Informed and Uninformed Librarians
October 11th, 2005If you don’t understand the value of keeping current (or do and want a refresher course), take a look at this article by Peter Jasco on the Informed and Underinformed Librarians. A few great quotes:
“Wherever I travel to when I step out of my ivory tower, I always visit libraries and learn how informed are librarians elsewhere. I am lucky to be close to some first class, well-informed librarians and library students at my home base, and I am always delighted when meeting similar ones elsewhere. However, I also see the increasing proportion of librarians who are and may remain underinformed about the classic digital reference tools, and fail to use the best resources and the best search techniques for finding the best answers in the best way.”
“The librarians who are underinformed about these issues may give a bad name to our profession. The informed librarian who got not only a diploma but also acquired knowledge in this field (even when the process did not make them feel good at the time), know all these, because they keep reading the literature, attending the workshops, testing and using the alternatives. They are the ones who keep me writing my regular and guest columns, and doing my workshops – beyond some concomitant perks. I’d rather see informed librarians than just feel-good librarians. Being informed is likely to make one feel good, too.”
Peter makes a good point, but one that he doesn’t address is that librarians have to make the choice to stay informed. We can’t force our colleagues to stay current. What we need to do educate librarians and librarians-to-be on the value of staying current. A mandatory course in library school comes to mind. (link via Resourceshelf)