Post ALA Midwinter Jams

Rachel:
I have a lot of feelings (and work) coming out of this American Library Association Midwinter Meeting. Erin already shared some feelings I resonate with. But I am trying to take a moment to breathe before I dive right back into it. So here are two of my favorite jams which encompass how I feel after a conference or a meeting:

Erin:
Two jams, eh? I can do that.

Jam the first:
Who can you trust
And who are your friends
Who is impossible
And who is the enemy
These are the halls that we're presently haunting
And these are the people we currently haunt

Jam the second:

I've been pulling on a wire, but it just won't break

I've been turning up the dial, but I hear no sound

I resist what I cannot change

And I wanna find what can't be found

You're pretty good with words, but words won't save your life

Have you even been in a moment and realized that you were witnessing a turning point in the life of a relationship or an organization? I just got back from Denver and, honestly, that's what ALA Midwinter felt like for me this year. It felt like the American Library Association is standing at a crossroads and its members and leaders are going to have to start having some hard conversations and making some tough choices if they want to organization to continue to be relevant in the current day and in a future that seems poised to leave the organization behind.

Attendance at ALA Midwinter has been declining steadily over the past few years and this year, attendance numbers fell just short of 8,000. Attendance at ALA Midwinter suffers from the fact that winter is a hard time to travel by airplane, given the chances of travel problems. But it also suffers from changing organizational norms. While ALA Council and some of the committees at various levels of the organization need to meet in person to do their business, many committees do not need to meet in person two times per year because their business can be conducted online. It was my experience that many committees where in-person attendance was not required had fewer than half of their members present. Add to that the fact that because ALA Midwinter has historically been a business meeting, there are significantly fewer opportunities at ALA Midwinter for engagement and learning. To their credit, it does seems like ALA and its leadership are trying to figure out how to reckon with these challenges. But to my untrained eye, it doesn't seem like the conference will be able to continue in its current form in perpetuity.

But beyond numbers, there was a significant dissonance that was hard to shake. Two things struck me. First, that the discussion about whether or not the ALA Executive Director should be a degreed librarian continues apace. In November, ALA Council voted to change the educational requirement for the ED from "required" to "preferred." A petition to overturn the Council's actions got enough votes to make it onto the ballot for ALA's spring elections and so here we are. The search committee will reconvene after the vote and I saw badge ribbons at ALA that read "Vote Librarian!" One of the pro-librarian talking points is that we need an ED with a MLIS because we want to find someone who is familiar with and represents our values. I have a hard time with this conversation, mostly because I feel like that's a slap in the face to the countless numbers of library workers who are not degreed and who keep our libraries running smoothly. I also wondered how those in the "Vote Librarian!" camp felt about having a non-degreed librarian as a featured speaker on the ALA Present's Program panel. Chris Bourg's comments were passionate and as representative of library values but do we discount them because she isn't a degree-holding librarian? I wonder how those in the "Vote Librarian!" camp would be able justify either discounting Bourg's words OR holding her in high esteem while also having a viewpoint that makes her less-than in the eyes of the organization. I wonder what kind of mental gymnastics that takes. Frankly, it seems exhausting.


Second, and perhaps more importantly, we have to talk about ALA's failure to walk its talk when it comes to equity, diversity, and inclusion. ALA has declared that equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of the organization. But it felt at this conference like the organization and its leaders weren't really walking the talk. It was noted by more than one person (and I experienced it myself) that gender-neutral restrooms were few and far between at this conference. And those restrooms that had been converted were in far off corners of the convention center. Given the size of the convention center, the surfeit of restrooms, and the dearth of gender-neutral restrooms in the convention center, it seemed like a choice to not have converted more of them. And choosing not to convert more of the restrooms to gender neutral is not a great way to live into your values which foreground equity, diversity, and inclusion. Also, let's circle back to the "Are Libraries Neutral?" debate that was the ALA President's Program. Neutrality has definitely been on the minds of many in the library community so I can understand wanting to devote a program to talking about it. But as I was watching this debate I couldn't help but think of the privilege required to have a space devoted to the idea of neutrality. Because nearly 90% of librarians are white, we have the luxury of being able to have theoretical discussions about whose points of view we are required to give space to in our collections and our spaces. But I couldn't help but think about our colleagues in marginalized communities for whom this conversation is not actually theoretical because including certain points of view in our collections and our spaces is dangerous for them. How must it feel for our colleagues from marginalized populations to walk into a ballroom filled with jaunty music and sit through a conversation that argues that the rights of people who do not believe in their right to exist are more important than, well, their rights to exist. How can we, members of the Association, claim walk the talk of equity, diversity, and inclusion when we make spaces hostile for those in marginalized communities?

