Comments on: Dropping the L

By: Ammie

Ammie — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:08:45 +0000

I love being a librarian…but I have to say, dropping the L does not bother me that much. I feel as if I am more of an information specialist (getting them what they need, how they need it, with smile no less:). I graduated with my MLIS in 2007 and have talked to a number of my cohort and find them in a wide range of jobs that require them to be able to obtain accurate information in a variety of formats. In a way, this is what librarian’s have always been (not to mention scholars in a variety of subject). I don’t think “information” neccessarily means electronic vs. print. Informaiton (especially when you are doing research at 5am in the morning for a paper due at 5pm the next day) is good as long as it is accurate and available…no matter the form or if it is a librarian or information specialist who gets it for them.

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:48:00 +0000

I've been writing about this very same issue within my own library. The upshot is that we've got so many generations of acculturation towards books that we've forgotten that they're an information *container* but they're not the information itself. So when the container starts to change, many librarians are lost.

The good news is, many librarians are not lost. Many seem to be able to follow the *information*, as it were, and adopt whatever format works for whatever patron. It's that resilience that makes me optimistic.

And if our public needs to hear a different word in order for our role to make sense to them, well then, let's change the word. I'd rather be able to do what we do for patrons under a different name than to keep the name and lose the role.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:41:00 +0000

I have a problem with the whole “library media specialist”/”library media center” nomenclature. It distances those of us working in schools from those working in libraries elsewhere – there’s not a Library Media Center of Congress, is there? Or San Francisco Public Library Media Center?

I think Library and Librarian mean something. The Journalism students are right to want their area of study to be reflected in the name of their school and degree, but to get rid of the L-word doesn’t help them… or us.

By: Fiona

Fiona — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:20:00 +0000

A somewhat unrelated comment…
You think libraries have an image problem? A maths teacher and a librarian, both 30-something and single, were complaining to each other that when they met men, their job titles were a turn off.
So one night at a club, they decided to “swap jobs”. All night, each time they met a new man, the maths teacher would say she was a librarian, and the librarian would say she was a maths teacher.
At the end of the night…said the librarian, “You’re right. Maths teacher is much worse.”