10 Misconceptions about Libraries

Courtesy of a few articles floating in cyberspace I have put together 10 of the most common misconceptions about libraries/librarians:

Misconception No. 1: Librarians read or shelve books all day.
Reality: Librarians work with finding, reviewing, evaluating and applying information to solve particular problems; this includes activities that focus on organizing it or working with people to find and use it.

Misconception No.2: Libraries are quiet spaces--all the time, everywhere
Reality: While there are many libraries that offer quiet areas for their patrons to study, read, and contemplate, the era of strict shushing by librarians is pretty much over.

Misconception No. 3: A Library is an exclusive club and no one is welcome
Reality: Public libraries in particular are very welcoming, yes even to people you may not like or find distasteful.

Misconception No.4: All Libraries are Public Libraries
Reality: There are a wide variety of Libraries and combinations thereof. I, work in an academic and special library, it is a library for a college that teaches in specialised subject areas.

Misconception No. 5: All Librarians work in Libraries.
Reality: People with a Masters in Library Science work anywhere where information is needed, although their job title may not include the word librarian.
My husband (who works for a large online store) remarked how useful it would be to have a librarian sort out all of there information needs, that way he could get on with the actual programming instead of tearing his hair out trying to figure out how the information should be organised. It is a tough job people!

Misconception No. 6: You don’t need libraries or librarians, since everything is available for free online.
Reality: Every publication (book, magazine, journal etc.) is not available digitally although most of what you find through a Google search is available for free, there is also a wealth of knowledge that isn't.Check out Chicago Tribute's article Google can't compete with a skilled librarian steeped in information technology

Misconception No. 7: Libraries are about books--and that's it
Reality: Libraries offer so much more than books. Libraries are all about connecting people with information, even when that information lies in the expertise of an artist/maker/craftsperson rather than a book.

Misconception No. 8: Libraries are boring
Reality: Behind many of these other misconceptions, there lurks a single, pervasive complaint: "Libraries are just so... boring." On this, we couldn't disagree more! Libraries are subversive; we champion banned books and challenging ideas. Libraries are vibrant; we bring members of the community together. Above all, libraries are a gateway to information, where YOU can connect to YOUR interests. For example in New Scientist; Books out, 3D printers in for reinvented US libraries

Misconception No. 9: Librarians are all bespectacled, cardigan wearing, hair in a bun, older caucasian women.
Reality: Librarians can be any nationality, race, age or gender. You can’t always tell who is a librarian by what they look like. As for dressing in wool and layers it is practical and smart, as is keeping your hair out of your face when you might have to crawl under a desk to fuss with a computer. Sixty-four percent of Americans wear eyeglasses, that number jumps to 90% after age 49. We’re not absurdly myopic from all that reading, we’re normal.

Misconception No. 10: Libraries are a thing of the past
Reality: Just because Libraries preserve the past does not mean it is a thing of the past. Apart from wisdom being derived from learning from the past, Libraries are becoming spaces for innovation and creativity. See Misconception No. 8.

- Gabby

The Top 10 Misconceptions about Libraries and Librarians From The Charger Bulletin
7 Big Myths About Libraries From Huffington Post 
How not to write about libraries – some guidelines for reporters From Librarian.net

Blog Every Day in June Day 13 : Confessions of a terrible reader

I am a terrible reader, terrible. I can devour a book in just a couple of days / sleepless nights, or just as easily go months and months without so much as cracking open the front cover. I will abandon a perfectly good novel to start another one for no particular reason, and leave them both unfinished to fight it out against the impressively tall and dusty Jenga-like tower of books next to my bed.

Once people find out you are a librarian, they also assume you know a lot about current novels and have read most of the titles in top book lists, asking you for recommendations, even if you happen to be working in a specialist accounting library at the time. True story.

I occasionally miss the obsessive ‘reading as important as breathing’ mindset that served me so well all through primary and high school. I can however pinpoint the approximate timeframe where I lost that fire well over a decade ago during The Years I Spent Studying English Literature at University.

I am no good at enforced reading, I can’t do bookclubs, I can’t do ‘reading challenges’. Conversations about books and writing that last longer than a few minutes make me shudder at memories of sitting in English tutorials dissecting stories, writers, themes and writing styles. How could studying the one thing that has always given me such great joy lead to such great misery?

In a panic and looking for redemption (or perhaps vindication) I once wrote to Super Librarian Nancy Pearl years ago and she (surprisingly) wrote back, advising me that life is too short to read something when your heart isn’t really in it. Phew, thanks Nancy. I do feel less and less guilty about this non-habit of reading as I get older.

