WebJunction - Community First: connecting people & service through the decades

RE: Get Involved with Community First

2008-11-13T02:45:46Z

If they were your mentor, I'd say they were library luminaries! Let me know if I can help at all, I'd love to add more interviews to the mix.

RE: Get Involved with Community First

2008-11-12T15:31:04Z

--Chrystie,

It looks like I might be a little late to this party (found my way here by trying to check out the interview with Karen Schneider). But I found my way to the Interview Materials and am thinking about folks I know who might make for an interesting interview. Maybe not "library luminaries" in the sense of Karen, Roy, or Marilyn), but we'll see.

Sheila

Chrystie Hill:

Please let us know if you'd like to know more about the Community First project, you'd like to get involved, or if you have other ideas or comments.

RE: Association "divisions"

2008-10-31T04:57:57Z

"Is there a librarian in the house?"

This is brilliant. I'm going to blog about it.

RE: Who are your mentors?

2008-10-30T23:12:44Z

My first "2.0" tool was shortly before everyone had e-mail. I used to coordinate a "round robin" informal paper exchange among various folks who seemed to hold "outsider" positions in their professional writing. This was in the early to mid 90s ... not that long ago at all.

RE: Association "divisions"

2008-10-30T19:05:16Z

Generally not in the "practical" sense of the type of professional development libraries need ... but a large issue for a profession that needs to recast itself to reflect its existence outside of libraries.

A parallel can be seen in health care. Nurses seldom practice outside of institutions such as hospitals ... doctors can and often work on a consulting basis. Hospitals go, which is to say offer new services, where their medical staff (doctors) drag them.

The "biggest professional issue" in librarianship, IMO, is whether or not librarians can take advantage of new technologies and practices and impose them on their libraries. Are they to be doctors or nurses?

This means that standards must be set by librarians, not by those institutions (or those representing said institutions) they work for.

RE: Association "divisions"

2008-10-30T01:37:19Z

I appreciate your distinction between library association and librarian association. This is helpful. And so, professional development for library staff is actually in conflict, you say, with ALA's need to represent libraries to the people who support them? Seems a paradox to me...

RE: Who are your mentors?

2008-10-30T00:58:17Z

I love it when we uncover those bridges back to those who came before us. I will certainly be looking at "social epistemology" as one of the foundational concepts to the sorts of things we're working on today. In Karen's interview (coming soon, I heard today) she talked about how email was her first "2.0" tool. Marilyn says the same thing. I wonder what we'll be saying when we're on the other side?

RE: Who are your mentors?

2008-10-29T19:55:31Z

I mentioned Joey Rodger a couple years ago in a mentoring discussion. She doesn't know it, but she mentored me profoundly in her presentation on leadership at PLA in 2004.

RE: Who are your mentors?

2008-10-29T18:37:00Z

Go Vandy!

(I got my MLS from Peabody in '75).

Alas, my mentors are long dead ... but that's why books are written: Jesse Shera, Ranganathan, and Louis Shores.

Refer to Shera's "social epistemology" whenever you hear the word "tagging" used for Library 2.0

RE: Association "divisions"

2008-10-29T18:27:11Z

Heh. The long-standing ALA (etc.) problem has been ... who do they represent? ALA is (officially!) not a professional organization; it is an educational association that purports to tell people about libraries and provides library staff with a forum.

Otherwise, it would need to be a librarians association.

This makes it hard for it to define professional standards ... lower standards may actually help the libraries.

The transformation to quasi-professional association began, in my opinion, with the opening of ALA to the recent graduates of Dewey's first library school. They, within a few decades, repurposed ALA but only to the extent that it's become a "pushmi-pullyu" (if you recall your Doctor Doolittle).

RE: Who are your mentors?

2008-10-28T22:28:00Z

Marshall Breeding has been mentioned by a few people, and he's on our list of possible people to interview.

Would you be interested in doing one or both of these interviews for this project? If yes, we'd love to host them!

RE: Who are your mentors?

2008-10-27T17:22:12Z

I have been extremely lucky in that I have had what I consider to be 2 mentors in libraryland. One of which is Jody Combs, Director of the Digital Library at Vanderbilt University, whom I approached several years ago about starting a more formal mentoring relationship. I wasn't sure I was at the right institution, focusing on the right areas in technology, or even in the right career. He helped me better understand myself, and I was able to redirect my energy, and here I am now in a job I love, doing very cool things. We still keep in touch and I appreciate all he's done for me.

The other person I consider to be a mentor is Marshall Breeding, also at Vanderbilt University. He's known world-wide as an expert on the business of library automation, and many other technological topics. He presents and writes more than anyone else I know. He was first a colleague, then a friend, and after I while, I realized that he had so much expertise and professional development guidance to share. So I began to "bug" him and he's been very kind in offering tips, tricks, and helpful information.

Both of these men have influenced me greatly and I appreciate their advice and friendship. In my eyes, they are the best mentors in libraryland.

RE: Coordinating volunteers

2008-10-21T02:42:03Z

Actually one of those tickers would be great on WJ as a whole. Hmmmm... I see another project!

Who are your mentors?

2008-10-16T00:17:54Z

Who are your mentors in the library field? We have a running list of potential candidates, and we'd love to hear from you about the folks we should interview for this project.

If you've been a mentor, please also use this thread to let us know you'd like to be interviewed. Please don't be shy...

RE: Association "divisions"

2008-10-20T20:57:16Z

Update: I joined both ALA and LITA over the weekend.

RE: Coordinating volunteers

2008-10-20T20:54:04Z

I should be in Chicago next summer for ALA annual. Maybe we can make a date sometime in there. Would love to interview you for this project. Maybe we can slip in some good old-fashioned online community building history as well.

RE: Coordinating volunteers

2008-10-20T15:11:47Z

Any time you're near Chicago, Chrystie ... I'd be happy to oblige.

Association "divisions"

2008-10-19T15:29:59Z

As part of the the open discussion following the LITA 2008 program, Andrew Pace brought up the idea that "new" or "recent" or otherwise "social media" librarians sometimes also avoid working with formal associations (such as ALA, LITA, etc.) and talked about the discourse around "to join or not to join".

This reminded me of the interview with Marilyn Mason, where she talked about the avoidance she's noticed that some new professionals have to the administrator or director roles in libraries.

Personally, I'm guilty of both. I've been so frustrated with what I've seen from afar (ALA, etc.) that I haven't felt like I wanted to join. Same with library director role. In our interview Marilyn explains this as a dis-interest in power. When she came up in the field, she said, 'we knew that we had to have the power in order to get things done' (or something like that).

Pondering...

RE: Coordinating volunteers

2008-10-18T05:47:54Z

great ideas Bob. we need one of those tickers here at "community first".

BTW, I think you'd be a great person to interview for this project - I'd love to do it if we can ever get to the same place and time some how!

Get Involved with Community First

2008-10-16T00:19:28Z

Please let us know if you'd like to know more about the Community First project, you'd like to get involved, or if you have other ideas or comments.