Friday, July 13, 2007
Pimp Yourself! (It's easier than you think, and free!)
Please don't be offended or turned-off by the title.
I know there have been a few occasions where "pimp" this or that has been a problem, but just try to get past that for a moment and consider this ....
The other day I attended a wonderful workshop and one of the suggestions in that workshop was that as librarians we need to stop being so quiet and shy about ourselves and start boasting about ourselves, our libraries, our profession, etc.!
Well, I have heard this before and embrace it wholeheartedly!
However, the group attending this particular workshop seemed especially uncomfortable with this suggestion.
The specific suggestion made that really got them squirming was to "use your credentials on everything."
I personally LOVE this and started doing it as soon as I had heard it.
I put my MLIS on everything I can - in my e-mail signatures, when I sign things, on my business cards, etc.... Some may think it is even excessive, but I don't care! I paid for the MILS, I earned the MILS, I have an MLIS and it does mean something!
(I was in the first class of students who graduated from SCILS at Rutgers with the additional vowel "I" - it stands for Master of Library and INFORMATION Science - boy, do I LOVE having that extra "I"!)
Several attendees really seemed aghast about this and I was sort of surprised. I can understand that it may go "outside your comfort zone" to boast about yourself or your library, but adding a few letters to the end of your name!?
Other professions do it all the time and no one thinks anything of it! Or, they have a prefix to designate their qualifications and/or professionalism, i.e,. "Dr.", "Esq.", etc.
We as librarians need to do this as well!
Sometimes this suggestion is met with, "Well, no one knows what that stands for anyway!"
GREAT! That gives you the chance to TELL THEM what it stands for, what it means, why you have it and what it means YOU CAN DO!
C'mon, as far as "pimping things" goes, this really is one of the easier ones (and free too!)
I challenge everyone who doesn't use their credentials to make a commitment to doing so as a "first step" toward becoming more comfortable BOASTING about how awesome we are! (Cuz we are!)
I know there have been a few occasions where "pimp" this or that has been a problem, but just try to get past that for a moment and consider this ....
The other day I attended a wonderful workshop and one of the suggestions in that workshop was that as librarians we need to stop being so quiet and shy about ourselves and start boasting about ourselves, our libraries, our profession, etc.!
Well, I have heard this before and embrace it wholeheartedly!
However, the group attending this particular workshop seemed especially uncomfortable with this suggestion.
The specific suggestion made that really got them squirming was to "use your credentials on everything."
I personally LOVE this and started doing it as soon as I had heard it.
I put my MLIS on everything I can - in my e-mail signatures, when I sign things, on my business cards, etc.... Some may think it is even excessive, but I don't care! I paid for the MILS, I earned the MILS, I have an MLIS and it does mean something!
(I was in the first class of students who graduated from SCILS at Rutgers with the additional vowel "I" - it stands for Master of Library and INFORMATION Science - boy, do I LOVE having that extra "I"!)
Several attendees really seemed aghast about this and I was sort of surprised. I can understand that it may go "outside your comfort zone" to boast about yourself or your library, but adding a few letters to the end of your name!?
Other professions do it all the time and no one thinks anything of it! Or, they have a prefix to designate their qualifications and/or professionalism, i.e,. "Dr.", "Esq.", etc.
We as librarians need to do this as well!
Sometimes this suggestion is met with, "Well, no one knows what that stands for anyway!"
GREAT! That gives you the chance to TELL THEM what it stands for, what it means, why you have it and what it means YOU CAN DO!
C'mon, as far as "pimping things" goes, this really is one of the easier ones (and free too!)
I challenge everyone who doesn't use their credentials to make a commitment to doing so as a "first step" toward becoming more comfortable BOASTING about how awesome we are! (Cuz we are!)
Labels: boast, credentials, librarians, marketing
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 9:14 AM 0 comments
Saturday, July 07, 2007
"New" Librarians in the News
Two articles today in NY papers on "new" librarians, one in The Sun and one in The NY Times. What do you make of these takes on "us"?
Labels: amy kearns, librarians, news
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 2:39 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Librarians as CHANGE AGENTS - Fantastic!
Wow, talk about BLING.... this is fantastic!
Helene Blowers put this in on her blog and in her flickr stream and I came across it this morning - wow! She got this from the ALA conference - I'm jealous!
Li-brar-i-an. noun. A change agent: ensures knowledge and information are free and accessible to all.
You can go here and order some for yourself even! Kinda pricey but maybe for a whole organization....
Labels: amy kearns, badge, bling, change, conference, librarians
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 8:20 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Take a Deep Breath and Read
There has been a lot of talk going on about the flood of information and tools we are in the midst of... even the hard-core bloggers have been blogging about being overwhelmed and finding balance in their lives . . . Well, I have been feeling very overwhelmed myself all of a sudden!
Luckily, this post by The Shifted Librarian (Jenny Levine) really saved me today. I recommend highly that you read it.... Thank you, Jenny.
Thanks to my fellow blogger here, Mary, I have been sucked into the world of facebook. I also highly recommend you check it out. I created a New Jersey Librarians group there and if you are a librarian here in the great state of Jersey, please join us. Just keep in mind what the Shifted Librarian says.
I may be floundering a bit at the moment in this vast sea, but I'm not ready to get out yet.
Luckily, this post by The Shifted Librarian (Jenny Levine) really saved me today. I recommend highly that you read it.... Thank you, Jenny.
