The Death of the Ordinary Librarian aka Ordinary Librarian, Research Librarian or Personal Librarian -
which one are you?
LIASA 15th
- Annual Conference in the mother city Cape Town.
Institutions like a major correspondence Institution dominated many of the papers on the
future of Librarians and the role they are going to play in the new playing
fields of libraries.
Research is obviously a key factor in South Africa not just
to place it on the global map but also to enhance the world we live in and
bring credit and funding to any institution, so the focus of the librarian as a
support system to the normal run of the mill student body, seemed to take an
insignificant place in the order of things at the LIASA Conference 2013.
I remember thinking – oh my word if they had it their way
they would close down all institutional libraries that assist undergraduates
and just concentrate on researchers – it was as if in their minds “everyone is
born a post grad”.
In fact one library has removed the word ‘support’
completely from its job description for librarians almost as if ‘support’ was
dirty and undesirable.
I listened fascinated as the papers were presented and
started suggesting that the emergence of the Research Librarian would cause
that the qualifications needed could be up to a PhD because the argument is, and
maybe rightly so, – if you are assisting post graduates who are busy with
ground breaking research in let’s say engineering, then at the very least you
need a qualification one higher than they have. It even seemed to be suggested
that in a case like this a PhD in engineering was more important than a PhD in
Library Science. In fact I would go as far as to analyse that this is the route
some of the larger institutions are considering taking.
The other title branded about was that of the Personal Librarian. Librarians were
encouraged to ‘go to the users’, some had even been given an office in the
faculty where they could operate from a few times per week. These Personal
Librarians would hold the hands of the lecturers who were doing research and
almost inclusively be used by them much in the same way as a personal
secretary.
I found it hard in today’s economic environment, budget cuts
and streamlining of posts with possible downsizing of many libraries; - to
separate what was fantasy from reality in these papers. Which library in all
truth can afford to take a large chunk of its Librarians and offer them up as
sacrifices on the altar - solely for
research and/or as Personal Librarians situated away from the reference desk.
I realise that many of our upcoming users are bypassing the
library when it comes to finding information and as Librarians one will have to
keep rethinking the role you play in a changing digital environment. But honestly
– this is Africa not every student walking through the door is a digital native
and from what I see in the training room many are first generation students who
come with massive gaps in knowledge and research skills. I do believe the new
Chat-Line for students with their General Librarians will go a long way to earn
you the respect of your users however, in the light of what is being discussed
at the Conference, Top Management and Library Management will have to go
back to the drawing board – if they every left it, and re-look at how the
Library will support research in a more personal way.
Releasing Librarians for personal use to me should form part of a Faculty Budget – I am not sure this should fall on the shoulders of Library Heads and Executive Committees to scuttle around with the re-engineering and further deplete the dwindling Librarian posts.
Releasing Librarians for personal use to me should form part of a Faculty Budget – I am not sure this should fall on the shoulders of Library Heads and Executive Committees to scuttle around with the re-engineering and further deplete the dwindling Librarian posts.
While I understand the urgency of research and the bigger
urgency for the Librarians to reinvent themselves to meet the needs of
researchers, I am very aware of the forty thousand or so undergraduates that
have to be serviced. If we leave them to their own devices we may sit with a
larger headache a few years down the line when they turn into researchers
without the necessary skills, without being able to identify and evaluate
information, without being able to produce a unique assignment based not only
on their findings but on their own logical assumptions and new ideas based on
sound research foundations.
The other issue I have is, if the Librarian is a PhD in
Engineering and is just about doing the research for the researcher – are we
really producing researchers or just people who ‘plagiarize the Librarians
brains’ and could not do their own unique research even if it was expected of
them. Where is the cut-off point? Or is there none? Does the researcher write
on his thesis –his name and next to it the Research Librarians name seeing as
they did most of the work anyway?
‘Nice to have’ these specialised Librarians - if you have the budget or if government comes
to the table and provides additional funding for Research Librarians and
Personal Librarians as it should; if it is really serious about Research as it
says it is.
However it worries me that the powers that be seemed to have
declared null and void the guidance
that the General Librarian can still provide to the majority of the under
graduate student body at the University and Institutions albeit via Chat lines,
Social Networks etc and not face to face as was the traditional role played. It
worries me that the mention of under-graduate programs and support hardly made
the headlines in the discussions or papers that were presented but for a few.
