Library Professionals at Their Core: What Values and Ethos Guide Today's Library Workers?

Session description: From Program

With increasing automation of selection, increased use of client self-service, fewer reference inquiries, lower circulation, and the centralization of policy and procedures - what is the role of the library professional today? Some are characterizing these developments as the deskilling of library work, while others are talking about the reskilling of the library profession. In this interactive session, new roles will be explored against the context of what makes a professional. The session will also examine changes in library client behaviour and needs that are the drivers behind these new roles.


This session was presented by two Librarians, Janine Schmidt, Trenholme Director of Libraries, McGill University and Amber Lannon, Head Librarian, Howard Ross Library of Management, McGill University. Ms. Schmidt brought the perspective of many years in the library field in various libraries, while Ms. Lannon, a newer graduate of the profession, and much younger in years presented her perspective. It seemed to be a deliberate pairing to emphasize the perception that there are may be some subtle and maybe not so subtle differences in outlooks based on judging the librarian by age alone. The two presenters took turns, both doing a few screens at a time and the powerpoint was dynamic as well. One of the fun bits of the session was that it used clickers for audience participation. The audience seemed to really enjoy this aspect and for many of us it was the first time being exposed to using this technology. The questions were multiple choice and the audience would select the answer and then a graph showing the responses would be produced. Ms. Schmidth used something called http://www.wordle.net/ which was fun.

The questions were of a general nature and the responses showed in my opinion that the core values of librarians really have not changed substantially over time. In fact Ranganathan's Five laws of Library Science,

Books are for use.
Every reader his [or her] book.
Every book its reader.
Save the time of the User.
The library is a growing organism.

were presented with slight alterations.

There were no definitive answers out of this session, but a lively presentation which highlighted the issues we deal with in terms of changing technology, how that affects user expectations and behaviour. It covered the whole gamut from Faculty - Librarian collaboration to building renovations as an answer to changing delivery of services. There was also a lot of promotion of McGill and it's library and library school. All in all while this was an entertaining session, I don't think the questions posed above were answered to any extent.