Session Name: Librarianship as an Intellectual Craft
Session Facilitator: Jonathan Cope
Session Time: 11:40 am - 12:40 am
Session Location: Multipurpose Room
Session Notes
- librarians scurrying around not really tackling things the way we should
- what is information, what did it mean in the past, what does it mean now, what will it mean in 20 years
- Patriot Act and librarians
- we're afraid of jeopardizing funding or reputation by taking stands
- craft: theoretical and applied aspect to that
- access to information to have an informed public in a democratic society
- two distinct trends in this conversation:
- philosophical/conceptual background of librarianship as a profession
- tendency to politicize our activies
- but you can't come up with a philosophy of information without touching on political issues
- if we could dispense with institutional politics, that would be great
- trying to protect patron privacy puts us in an inherent political debate
- If you look at why we believe in freedom of access to information, it's political in nature.
- is library science a "science"?
- the word science is unfortunate; we don't even rise the level of science in "political science"
- Why is our professional not even slightly historically minded?
- Jesse Shera bemoaned in 1960s lack of a philosophy of librarianship
- Why is our profession not so willing to look into its own past?
- Explore why we do the things we do
- qualitative data instead of quantitative dataWe have to stand up and say what's important
- The Darien Statement on the Library and Librarians
- Public librarians not expected to present/publish. Academic librarians are expected to do so.
- Brooklyn PL is trying to make ongoing learning a part of the day for staff. But there isn't yet a culture of that.
- Benefit of training for keeping up.
- Keeping up with x, y, z is not the end of it though. We should be more than just reactive.
- To what extent is it reasonable to have a discussion about what is foundational in librarianship. Things are in flux.
- Maybe what we need learning programs similar to 23 Things (which focuses on web 2.0 technologies) that focus on intellectual issues in librarianship. What venues/discussions are going on now that we can tap into?
- We need to deinstitutionalize the conversations about foundations/fundamentals
addtional notes:
- What is value/dangers of neutrality as library and information professionals?
- shift from library as building to library as concept
- librarians and libraries must have theoretical foundations to guide their relationships with their communities
- libraries are undervalued whent hey are viewedas cultural rather than educational institutions
- information behavior research provides some interesting critical spring boards into thinking critically about professional practice
- need for more collaboration between academics in all departments, especially LIS, and practicing librarians
- Do all library/patron relationships follow student/teacher model? Is the rigid role division outdated? Can we be tour guides rather than "teachers"?
- Maybe there is value in considering librarianship and libraries as social constructs and questioning them the way academia/society questions other social constructions? Analogies to critical pedagogy and progressive educational theory.
Draft of notes created in EtherPad
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