So I embrace the haphazard reader that I have become. I read a lot more essays now, longer critical pieces in magazines or via Longreads. I still love poems and short stories the most. I am always amazed at how hilariously judgmental people can be towards others about reading styles, genres, favourite authors, even reading formats (the e-book vs. print debate never fails to make me roll my eyes and scream silently on the inside). Surely, reading is the thing that counts? Read, read anything, just read.

The book that currently has my attention (it’s short, non fiction, and fascinating, so I am optimistic about my chances of seeing this through to the last page) is actually about a reading challenge of sorts. The author has set herself the task of reading a random shelf of books in a NYC library, from LEQ to LES to be exact. Yes, me the terrible reader, is reading a real life account about extreme reading, how very meta.

I would love to hear about your own reading habits, or interesting challenges you’ve set yourself, and especially…how you regularly carve out reading time for yourself.

Here are some reading challenges that I like the idea of, but will never attempt:

-The 2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge (self explanatory really) #AWW2014

-The Miles of Reading Challenge (read all of the shortlisted Miles Franklin award titles)

-The Shakespeare Challenge (all the plays, all the poems and sonnets)

-The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge (just a small list of almost 350 books that this young woman either mentioned or was seen reading during the 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls)

Find out what classification of reader you are using this infograph by Laura E. Kelly.

You can read an excerpt of The Shelf: Adventures in Extreme Reading by Phyllis Rose here 

-Maria Savvidis @m_savvidis

Social Media Officer, ALIA Sydney

In the interest of full disclosure, all my books are organised strictly by the colour spectrum (eg. my 'orange' shelf) which makes it very beautiful and impossible to find anything. Yes, I am actually a librarian.  

Blog Every Day in June Day 9: Museum of Old and New Art

When I visited the incredible Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, I was amazed and excited to wander around the fortress-like space and explore the mind boggling, often humourous and irreverent collection of art and artefacts assembled by the museum's creator David Walsh. My amazement soon turned to sheer delight when I stumbled upon the museum's very own library. Now I am equally as delighted that Mary Lijnzaad, the Manager of the Library & Numismatics Collection at MONA has been kind enough to answer some of my questions for #blogjune.   -Maria Savvidis

Tell us a bit about your background (library experience, career path, how you ended up at MONA)

Library work is my second career, after a decade in disability services. I am originally from Adelaide, and after my husband and I moved to Tasmania, I retrained at TAFE, gaining the Diploma in Library and Information Studies, I also worked as a technical assistant for the course, and did some sessional teaching too. While a student I worked in a number of different libraries around Hobart (school, special, public) before being approached to help establish the library at the Moorilla Museum of Antiquities. We didn’t know it back then, but this would eventually morph into MONA!

Give us a basic rundown of your typical day and what your position entails

The MONA library is a curious blend of private collection and special library that is also publicly accessible as a reference library. We have a small staff - just myself (full-time), a library assistant (part-time) plus 2 days per week casual staffing. That means there is always lots to do! We run the full gamut of technical, reference, collection development and customer service tasks.

My typical day would start with making sure the library itself is ready for the public, then checking emails. Emails can change the whole daily schedule! There may be requests for information for media stories, researchers writing about MONA, or from our curators as they plan for upcoming exhibitions. Collection development is a large part of my job - making sure that the collection reflects the artworks, artists, cultures and ideas that power MONA. Selecting, ordering, receiving, and processing items for the collection is a daily task.

We interact with MONA staff and the public throughout the day - providing everything from wayfinding directions, bandaids, answers to reference questions, in-depth research, with the occasional philosophical discussion thrown in for good measure.

What is unique or interesting about your library collection?

I think the fact that the library has grown out of David Walsh’s private collection makes it unique - it strongly reflects his interests, which are many and varied! This means there are some subject areas that are comprehensive, while others may feature only a few items. The collection is fluid too, responding to ideas and events as MONA grows and changes.

What are two challenges of your position?

It’s a trick to keep the different aspects of the library in balance - maintaining the integrity of David’s collection, providing support to MONA staff and delivering a service to visitors. It can be a major challenge but its also very exciting and a lot of fun!

Planning is a challenge because MONA is very much a moveable feast, constantly evolving. Flexibility and adaptability are mandatory! Learning how to bend, and sometimes abandon, the rules is very, very challenging in an orderly profession!

What are two of your favourite things about your position?

Number one would be being able to immerse myself in the ideas that drive MONA. It’s an incredible experience to be able to explore the concepts that drive our exhibitions and events, and to pull together the resources and information that underpins them.

