage you to look beyond the physical limits of the library, and put yourself forward to participate on teams that might normally be outside your realm. They need you. And, you need them.
Photo credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Rich Vintage Photography
Connie Crosby is a consultant specializing in library management, information management, knowledge management, and social media inside the enterprise. Before consulting, she was a law library manager for 10 years in a Toronto law firm. Connie is a founding director and contributor for the co-operative law blog Slaw.ca and also writes for her own blog at http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com. She is an instructor with the iSchool Institute at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, teaching continuing education courses on social media and an organizer of PodCamp Toronto, a gathering of social media professionals and enthusiasts in Canada, co-organizer of Knowledge Workers Toronto, a monthly meetup group. Her 2010 book Effective Blogging for Libraries is part of the Tech Set series from Neal-Schuman Publishers.
Hi Connie
This resonates so much with the situation over here in the UK as well. As you may have read in Information Today, we’re trying to work on the issue by getting the various groups (including CILIP, the equivalent of ALA over here, and SLA and others) to collaborate and communicate better together. Here, I think the situation was also exacerbated by pure numbers – at one time CILIP had over 20,000 members while each of the other groups, for law librarians, special librarians, records managers, etc, etc, each had about 1,000 or so. Now, though, technological developments and user expectations are breaking down the barriers between groups, and I hope many people read your post and take to heart your call to all learn from and work with each other.
Nicola: thank you for making this connection. My blog post was written a few weeks ago; when I read the latest issue of Information Today, it did strike me that we were thinking along the same lines.
Connie, thanks for a welcome invitation to collaboration and outreach! In the past, perhaps we librarians were justified in seeing ourselves as a “professional specialty”; today, the management of information and knowledge has become such an integral part of so many jobs that it’s tricky to maintain the justification. You are right in suggesting there is greater value in looking *out* for common ground with other groups than there is in looking *in* on ourselves (though it’s always a good idea to take an unsentimental and realistic look at how we “come across” to others). Such looking out for common ground is demonstrated in the informal professional gatherings you have instigated, and I hope you will continue your mission of building relationships and partnerships across traditional divides. Your post reminds me of the old story about medieval masons, one of whom says “I’m a bricklayer” and the second of whom says “I”m building a cathedral”; I must believe the way ahead for our profession lies in focusing on the cathedrals we are metaphorically building in society together with our architect and engineer colleagues. “Future ready” surely requires that we identify ourselves as dealing with contemporary challenges in the world WITH, not apart from, other professional groups. With the old professional silos gone, the question becomes how we make ourselves attractive collaboration partners for other professional communities. Attracting attention and collaboration by articulating more clearly “what part of the cathedral project we are especially qualified for and how we can support the other parts” can only be a win-win proposition – one I believe deserves emphasis from the get-go in the academic programs. (Indeed, my previous post in this blog focused on students for that reason.)
Thank you for making great points about the librarian profession, Connie. Librarians should be open to working with other knowledge workers in the library. The world is changing so fast. Librarians must reach out and work in teams. It is also important to reach out beyond the library to librarians and knowledge workers in other geographic locations. These networks make us smarter and the library a better place to visit.
I also liked your point about not fearing the loss our identities as librarians. I also think this fear is unfounded. A librarian is a guide or a teacher. That is a need and want that will never disappear no matter how fast the information flows. In fact, it may become more important.
Excellent post Connie. As an association we seem to be struggling with how to reach out to information professionals other than librarians. It’s not easy — after all, most of us belong to library profeessional association and engage professionally with other librarians.
My chapter (Rio Grande Chapter) is hosting a meeting this week on the topic of strategic directions and partnerships with information professionals throughout the state. We are excited that 30+ people have RSVP’s, many from outside of SLA but with only a few exceptions, all from within libraryland. I see this as the beginning of a long effort to continue reaching out to build relationships both inside and outside the library profession.
Thank you, Connie. As a library technician working in a corporate library setting, your post really resonates with me. In the 10 years I’ve had the pleasure of working with my team, I’ve been so fortunate not to have encountered discrimination on the basis of my education, or lack of, as some would see it. My two year technician program, in addition to other eduction and work experience, prepared me fully for my first day on the job. My natural curiousity, strategic thinking, passion for connecting people with information and willingness to grow and learn, have allowed me to advance in my career. I have paid close attention to opportunities to improve and expand the information services offered by my team. I wonder though, if this is an unsual experience for a library technician; just where is that glass ceiling?
While I’ve been lucky not to experience discrimination from my team members, conferences and other professional networking opportunities are a different story altogether.
I have great respect for the MLS degree, don’t get me wrong, but I have more respect for an individual committed to the information profession who keeps an open mind about what qualifies a person to work alongside them, not just beneath them.
This will be my first SLA conference and I look forward to the possibility of a positive experience in this regard at SLA 2011.