What do I do?

Over the past few weeks I have been mulling over the question of how librarians are viewed from outside the profession. A topic which has been much discussed on blogs and Twitter but always within the echo chamber. I am prepared to admit that I am absolutely useless at promoting the profession; I don’t know why but I just can’t talk about what I do. I am aware however that if we’re ever going to break down the stereotypes then people like me need to get bolder about talking about what we do and why it’s important. This seems more important now than ever. If I don’t speak up when I get the opportunity then people are going to continue to believe in the stereotype and underestimate the value of librarians.

The recent KPMG report on public sector reform famously misunderstands and misrepresents the role of the librarian suggesting that we could easily be replaced by volunteers. The authors of the report clearly took no time to find out what librarians actually do and this started me wondering whether people I know have any idea of what my job actually entails. So I sent out an email to ask them and I was pleasantly surprised by their responses. Here is a Wordle of the content of their emails (click on the image to see a larger version):

I sent the email to 10 people and got 6 responses (not a great sample I know but hey this isn’t proper research). I asked them to write a few lines off the top of their heads about what they think I do day to day as a librarian. The only information I gave them, which they probably already know, is that I work in an academic library. As I said before, I was pleasantly surprised by the results; partly because it means that I might not be so useless at advocating for librarians but mostly because it gave me some hope that the profession isn’t as undervalued as I feared. The greatest surprise was that one respondent practically wrote out my job description in her reply!

Finally, in their own words, here is what some of my friends and family think the main aspects of my job are:

• making sure students can access sources of information they need as easily and readily as possible through a variety of media.
• your job is to help facilitate others to find the answers and information that they are seeking even when perhaps they don’t know what it is they are exactly looking for. This means you have to be well organised and know where to find things in books/databases/www etc.
• you help to make information available to people at the university from a variety of sources, and that you help select and define the materials in the library. Also that you use media to convey information, and that you’re partly responsible for training your colleagues.
• a librarian helps people to locate sources of information – previously mainly in the form of books but also newspapers/magazines/periodicals. Now, presumably also in other media, especially those retained electronically.
• librarians have to devise systems for finding and producing information but also to connect with their users – again probably in the past over an issue desk or catalogue but now via email, sms etc. I suppose the real skill is anticipating users’ needs and devising systems in advance which open up sources of information, speed up access and begin to shape users’ habits to make the process effective.
• you manage the learning resources for the business school. These can be reading texts (as in books, journals and the like) but also online resources.
• you help to ensure that stock is recorded, catalogued/classified and that there is a robust security system in place for lenders so that stock doesn’t go missing.
• you know tonnes about online communication and information sourcing, online education tools and otehr things I don’t understand at all!!!
• helping students and or staff who are researching when they are looking for particular information.
• ordering new books/periodicals/research papers when lists are given to you by various departments to ensure the library content matches the curriculum and the demand.
• cataloguing new information.
• keeping your website up to date.
• dealing with requests from all over the world I guess via the internet, or telephone.
• ensuring that library systems are maintained and developed.
• requesting grants or funding for your library.

After all of that there was only one mention of the stereotypical librarian with her glasses, cardigan and bun…. and that was from my mum who was getting me back for years of teasing her about the stereotypes in her job!