Secondly, I’ve grown to love risk and change! Sometimes MONA can feel like a rollercoaster, and rather than feel anxious about it, I’ve learned stick my hands in the air and enjoy the ride!

What is the strangest title/object in your collection?

We have a book called ‘Das kakabet’ by the Austrian group of artists, gelitin. If you are familiar with the colloquial meaning of ‘kaka’, and can picture an alphabet made up of carefully arranged ‘kaka’, then you’ll probably understand why I’ve tagged it as strange!

Best visitor reaction/comment?

Too many to choose from! It’s always lovely when visitors just say “oh, wow” in awed tones. A lot of visitors will browse the shelves and say they could stay the whole day, which is very heartwarming. The flip side are visitors who say “it’s just a library”! Our standard response is that there is no such thing as just a library!

We often get mistaken for performance artists or even works of art (naturally). Once a visitor screamed when I moved after staring intently at my budget spreadsheet on the computer screen - until then she thought I was a sculpture!

Do you have any advice for library professionals who may be working solo (eg. common challenges : how to maintain professional relationships and networks, dealing with feelings of isolation, balancing the inevitable wearing of many hats in your position).

It’s tough, no doubt about it. I’m lucky to have an excellent library assistant and very good casual staff to share the load. I think the main trick is to establish good relationships with the other departments in the organisation. Having good working relationships throughout the organisation means you have a range of expertise and support to call on when things get tricky.

Email is a life saver when it comes to staying in touch with other library workers. I’ve had some great support from ex-colleagues (particularly the team at TasTAFE Clarence!).

Do you have a favourite memory that took place in a library?

In 2012 I was lucky enough to travel to the USA as part of my job. I had a ‘library epiphany’ in the Library of Congress, which is in reality a great temple to knowledge. It reaffirmed for me how important libraries are, and how we should never lose sight of the fact that knowledge is our main game - it’s not about format wars, print versus digital - its about making sense of all that information and data and making the resulting knowledge available to everyone. That’s a precious memory that fuels my work.

What role did libraries play in your life when you were growing up?

A massive role! I lived in my school libraries and my parents (particularly my mother) and I haunted the State Library (Lending) in SA. When there is no such thing as enough books, the library is the only place to go!

Is there a library that is on your visit wish list?

Oh yes, I want to go back to New York with enough time to visit all five of the Metropolitan Museum’s libraries!

Lastly, what is one small thing anyone can do to support the future of libraries?

Use them!

A morning in the life...

Hi!

This is Heather here, bringing you a post about how I start my work day and fit in a library world news update before the daily rush begins.

I tend to start my work day at around 8am as I am the person to call if you are calling in sick to work. I need to be in before those calls start and to look at rearranging the rosters before library opening at 9.30am.

I’ve come a long way since I first took over taking charge of the rosters nearly 18 months ago. At first I would stare at the roster and peer at the names on it until they became blurry and hope that they would just jump into place for me by themselves. They never did though, I always had to take the action myself.

Over time, the formula for how the rosters worked became so ingrained in my head that it has become very simple to move names around, knowing exactly where different people are able to work and what their needs and preferences are. I feel that doing this work has also improved my problem solving skills (as there is something to change nearly every day), my flexibility with my work and ability to cope with sudden disruption. I am constantly working with a house of cards that could fall to pieces any minute! It can be a stressful job, especially in winter, where we have had up to seven people call in sick on one day this year (my record is twelve), but generally, I’ve developed great coping skills and have learned not to be too precious about my beautiful and perfect roster being ruined by illness.

While I’m waiting for the calls to start coming in, I spend an hour or so checking twitter and reading blogs to put me into library mode for the day. I use twitter only professionally and find it a fantastic news stream of interesting articles and for gathering ideas. I follow other public libraries, other librarians I’ve met, library workers overseas, LIS bloggers, museums, public intellectuals, writers and artists, among others. Having a constant stream of inspiration headed my way every morning really increases the buzz from the first coffee of the day and has me feeling informed and excited about what’s going on before the rest of the library staff have even got here.

Although I mostly read and occasionally retweet, I’d love to connect with any others LIS professionals out there and hear what you have to say. You’ll find me @hettie_betty

Heather

ALIA Sydney Presents: From Little Things Big Things Grow: preparing to present and write a paper

It's conference season with the ALIA New Librarians Symposium and Library Technicians Conference both happening this month and the ALIA Biennial have already released their call for abstracts for next year's conference in Sydney. 


