From Bachelor of Arts to Librarian (original) (raw)

The Devaluation of the Library Degree

As a seventeen year veteran librarian, I've often thought about the skills needed to be an effective librarian. In recent years, some libraries have changed the academic requirement of what qualifies someone to be a professional librarian. Instead of the Masters of Library Science degree which has been the terminal degree to work as a professional librarian, another advanced degree is being used to fulfill that requirement. Here are my thoughts on the matter in this working paper.

The Librarian - A Redefined Profession for the 21st Century

Revista Română de Biblioteconomie și Știința Informării = Romanian Journal of Library and Information Science, 2017

The digital environment and related technologies transform the professions in the fields of Library and Information Sciences. The article tries to present the specificity of the librarianship professions in this new informational and communication context and to identify the skills and competences needed to effectively carry out specific activities in the digital age.The profession of librarian has undergone a spectacular transformation into one of the most complex professions. If for a long time it has been regarded as a humanist profession, it has been seen in the last few decades that we are finding it more and more as a socio-technical profession that necessarily requires library and information science, communication, ICT, foreign languages as well as solid general knowledge of various fields. The profession of librarian is a profession of socio-human and technical synthesis.

Midlife career decisions of librarians (special issue)

The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 2003

Briscoe's work is one of far too few (if any) that posits a challenge to unbookish librarians. Published as a pamphlet, it is a paperback booklet that expresses dissent with an infatuation with technology and engages debate about bibliography and the librarian's role in knowing and leading readers to the print canon: those "works of highest knowledge" (p.14) that represent the "essential part of the library" (p.15). Briscoe (Univ.

USC LIM591D Summer 2014 Librarians in Traditional and Nontraditional Roles

Librarianship as a field is emerging and transitioning to meet the growing demands of user's that are adapting to the technology generation. These library science (LIS) students and library professionals are recognizing the “paradox of expertise ”related to their profession, overcoming its challenges, and incorporating the changes that patrons are demanding into their libraries, including: databases, integrated library systems and new advanced search engines. Alongside incorporating these improvements into the traditional library, librarians are also transitioning into nontraditional library positions. In an academic setting, librarians are becoming embedded librarians, a new emerging concept for these professionals. Basically, the bun-head, eye-glass wearing, quiet reference librarian is now emerging and transforming into the next generation librarian, meeting the needs of patrons demanding their service by learning technical skills and advancing their backgrounds. Librarians are also discussing these changes through various blog postings and websites specific to their field. Developing a curated list of employment resources and qualifications to be successful in a nontraditional librarian role aids librarians and other library professionals with their career development and progress objectives. Case studies and survey responses provide collected evidence of feedback received from library professionals in the field, related to employment opportunities and growth development in their profession. Overall, the goal is to employ librarians, whether that means in traditional, nontraditional next generation and/or embedded librarian positions.

The Academic Library Workforce: Past, Present, and Future

Library Trends

This article provides an overview of the evolution of the academic library workforce in the United States based on an examination of a selected number of studies of academic librarians. The overview illustrates the ongoing unmet needs that exist for comprehensive workforce data. The overview is followed by a discussion of the findings of a recent study entitled, "Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science" (WILIS) that gathered in-depth data about the careers of librarians who graduated over a forty year period from 1964 and 2007. Basic results of WILIS study for the academic library respondents are provided as an example of the type of detailed career data, including data related to recruitment and retention, that are needed to give educators, employers, and other stakeholders the information needed to plan effectively in a time of major demographic and workforce transition.

Librarianship, university, education, profession.

Alberto Petrucciani, Librarianship, university, education, profession, «AIB studi», 53 (2013) n. 2, http://aibstudi.aib.it/article/view/9038/8227\. Disponibile anche in italiano: http://aibstudi.aib.it/article/view/9038/8226