Changing profession
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010I was reminded about how librarianship has changed in my professional life when I attended the ALIA West 2009 FA Sharr Medal presentation (Monday 25th May). The deserving winner was Catherine New who spoke eloquently on the role of a librarian in the age of social networking, e-resources and to quote Catherine – the Googlerisation of the Internet. Not sure if Catherine invented the word but it has a certain ring to it.
Catherine spoke about librarians (with emphasis on the academic librarian) being available at the “point of need” and getting out and meeting students where they feel comfortable. Her message was about getting rid of the “gatekeeper” image of librarianship and “get out there and break free – you won’t regret it.” I wholeheartedly agree with her views.
When I was studying Library & Information Science at Curtin University the Sharr Medal was awarded for the first time in 1976 to the top graduating student (I’m really showing my age now). The winner that year was an exceptional student – Jean Ryding. My only claim to fame in that graduating class was that I was one of 2 male graduates in a class of around 50. When I think back to my studies it was all about the librarian as a gatekeeper, card catalogues, delving through massive backruns of the printed Chemical Abstracts or Engineering Index, the history of printing and the book, library management 202. The closest we came to social networking was the Curtin Tavern.
I spent most of the ‘70s and early ‘80s working at the State Library of WA as a reference librarian. It was the book, serial and printed index/abstract era. I guess like most of my colleagues I was a gatekeeper to knowledge but in those days not too many members of the public knew how to use a card catalogue – I was qualified and I struggled - or which books or journals stored away in the massive stacks were of interest to them for their particular need.
The introduction of online searching in the late 70s created a whole new breed of librarian/gatekeepers and I loved the new technology, but it certainly wasn’t user friendly. I loved sharing my knowledge with our customers and couldn’t do enough to help them. We were certainly proactive in promoting the services of the State Library of WA to the broader community and our services made a real difference.
Librarianship has certainly come along way since I started out on my professional career. I think that by necessity librarians from my generation were gatekeepers in the nicest possible meaning of the term. If by gatekeeper we imply that the keeper has control over who can enter through the gate at their whim, then that sort of librarian needs to change or find another job. My view is that they are a very small minority in librarianship and like everything in life there’s always a minority who don’t get it quite right. Andrew Hocken – ALIA Director
