Week 2 Musings

One of the challenges that seems to loom in the mind of the public, if not my professors and colleagues, is how a librarian stays relevant in the world of Google (and sometimes these thoughts turn into articles that masquerade as journalism). To the library student and the professor, the justification is strong and reasoned. But as I talk to friends and family outside the profession; they aren't so sure. Some have suggested that libraries are still relevant because some people aren't computer literate, and so can't use Google. This obviously means that libraries would strive to teach everyone digital literacy, and then slowly fade into obsolescence. A drawn-out seppuku, in other words.

Besides the technical distinctions that make libraries still retain value over search engines (one huge factor has to be that in catalogs, you don't have to sort through 10 million blogs and umpteen million sites of unsavory character), Prof. Lankes highlighted that this profession has a unique core set of values. A business like Amazon, Borders or Google will get you to a book or two that you want, and the idea is to funnel you to the check-out line and get you to punch in your debit card as soon as possible. A librarian, however, will hopefully not funnel your interest at all. A librarian might expand your interest, or turn you to a source you never thought you wanted in the first place. A search engine or commercial catalog will not have this capacity in the foreseeable future. And in my opinion, it would usually lead to decreased sales, because it's much easier to point to one book to buy than to display 20 resources. Heck, one might actually have to go to the library if they wanted 20 sources on a subject.

Another big part of this week has been starting to think about the different types of libraries, and which I would feel most fits my backgrounds and interests. I see many potential paths, personally. I could easily see myself as librarian tech or something similar at a public library, especially since the majority of librarians go on to work in a public or academic library. Eventually I would want to become a specialist in Classics and possibly Latin manuscripts.

Another possibility is working in a private collection or special collection within a larger library. As we have been learning, certain collections have become more like museums as of late, and conversely museums have begun to classify things more like libraries. Perhaps there will be an interesting opportunity to combine those two ideas into a simply place of learning and information. Would it be a lyceum? Or maybe you could call it a "muserary."