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November 28, 2005

Technology is changing role of librarian into that of a teacher

As a profession, modern American librarianship is only about 130 years old. That's when Melvil Dewey and Charles Cutter founded the American Library Association. In those days, librarianship was all about books—selecting, purchasing, classifying and cataloging them, circulating, preserving, and maybe discarding them when they were no longer useful.

When I went to library school in the late 1960s the curriculum included courses related to tasks noted above, but also courses on reference service, services to children, and library administration. There was also one course about library automation. One of the hot topics of the day was whether the librarian should purchase books according to quality standards or according to what people wanted to read. This was a time when many public libraries did not have any of the “Bobbsey Twins” series. There was also much discussion about whether or not a library should purchase paperback books. Most libraries of the time did not purchase paperbacks because it was felt they were too ephemeral. The point I am trying to make is that in the past, librarianship has been all about books.

My first job as a professional librarian was in an elementary school library. Film strips, 16mm films, art prints, realia (objects), phonograph records and other audio visual material were just starting to be incorporated into the library's collection. At the time, I found cataloging these items pretty vexing. But perhaps the most significant observation would have been that the library was no longer all about books. Information was starting to come in many other formats and libraries and librarians were having to learn to deal with it.

While I was President of the American Library Association in 1999-2000, I began to see another big change taking place in the library. More and more, librarians were becoming teachers. It was less about the book, less about the media and more about helping library users find information. Many factors are contributing to this change. One is that much of the work of acquiring and processing and circulating books and other materials has been automated. Another is that the world of information has gotten much more complex with the introduction of the Internet, the World Wide Web and all sorts of electronic information. Today the critical need for librarians is to serve as interpreters and guides to the vast array of information that exists.

Kathy Walsh, Dean of University Libraries at National-Louis University agreed with me that the librarian as teacher was a growing role. “But it's different in every library,” she said. “And I think that's healthy. In the future I see libraries looking lot less alike than they did in the past because libraries of all types are becoming more service oriented and are changing to meet the wide variety of needs of their users.”

Walsh went on to say that she saw the librarian's role in the age of Google was to help users answer the complex questions of life. “Most people don't need much help anymore with the “who and what” questions. Now it's the “how and why” questions that bring people to the library. A lot of what our librarians do is to help users formulate and clarify their questions.” I asked for an example of this and she said, “ A student came in and asked for information on how much money public school districts in the area spent on students with developmental disabilities. But after a conversation with the reference librarian, the underlying question emerged: ‘What school districts are doing a good job in educating children with developmental disabilities.' Money was part of the question, but not all of it.”

For more on this emerging trend of librarians as teachers, view our award-winning cable TV show, “What's New in Libraries.” This month's segment features interviews with a number of librarians in the area on this topic. Go to www.whatsnewinlibraries.org for times and channels in your area.

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