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…

Given that I’ve made some dramatic changes around here lately I am hungry for some feedback. So, tell me, what do you think? What can I do?

 Loading ...

On my way to work this morning I caught a section of the Diane Rehm Show discussing libraries and economic hard times. I didn’t have time to listen to it all, and can’t download the podcast until the cable company fixes my internet, but the link is available online. At it’s heart the topic is really interesting… are libraries more important than usual during economic downturns? Given that I don’t plan on buying any new CD’s (or books) soon I’m inclined to say, “yes.”

Segment Replay:

• Libraries and the Economy (Media Player)

• Libraries and the Economy (Real Player)

When my parents moved to rural Fordland, Missouri two years ago they expected to give up a few luxuries. First, they have to commute to town for work, food, and most of their basic needs. Sometimes this includes a thirty minute drive to Springfield. Second, they gave up local utilities, and at least in part thanks to my dad, are living on a home-brewed utility network (i.e. a well and several solar panels). But, they never realized how much of a pain it was to get access to external information.

The Webster County Library is twenty miles away and their only options for Internet access are dial-up and an expensive satellite Internet contract. A few months ago the local phone company provided DSL service to the rest of the people on their road, but because they live in a valley the company decided not to hook them up. Interestingly enough this presents a very unique situation. With the Internet out of reach and broadband necessary to access all but the most basic sites my parents are effectively being denied a link to the outside world. Given a recent NPR piece on rural Internet networks this is the case for about 10% of the United States.

Twenty years ago nobody would have considered the Internet and information access to be a utility. I’m not so sure this is the case anymore. With important Government information, forms, and other private sector data only accessible online those without access are left, well, disenfranchised. The children who group up in rural environments are notably at a disadvantage as well. Though I haven’t taken the time to lay out a strong argument for it my intuitions certainly seem to hint that the Internet is a utility that all Americans should have access to. After all, isn’t the cornerstone of Democracy an informed general populace?