Honestly? Has the
role of the Librarian and the library as a whole, really changed that much,
that quickly? Are we going to shut the doors already and lie down and die while
our users plagiarize the world of online information with their skills on an
ever downward spiral and no Librarians to guide the way forward? Librarians may
no longer be the keepers of information but they certainly are still the tour
guides to it.
In stark contrast to the established post matric educational
institutions with their government sponsored infrastructure - I attended a few
sessions with school, public and special interest libraries because, what is
happening there, has a ripple effect when those children become students and
walk through our physical or virtual doors. What I heard there turned my blood
to ice especially in the light of what I discussed above. Some public librarians even felt that Information literacy skill training was not applicable to them. Oi veh!!
The infrastructure in most provinces of fully stocked
libraries with trained librarians and access to digital information is, as one
speaker from Limpopo tactfully put it, ‘deteriorating by the day’. The person for Education and a few government
officials were delegates. The lady for Gauteng Education was quick to brag
about the literacy programs they had in place and how they supported school and
public libraries. What she said was in stark contrast to what was actually
happening on the ground if you took note of what speaker after speaker laid
before the Conference and came to light during open discussions. I can attest to the lack of resources at school and public library level as I work mainly with
information illiterate first years, the majority of which have never seen the
inside of a library. I was very tempted to challenge her and the honourable
government member but I kept my pose as we may need them in future and taking
her on in open debate was not a good idea. Let her have her day, history will
prove her mistaken in the difference her efforts where making in the global
scheme of things. We need a nationwide effort when it comes to support for
educators and scholars.
Telling industry to provide the funding is just as chilling. When the king abdicated his throne for the love of his life it was to a equal who could take his place. When Education abdicates its position of the leader in education to industry its on dangerous ground. Industry in any case wants to welcome well trained researchers into its family, they do not want to have to make the bottles of milk. No wonder less and less corporates are investing in South Africa.
If municipalities do not have the expertise or passion or
vision to do it, then Government needs to spend some of the tax money to send
experts to get the ball rolling at a much faster rate than it is rolling at
present; if it is rolling at all.
In Limpopo the school and public libraries for the number of
people living there and the mainly rural environment they find themselves in,
is a horrific tragedy, to say the least. The sentiment was not –‘we need to
build infrastructure and uplift the people better preparing them for their
future academic studies’. The basic sentiment was, ‘well it’s largely rural so
there is very little we can do” and everyone had their moment-of-silence for the lost-cause, but moved on – no way!!
If I swore I could think of some choice words to say here.
For goodness sake – if you as government and municipalities have identified
what is a growing crisis for a nation;
surly you find solutions and provide the funding to make it a reality, not just
sweep it under the carpet and hope it will disappear. I lost count of how many
people attested to no funding for new books and resources on the shelves of
rudimentary libraries that did not meet the curriculum needs.
Education and support for those who are going through
studying or teaching – are the only solutions to poverty and to uplift our
people into the new world and from them, we birth the researchers of tomorrow.
Are you trying to tell me no researchers will come from rural Limpopo except from the one or two universities in the area– what a
waste of a countries talent!
No one is born information literate, no one is born being
able to use Internet, online databases or do research correctly but everyone
can be taught and learn, and the younger they learn the better for themselves
and for the institutions that will absorb them after school.
Research Librarians, Personal Librarians – awesome thought
and it needs perusing; but getting back to the millions and millions that are
not there yet, what about placing more resources in the hands of the humble General Librarian. How about skilling
them to be able to cope with the new demands and expectations of the upcoming
students – those who are from rural backgrounds and those who are from the
cities.
Closing thoughts - Come
on –do we need a PhD to assist a ‘fresh out of matric’ with how to locate,
evaluate and use accredited information –man I don’t think so. Is the role of
the General Librarian really so mundane and unimportant that it hardly took
centre stage and left most of the delegates desiring the more lucrative and highly esteemed
senior posts of Research and Personal Librarians.
My thoughts are, that in the rush to be the
most important Research Institution in
Africa, I think the library has lost the vision of its vital role with
undergraduate students. Simply providing Information Literacy courses like some
do, is not enough.
How as Librarians and Libraries we support users in future -
may be on the transformational landscape – but we cannot just cross it out as no
longer relevant to, what remains in many aspects, a very third world population
in South Africa and Africa.
