Using Your Librarian Powers for Good

Tips for Aspiring Librarian Superheroes

Jessamyn West
librarian.net

www.librarian.net/simmons/index.html


16&17apr04


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Quick, name a famous librarian....

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Survey says...

It's sort of like playing "Who is Jewish?" or "Who is gay?"


What happens when you play this game with someone who is not a librarian ....?


Do you ever find yourself saying "No, really, it's not like that..." ?

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Some that I thought of

real	imaginary
Melvil Dewey [crazy] S.R. Ranganathan [who?] Nancy Pearl [coming soon] Laura Bush [ahem] that guy from LoC with the porn collection [who?]	Marian [link] Parker Posey [link] Katherine Hepburn [link] Giles from Buffy [link] Batgirl [link] Jet Li [link]
Others that I can think of particular to my world are Sandy Berman, Walt Crawford, Karen Schneider, Mitch Freedman and James Billington, maybe. A few more with online presences are listed here. Most of column 2 is populated with people who do interesting things despite being a librarian...

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So, if I want to "make something of myself" and still be a librarian?

• do I join ALA/SLA/ASIS?
• do I write a book?
• do I make friends [aka network]?
• do I start a blog?
• do I go on the lecture circuit?

Should I just put up a page about my bellydancing exploits and be done with it?

Can I do any of this and still hold down a full-time job?

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My awareness of things librarian - the swift ascension

• reading
• my hometown library
• my first intellectual freedom class
• my first WLA/ALA conference [side note: ALA has no meta-narrative]
• school ambition
• SRRT

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My awareness of things librarian - the downward spiral

• SRRT [yes, on both lists]
• my college advisor
• my school job[s]
• my publishing contract
• Council
• John Ashcroft & hate mail
• the weird librarian at a Vermont University to remain nameless

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What's an ambitious gal [or guy] to do?

• I promise not to go on about "marketing" [but check this out]
  
  
• but what is your big plan?
  
  
• is there a job in your future? In this field? Are you sure?

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10 Years of ALA Placement Center Stats

Year	midw jobs	seekers	annual jobs	seekers
1995	421	484	472	1105
1996	384	405	435	896
1997	360	436	525	577
1998	416	283	874	545
1999	615	334	997	489
2000	669	202	1004	481
2001	813	260	703	463
2002	318	214	278	368
2003	196	293	142	317
2004	129	197	***	***

[source]
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What worked for me

• Have an entire other life that is not your job
• Have en entire other set of librarian friends who are not your co-workers
• Have friends who are not librarians
• Wave your freak flag [such as it is, whatever it is] fast and furiously
• Smile and say please and thank you
• and...

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Don't dwell on it

• The "image" thing
• Your lousy pay
• Amazon.com
• Google, because I know something about Google...

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The real not-so-secret Google vs the Librarians issue

1. Google is everywhere
2. You -- most of you -- are in your libraries [Columbia]
3. Google is a server farm
4. You are people
5. You are a network of information professionals even if you don't exploit that network
6. Google is a bunch of programmers and ad salesmen in a few major cities who know how to work it
7. Some must stay while others must roam - find your niche. The profession needs people to stay in the buildings and people to move between the buildings.

[image source]
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Thank you!

questions?

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Credits

This presentation was created in HTML using CSS. There was no PowerPoint involved in this presentation except as a nagging bad example.

I can be reached on AIM at iamthebestartist and through all normal email channels.