> I feel like we have no guidance from our professional
> organization, guidance for exactly what has been discussed here: what skills
> do today's librarians need? This shouldn't be left to a casual mailing list
> discussion, but should be a major ALA project.
Actually, a mailing list might be exactly the right place. ALA has its
functions, but I really can't see them helping light the way. By the
time ALA could get anything going, the info would be way too generic
and stale for any reasonable CE program.
> If people knew what they should be learning and had opportunities to learn,
> I think we'd had a better profession. Give people a sense of direction and a
> way to measure their accomplishments, and they'll go much further.
>
> Since no one can know everything about the profession, how about developing
> "tracks" .... Each of these tracks could have specific learning goals, a
> set of readings (published by ALA for its revenue goals), regional courses.
We shouldn't treat ourselves like grade school children who have to be
spoon fed everything. Part of being a professional is figuring out
what you need to learn/do and then finding a way to acquire and apply
that knowledge. Expecting committees to determine which readings or
goals are best sounds like a pretty surefire recipe for keeping us in
the stone ages.
Our job is to help people coming up in the field and to share what we
know with others. That's hard to do if knowledge gets funneled through
a choke point -- particularly if there are other barriers to use such
as a cumbersome publication process or costs that discourage use.
ALA has struggled with the same basic issues for a very long time, and
its own members depend heavily on email lists and other forums they
discovered on their own to meet their needs. That speaks volumes as to
what is effective and what is not.
kyle
Received on Fri Sep 12 2008 - 11:27:32 EDT