I read a post on one of my favorite professional blogs this morning that really hit home for a few reasons. Reason #1: It discusses the role of the librarian as a tech-support person. Reason # 2: It moves on to a somewhat deeper level and asks librarians to consider what it means to be a professional. And Reason # 3: These (and so many more) are questions that I ask myself each day when I am out there looking at the available jobs for librarians.
So let me rant for a bit. When I was working at the Guilford Free Library, I spent a good part of my day troubleshooting the copy machine. I was not a professional, so I suppose it was okay that I was the one who was doing this. But I do know that when I was not around there would be librarians unjamming paper, or changing toner, or what have you. And at the computer work stations upstairs, which were close to the reference desk and to where the librarians would be stationed, professional librarians (meaning librarians with master's degrees) would be the ones troubleshooting the computers. Turning them off and on when they would freeze up. Checking the printer connections if they weren't printing. Defragmenting the hard-drive if something more serious went wrong. I would have to leave the circulation desk to go and fix the copier, often letting people stand there for awhile as I tried to figure out where the paper jam was, or often letting the phone ring a little too long before I ran back to try to answer it. If there were a tech support person at the library, I would not have had to do this. Neither would the librarians have had to potentially lose a reference question or an interaction with a patron while she was restarting one of the computer terminals.
Why don't many public libraries have devoted tech support positions? Budget constraints. When most public libraries can't even afford to stay open hours that are convenient to their patrons, why are they going to pay for someone to be on tech stand-by? Public librarians and those working at small, under-funded libraries have to wear many hats. That's the way these libraries have worked, are working, and will probably continue to work. Hire a librarian with a degree, because there are a few professional hats they'll have to wear, but make them wear all the other hats, too, and pay them a really low salary while at it, since the library - while championing a good cause - just doesn't have the money for a good salary. Which is why there is the question of what it actually means to be a professional librarian.
Does a professional librarian who may have (somewhat foolishly, I admit) gone to school full-time, taking out numerous student loans in the process, have to have a master's degree to do tech support? I don't remember taking Fixing the Copier 101 in school, so I'm not sure this is one of the core skills of a librarian. Yet it seems to be. Librarians want to help people, they want to connect people with free and easily accessible information, they want to provide a service to their community, they want to educate and inform. We can do a lot, we talented librarians, but do we have to do everything? Because by doing everything we are not doing any one thing well.
I have always had a steady eye on my regional job market, and the positions that appeal to me the most, that get me doing the things that I at this point in my life feel I most want to do, are the positions that also have me fixing the copy machine. They have me updating the library's website, handling any kind of software or hardware recommendations for the library, overseeing the library's technology budget, troubleshooting the computers, printers, and other electronic and digital devices, and have me managing the library's archives and genealogy collection. I'd be a web developer, IT infrastructure manager, IT director, help desk, archivist, preservationist, and genealogist, all in one. And I'd no doubt have reference desk duties and "other duties as assigned." All for the amazingly and degradingly low salary of something in the mid $30-$40K range. Maybe most librarians wouldn't complain about this - at least they'd have a full-time job, be in a professional position, and working with a community - but I am not sure that I am interested in wearing all those hats and not really being paid adequately for them. Considering what Penelope Trunk wrote about a couple of weeks ago in her blog on the gap between non-profit and for-profit jobs, I have to wonder how these kinds of libraries are attracting really good professional talent. How much can the love of the mission really sustain someone? Can the mission feed me? Am I supposed to go home at night feeling like I've done my part for the world that day because I helped someone plug their flash drive into the USB port?
Maybe. Maybe I can. Maybe I'm just venting a little too much. I mean, I really am trying to consider what it means to be a professional librarian. How much I am worth. What I really want to do. What kind of impact I want to make. Are libraries the right path for me? Have I given up before I've even started, really? Maybe showing that person how to use a flash drive is making an impact. Maybe I really am making a difference in someone's life. And maybe I don't need to own a house and pay mortgage payments. Maybe I am just over-thinking this. This is why I don't like to blog about work. All these big, life questions - very overwhelming.
No comments:
Post a Comment