In a previous post I hinted that working as a solo librarian was making me feel alienated.

After reading a colleague’s post at Library Attack I’m convinced that others feel the same way too. In fact, I’m willing to bet that any librarian who dosen’t work in a traditional environment will likely suffer from some form of existential dread. This probably varies in scope, of course, but there are several reasons to believe we’re a Kierkegaardian bunch.

First, as specified in my post on solo librarianship we don’t have co-workers who share our expertise. We’re the only librarian in the library! Without a group to confide in it’s difficult to vent workplace frustrations, explain complex technical problems to others, or seek professional validation. All of these situations can elicit feelings of detachment.

Second, embedded librarians usually blur the lines between job roles to the point that it can become disorienting. One instance was mentioned in another of my posts that patrons assume “because you can find something on a subject and talk about… then it you’re an authority.” Not true! Plus, embedded librarians can always become more interested in the applied side of things too. If you don’t do library work it’s hard to conceive of yourself as a librarian.

Last, technology is bypassing and shaking up traditional duties. Just because someone takes classes to do one thing they won’t necessarily end out doing it. Refer to my point earlier. If you don’t do library work it’s hard to conceive of yourself as a librarian.

From when we grew up, we were taught that librarians are people who check out books. That they tell us to be quiet and ask us to not bring food or drink into the library. Unfortionately, this conception is blantantly at odds with a number of progressive manefestations within the profession. As a young librarian, I wonder what sort of cracks this might produce? Most imporntantly, if we don’t know “who we are” then how can they know what to do for our patrons?

So, the numbers are in and we are undeniably, most assuredly, certainly, and incontrovertibly in the middle of a recession. I’ve heard predictions that unemployment could reach 9% by next year and that in Missouri (my home state) it could be as high as 10%. This is a problem for everyone, but it seems like something that is going to make life for M.L.S. grads miserable. I’m not expertly versed on the the profession’s job prospects, but if it turns out that librarians start waiting to retire even longer then life could be hard for the “young un’s.” The reason partially has to do with a rough entry level environment. This absolutely brutal article from LibraryJournal.com – despite it’s age – seems to hammer the nail into the coffin too.

Uhoh!

So to my point… The possibility for any youthful Renaissance in dealing with electronic resources seems nonexistent.  Here’s why:  If there is a massive amount of competition then it makes landing a job hard, and this can directly impact the collective “perspective” of the profession. Let’s face it, if it takes an M.L.S. and 5+ years of work experience to get a decent job then the average age of everyone will be high. Moreover, the age factor often hints at if or if not someone is tech savvy. The tough entry level arena for M.L.S. grads is killer too! For those qualified, given the choice between working where they want and doing what they can do I suspect that a young librarian would jump ship in a minute. Why wait around if you might be able to find a job doing some web development, building computers, or programing something somewhere? Especially when you have bills to pay.

Double uhoh.

I’ve gotta hand it to the U.S. News and World Report, because apparently they’ve given librarianship the go-ahead as a “Best Career” for two years straight. Ok, I get it. The profession is changing, it’s less about organizing and collecting information than disseminating it anymore, and the work environment is nice. That’s why I chose to be a librarian and go to library school. But, do they really get that – digital, academic, public or otherwise – people are more inclined to see us as expendable than most other professionals? That the Nietzschean “herd” doesn’t need us to help them because they already know how to find what they want. Think about it this way: History, Philosophy, Biology, etc… are all primary fields of research. Librarianship is predominantly a service related field. That said, since the services that librarians offer (research support and information organization) are axillary and not primary then they aren’t absolutely necessary.

In a pinch people can find things on their own.

Throw in automation which has been common since the 1970’s. It replaces librarians with computers that do the same job. It also makes it oh-so-easy to cruse on over to Yahoo instead of to a reference desk. Plus, for most people something just “feels” off to ask a librarian for help. Nobody – much less a tenured professor – wants to look like they don’t know how to do something as mundane as finding an article!

I appreciate what the U.S. News and World Report is trying to do here, but “Best Career” or otherwise I’m under the impression that they are simply trying to give librarians the credit that they see as due; not the credit that the general public provides. For better or worse it’s public opinion that matters and no matter what we as librarians do (or what the U.S. News thinks) I wish the article would have mentioned this…