Have you thought you would like to present a paper at a conference? 


But don't know where to start? 


Or maybe you've done it before but would like to brush up your skills and get some insiders tips? 


Well, the latest ALIA Sydney event is here to help you get your hands dirty and start to grow your little ideas into big ones. 


This half day workshop is to help you develop confidence and learn some tips and tricks about how to put together a conference paper covering everything from pitching the idea to your manager, submitting an abstract, working with colleagues and brushing up your presentations skills. The workshop will also explore writing a small piece for a professional publication such as inCite as this can be great way to hone sharing your ideas. 


Featuring guest presenters: 


Janet Fletcher (Director, Information Services Department, UNSW and Co-Convenor for the ALIA 2012 Biennial) 


Alyson Dalby (InSync Surveys and former Co-Convenor ALIA New Librarians Symposium) 

Room 209, UNSW Library, University of New South Wales

1 - 5pm Saturday 15th October 2011  

ALIA Members $15 and Non-Members $20

RSVPs are essential so please email your details to aliasydneygroup@gmail.com 

ALIA Biennial Call for Abstracts Now Open

With a little whisper the team from the ALIA Biennial have released their call for abstracts. You can see all the details over at http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2012/program.html 


If you aren't sure how to get started: stay tuned... help is on the way! 

ALIA Sydney Presents: Think Outside the Green

A sustainable library in Villanueva, Columbia as spotlighted at:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/02/stunning-library-in-tropical-columbia-has-permeable-rock-and-wood-walls.php

Do you hear the words climate change and wonder what you and your workplace can really do to help? Sustainability is about so much more than just recycling and turning off the lights! Join us for a lively night of discussion about what sustainability means for us, our libraries and our communities. Special guest speakers (to be announced) will share their experiences and help brainstorm practical things we can do now to make sure we create a sustainable future.

Numbers are limited so please RSVP to aliasydneygroup@gmail.com to ensure you don’t miss out.

Monday 19^th  of September  2011 6:30-8:00pm (arrive from 6pm)

UTS Library, Level 4, Room 4G. Cnr Ultimo Rd and Quay St, Ultimo, 2007

Cost: $5 for ALIA Members / $7 for Non-ALIA Members (Pay at the Door)

PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES OUT OF OUR CONTROL WE HAVE HAD TO POSTPONE THIS EVENT. WE ARE RESCHEDULING AND WILL CONFIRM THE NEW DATE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. 

What we know, what we need to know

 Recently I found myself talking with some colleagues from academic libraries about the importance of qualifications and training. Inspired by some recent recruitment we have been undertaking, we turned to wondering about whether people should hold a full librarian based qualification to be considered for appointment in a tertiary library position. Many librarian level positions express a desire for applicants to be eligible for Associate membership with ALIA  as a proxy for  some form of Information Management qualification. In this digital age the skills that are required for many positions are based around technology, data management, IT, web design and online access. Additionally, some libraries take more of a corporate business approach in the promotion and delivery of their services and resources. So should professionals outside of the information management field be included in the staffing of today’s libraries or is it still imperative to have strong ‘traditional’ training?

How do we as library professionals learn the necessary ‘traditional’ skills such as the reference interview and information retrieval for clients if it has not been the main focus of our degree and training? I think back to when I started working in libraries. I was half way through my information management degree and lacked experience. Databases, information retrieval and the library world were still so foreign to me. I must have bluffed my way through my degree to this stage. My assessment tasks were full of imposed theories and concepts. Realising the difficulty of even landing a job interview without experience I started volunteering my time in areas that I thought would help me.

Luckily I scored my first library position working for an Interlibrary Loans department; an opportunity which I now realise was perfect in starting me out in my library career.  I was thrown in the deep end having to locate and deliver a wide range of resources quickly across a myriad of discipline areas. More coincidently my work was being mirrored by the courses that I was studying at the time. Putting the theories into practice made so much more sense. This experience holds me up to this day.

Reflecting on this experience and my career to date there have been a few key influences that that have given me the confidence, skills and experience that I now put into practice as a librarian. 

·         A learn by doing approach: Being throw in the deep end with queries and tasks on unfamiliar topics has been one of the greatest growth experiences. This includes having to plan for in-depth research consultations, classes and answering on the spot reference question in unfamiliar subject territory. 

·         Mentoring: Peer mentoring and working collaboratively with ‘experts’ in particular areas has provided me with such a wealth of knowledge. I have done this both formally and informally and have gained so much from other people’s ideas and experiences. 

·         Training: Training opportunities, involvement in resource development and product demonstrations is what I find tops off the learning and profession growth experience.

