Librarian Education

Do Librarians Need to Know Anything?

July 9th post by The Annoyed Librarian: Do Librarians Need to Know Anything?

An Infographic For Those Contemplating Library School (Unemployment)

Which College Degrees Lead To Higher Unemployment [infographic]
You could choose a worse major... like Psychology, Fine Arts or History... but that's about it.

New Dutch LibrarySchool Spurs Innovation

In the Netherlands, an innovative LibrarySchool welcomes its first students into a university program designed to educate a new wave of public librarians. It’s both an academic program and an incubator of ideas.

Read the full story here: Designing a New Kind of Library Education

The LibrarySchool emerged from a decade of experiments on the future of libraries that explored how we can shape our future, what role libraries play in society, and how collaboration can help keep libraries vital.

Read the full story here: Prototyping Tomorrow's Libraries

Courses I Wish They Had Offered in Library School

Courses I Wish They’d Offered in Library School:
Marketing/Demonstrating Value
Graphic Design for Libraries
Entrepreneurship/Innovation
"These are the classes I wished I could have taken (and hope that some places offer or start offering). What classes do you wish that you would have seen in library school? What classes would have been really beneficial for the work you are doing now?"

Putting the UX in Education

Putting the UX in Education
Just as UX can be further integrated into the library world by being incorporated into LIS curriculum, libraries creating UX librarian positions must work closely with LIS programs to ensure that coursework is well aligned with expectations. Only by breaking down the barriers between LIS curricula and the library world will we create the user-focused library.

What Does It Take To Be A Good Librarian?

It takes knowledge of people, so says librarian David Wathan in his assessment of his long and satisfying career as a librarian in Henderson KY.

Donald Wathen attended three colleges, earning a bachelor's and a master's degree. But he considers what he learned working at a supermarket the most valuable.

"I worked eight years at (the former) Dick's Finer Foods" on Marywood Drive, Wathen related. "I went to school and got my degrees. But I got my education at Dick's Finer Foods." "I learned a lot ... in terms of people, and it's all about people" he explained. "I learned at Dick's Finer Foods about service and how the public behaves and how you treat the public -- things that serve you well in whatever you did."

As Wathen approaches retirement Aug. 1 after 33 years as director of the Henderson County Public Library, he jokes about the changes in how libraries are run.

More from Courier Press.

Free Online Conference – Trends in Library Training and Learning: Developing Staff Skills for the 21st Century

ALA Learning Round Table and OCLC’s WebJunction collaborate to offer free online conference
Trends in Library Training and Learning: Developing Staff Skills for the 21st Century program is set for August 10–11

WebJunction, OCLC’s online learning community for library staff, and the ALA Learning Round Table, which promotes quality continuing education for all library personnel, will team up to offer a free, online learning and training conference August 10–11, 2011.

The conference, to include eight one-hour sessions over two days, will be hosted using the WebEx web conferencing tool, which will provide attendees with easy online access to all live sessions and the ability to interact with other attendees and presenters using text-based chat. Registration will open by June 1 when full conference details are available on WebJunction.org.

“Libraries are changing quickly and staff need more training than ever to navigate nimbly through change,” said Sharon Morris, ALA Learning Round Table President 2010–11. “This conference will help library trainers, managers and staff to find new ways to train, learn and keep up. The Learning Round Table members are excited to be working with WebJunction on this cutting-edge online conference.” -- Read More

5 TED Talks Librarians Should Watch

TEDucation: 5 TED Talks Librarians Should Watch (and Why)
AndyW: "Ever since I was introduced to TED talks, I’ve sought them out when a new batch is available. Last year I had the privilege of attending the TEDxNJLibraries at the Princeton Public Library. It was great to listen to a range of speakers on a wide range of topics and stories while also being able to talk with others about the presentations. My attraction to these talks and the reason I am writing about them now is that I feel they are excellent perspectives from outside of the librarian echo chamber. Some have given me additional ideas for how to think and approach some of the issues that we as librarians face in the road ahead. I’ve linked some in my blog over the years but I wanted to highlight 5 TED talks that I think every librarian should watch."

University of Illinois : "Librarians are social workers, DVD clerks,..

and libraries are unemployment offices."

Or so this article seems to say when it reported that the University of Illinois is attempting to merge the Graduate School of Library and Information Science with the College of Media, the School of Labor and Employment Relations, and the School of Social Work.

But librarians have been saying the same for years, that we've become babysitters, video stores and time-wasting centers for the unemployed and the unemployable.

So why shouldn't college reflect the true nature of the work?

The most important factor I can see in favor of the merger is that a report concluded that combining the schools would create "intellectual synergies."

Oh. My. God. Haven't we all been saying this? That we need greater opportunities for intellectual synergy? I have it tattooed right here on my left butt cheek. Oh, crap, the tattoo guy spelled synergy wrong. It looks like it says, Syndy. That's what you get when you go to a guy who tattoos strippers all day.

What amazes me most about this story is that the Illinois law school has 735 students and the library school has 713 students enrolled in the current class. It just surprises me that the classes are about the same size. But of course, the law students are willing to pay out about 3 times more money for their education, so the university prizes them more. -- Read More

What Library School Students Should Know

What I want LIS students to know
Jill Hurst-Wahl: Every fall, a new group of graduate students arrives in the classroom on their way to becoming librarians and information professionals.Each group is full of energy and ideas, and ready to take on the world. Each student believes in the power of information, even before they fully realize the power that information holds. Every person is willing to make sacrifices in order to reach his/her goal. While the wide-eyed "this is awesome" attitude remains during the semester, it often becomes tempered as students attend to the details of their classes and their lives as graduate students. We're at the point in the semester where stress and elation are hand-in-hand. The end of the semester is in sight, but there is so much to do before then! With that as a backdrop, this is what I want LIS students to know (no matter where in the world you are)...

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