Thanks to my fellow blogger here, Mary, I have been sucked into the world of facebook. I also highly recommend you check it out. I created a New Jersey Librarians group there and if you are a librarian here in the great state of Jersey, please join us. Just keep in mind what the Shifted Librarian says.
I may be floundering a bit at the moment in this vast sea, but I'm not ready to get out yet.
Labels: 2.0, amy kearns, facebook, keeping up, librarians, new jersey librarians, technology
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 11:34 PM 2 comments
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Infodoodads gives me HOPE!
I read this message today and went to check out the new blog - it looks great and I plan to keep my eye on it (or, I should say, I have added it to my bloglines)! It also gives me hope - read on....
What's especially nice about this to me is that I have recently been thinking about and talking to some people about just what it is that the current crop of library students are learning.
I graduated from library school in 2003 and it's been awhile (especially when you think of how quickly things change and advance in technology and the world) since I've been in school! I think about how we are all working hard to "catch-up" and help others "catch-up" to all the new technologies and ideas about customer service and so on... if we are currently producing new librarians who will find themselves in this same position then we are fighting a losing battle!
One might think that the "new" librarians are "young" librarians and would automatically be "hip" to the new social technologies, i.e. facebook, instant messaging, flickr, etc., but this is not necessarily true, and it is also not necessarily true that any/all "young people" know about this stuff and/or understand or believe in it in relation to the library world.
Case in point: I mentioned this to my library garden pals and one replied with anecdotal evidence that I was afraid of:
Oh great. What is going on here!? What are the library students being taught about. If we are spending time and effort catching-up current librarians, I think this will have to include some of the library professors as well. Apparently.
However, this blog is a ray of hope to me since there is a student on there and he obviously knows about these things and is blogging about them with some colleagues. I guess you could say that he perhaps knew/knows about those things already and didn't learn them in library school.
You also might say that maybe the students USE RSS and don't know it - like many "lay" people do - If you ask a bunch of people if they use RSS they say no - but if you ask them do you use My Yahoo! and they say yes, then they are using RSS and they just don't know it.
Of course the second point about reading library blogs there is just no excuse about!
So check out this blog to help yourself "keep up" and let's think about doing something NOW about the next generation of librarians being "created" so we won't be fighting against a growing tide of people who just "don't get it."
Note: I just found out that Leslie Burger, current ALA president (and Director of the Princeton Public Library, NJ) is interested in this and is working (I think) on a way to look into this and address it. Yay! :-)
Also: If you want to look at a great and simple way of learning about RSS, check this out.
Greetings,
Several librarians (Margaret Mellinger, Hannah Rempel, Kate Gronemyer, and
Jane Nichols), one librarian to-be (Michael Baird) and myself have been
maintaining a blog dedicated to reviewing information tools on the Net. A
little shameless self-promotion never hurts, and I wanted to spread the
word. :)
We hope our website is useful for librarians and other information-lovers.
Please check it out at http://infodoodads.com/
Have a great day!
Laurie
.......................................................
Laurie M. Bridges Business & Economics Librarian Oregon State
University
What's especially nice about this to me is that I have recently been thinking about and talking to some people about just what it is that the current crop of library students are learning.
I graduated from library school in 2003 and it's been awhile (especially when you think of how quickly things change and advance in technology and the world) since I've been in school! I think about how we are all working hard to "catch-up" and help others "catch-up" to all the new technologies and ideas about customer service and so on... if we are currently producing new librarians who will find themselves in this same position then we are fighting a losing battle!
One might think that the "new" librarians are "young" librarians and would automatically be "hip" to the new social technologies, i.e. facebook, instant messaging, flickr, etc., but this is not necessarily true, and it is also not necessarily true that any/all "young people" know about this stuff and/or understand or believe in it in relation to the library world.
Case in point: I mentioned this to my library garden pals and one replied with anecdotal evidence that I was afraid of:
I did a talk for (a class) as recently as October 2006. By show of hands,
maybe 2 out of 30 in the class had any idea what RSS is, or read any
library blogs.
I found this upsetting . . . (because) RSS IS
an information literacy technology. Perhaps it is THE single best
technology for allowing us to manage the flow, display, sharing, and consumption
of information. As promoters of information literacy, librarians should be
ALL OVER THIS.
Oh great. What is going on here!? What are the library students being taught about. If we are spending time and effort catching-up current librarians, I think this will have to include some of the library professors as well. Apparently.
However, this blog is a ray of hope to me since there is a student on there and he obviously knows about these things and is blogging about them with some colleagues. I guess you could say that he perhaps knew/knows about those things already and didn't learn them in library school.
You also might say that maybe the students USE RSS and don't know it - like many "lay" people do - If you ask a bunch of people if they use RSS they say no - but if you ask them do you use My Yahoo! and they say yes, then they are using RSS and they just don't know it.
Of course the second point about reading library blogs there is just no excuse about!
So check out this blog to help yourself "keep up" and let's think about doing something NOW about the next generation of librarians being "created" so we won't be fighting against a growing tide of people who just "don't get it."
Note: I just found out that Leslie Burger, current ALA president (and Director of the Princeton Public Library, NJ) is interested in this and is working (I think) on a way to look into this and address it. Yay! :-)
Also: If you want to look at a great and simple way of learning about RSS, check this out.
Labels: amy kearns, blogs, librarians, students, technology
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 11:20 AM 3 comments