It has been a collection of training, experiences and support that has provided me with the necessary tools in my library career so far. We need to have flexibility when it come to ‘qualifications and training’ to accommodate the fast changing nature of today’s libraries.

What are the experiences and training that you hold up as main influences in your career? 

Bruce Munro is an ALIA Sydney committee member

Knowing Me, Knowing You: Final Discussion Leaders Announced

 We are pleased to confirm that in addition to the talented: 

•  Larissa Reid : Reader Services Librarian : Law Courts Library
•  Bernard de Broglio : Internet Coordinator : Mosman Council 
•  Jo Croucher : Digital Library Services : UNSW Library     

our next event Knowing Me, Knowing You will be featuring: 

•  Shardee Hoff : Facilities Coordinator : Shine Media
• Vikki Bell : Freelance Researcher 
• Leonie Smallwood : Library Programmes Coordinator : City of Sydney 

Numbers are strictly limited so please RSVP to aliasydneygroup@gmail.com to ensure you don’t miss out.

Haven't heard about this event yet? Details are below: 

Have you ever looked at the job ads and wondered how do you become the person who gets that job? And with so many jobs having generic titles these days, what are these jobs really about? 

Come together to widen your library circle and hear a bit more about of those jobs you've always wondered about. Our discussion leaders will share their stories and then it is your turn to bring out your networking skills and get to know the people around you as we open some great topics up for discussion and you can find out all about those great jobs you never knew even existed. 

Monday 25^th  of July  2011 6:30-8:00pm (arrive from 6pm)

Upstairs, City Hotel, 347 Kent St (cnr of King St) Sydney City, 2000

Cost: $5 for ALIA Members / $7 for Non-ALIA Members (Pay at the Door)

How do we describe who we are and what we do?

Does anyone else seem to have difficulty doing this? I was having a chat to my friend and colleague, who is also enrolled in the Master of Information Studies at Charles Sturnt University, and we think it's rather a difficult thing, because many people don't know for sure what a librarian does. And I don't think we're necessarily very good at telling people what it is that we do do. Oh for sure, we all say 'I'm a librarian' at dinner parties and at the pub, but what do people think when they hear that's what we do?

I'm not sure about you, but I often have people ask me if I spend a lot of time stacking books (it's called shelving people!) or envying me because of all the time I spend reading books while at work (!)

Clearly I am not the only one who struggles with this. A quick Internet search throws up a lot of forums and discussion threads where the perennial 'What does a librarian do?' question gets asked, even by librarians themselves. I guess it's the sentence that comes after the 'I'm a librarian' that people get stumped on, the subtitle to our job titles (haha- get it? Subtitle. Sorry, you'll have to excuse the lame book-related jokes- I just can't help myself.)

How do you describe what you do in one sentence? This link on LibraryThing provides some interesting answers. I also find just a simple one liner such as 'I help people find information' insufficient, because that's not all that I do! So then in a social situation I often  find myself listing some of the cool projects or things that I'm working on, which usually works a treat (except it means I may start going off on a tangent while the poor person looks at me glassy-eyed...)
Just for kicks, I did a Summon search for just that: 'what do librarians do', to see what results I got. For those interested, my search returned 148 074 results (59 864 of them classified as journal articles and 33 752 identified as journal articles from scholarly or peer reviewed sources.) Whoa. Lots of people have  researched and written about this topic, so I am clearly not the only one who thinks about this.

I harkened on one article, randonmly, that was published in American Libraries, to see if that author gave a definitive one-liner, and in fact the author, Charles Curran (2001) did! His response to this question is that librarians and information scientists ODAPCOSRIU (pronounced O-DAP-COS-RI-U, to rhyme with 'what librarians and information scientists do') Catchy hey?

The acronym stands for the following:
Origin
Dissemination
Acquisition
Properties
Cassification
Organisation
Storage
Retrieval
Interpretation
Use

This definitition was published in 2001, which is pre social media, pre ebooks, pre Google+ ! I wonder what else could be included in this acronym now? I also wonder where the teaching/infomration litereacy element fits in?

As much as I like the idea of describing what we do in an easy (even rhyming!) acronym or oneliner, I think it is a nigh on impossible task, as our jobs are constantly changing and evolving. Or maybe we should just make up t-shirts to wear in the library that say Change Agent on them?

What are your thoughts? What else should we include in the definition?

Reference:

Curran, Charles E. "What Do Librarians and Information Scientists Do?" American Libraries 32.1 (2001): 56. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 5 July 2011.