At ALA Midwinter, Junot Diaz gave an impassioned speech that, among other things, held those working in libraries accountable for how we treat our colleagues of color. The blog post on the American Libraries' website suggests that he "got real" in this conversation. The quote that I saw retweeted was "I wish that libraries would finally have a reckoning and know that [staffs that are] 88% white means 5000% agony for people of color, no matter how liberal and enlightened you think you are. We have to decolonize [libraries]." And I saw a lot of my more privileged colleagues quote tweeting this with some kind of "Yes!" as part of their commentary. But wokeness is performative when we say one thing and then prove with our actions that we're not really committed to it.

I have much respect for the Association and its leaders and members. But I also feel like we are really good at performative wokeness and, as Diaz points out, feeling really liberal and enlightened. I don't know where we go from here, but I also feel like this posturing is not a sustainable long-term solution. Declining Association membership and dwindling attendance numbers should tell us that what we're currently doing isn't working and that reinvisioning how the Association and its meetings are structured won't be enough to save us.

Stay positive,
Erin

Building the Unified Library Scene: The ALA 2017 Guide

Hello, friends of the Unified Library Scene. ALA Annual is nearly upon us and very soon many of us will be headed to Chicago for a few days. Maybe you need some ideas of things to put on your schedule? Here are some things that may be relevant to you if you're interested in building the Unified Library Scene.

Friday (June 23):
1-2:30pm
McCormick Place W184d
CaMMS Competencies and Education for a Career in Cataloging IG

This session is about what it would mean to put the recently approved Core Competencies for Cataloging and Metadata Professional Librarians into action. I'm co-presenting about behavioral competencies, specifically Professional Curiosity.

1-4pm
McCormick Place W193a
ALCTS Board of Directors Meeting I

The ALCTS Board of Directors meetings are open unless they go into closed session. They're supposed to go into closed session at some point on Friday, but probably you'll be fine whenever you decide to attend. Worst case, you wait in the hall with me. I'll be headed that direction after I give my presentation.

7-9pm
Hyatt Regency Chicago, Columbus A-D
ALCTS 101

ALCTS 101 is a fun way to learn more about ALA's Library Collections and Technical Services division. You can circulate around the room and meet people affiliated with almost every aspect of the division.

Saturday (June 24):
8:30-10am
McCormick Place, W184d
Intellectual Freedom and Open Access: Working Toward a Common Goal

A panel of speakers (including the always awesome April Hathcock) will explore the intersection of intellectual freedom and open access.

8:30-10am
McCormick Place, W187b
Students Lead the Library: A Showcase of Student Contributions to the Academic Library

A panel of academic librarians features projects that featured significant participation from students.

1-2:30pm
McCormick Place. W184bc
How to be an Influential Librarian: Leading and Mentoring from Wherever You Are

An early-career, mid-career, and later-career librarian talk about their experiences in mentoring and leadership. Spoiler alert: Rachel is going to be on the panel.

1-2:30pm
Blackstone Hotel, The English Room
The Conversation: Leadership and Librarians of Color

Sponsored by LLAMA's New Professionals Section, this program features an academic librarian and a public librarian talking about their experiences as librarians of color.

3-4pm
McCormick Place, W184bc
Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in Technical Services

A panel of speakers from various parts of collections and technical services will speak about initiatives that promote inclusion and social justice.

3-4pm
McCormick Place, W187b
Integrating Diversity Initiatives and Community Engagement: The Human Library at Penn State University

This program talks about the development of Penn State's Human Library.

4:30-5:30pm
McCormick Place, W184bc
From Middle Manager to Administrator: Leadership Lessons in Action

A panel of speakers from public libraries will talk about their experiences transitioning from middle managers to administrators.

Sunday (June 25):
8:30-9:30am
McCormick Place, W375b
Auditorium Speaker Series, featuring Brene Brown

Social work professor and author of a lot of awesome books about vulnerability.

8:30-10am
McCormick Place, W184bc
Libraries Are Not Neutral Spaces: Social Justice Advocacy in Librarianship

A discussion about youth services and social justice work.

1-2:30pm
McCormick Place, S101
Power That is Moral: Creating a Cataloging Code of Ethics

The annual ALCTS Cataloging and Metadata Management Section forum. If The Power to Name has had an impact on your professional practice, this session is not to be missed. Dr. Hope Olson is going to be speaking as part of this event.

3-4pm
McCormick Place, W176a
Where There is Thunder, There is Lightning: EDI and Change in Libraries

A series of lightning talks sponsored by ALA's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Implementation Working Group about EDI initiatives in libraries.

Monday (June 26):
10:30-11:30am
McCormick Place, W175c
The New Normal: Libraries Navigate Uncertain Times

A conversation about how libraries are existing in these current political and economic times.

10:30-Noon
McCormick Place, W192
The Business of Social Impact: Creating a World Where Everyone Has Value

A joint President's Program between LLAMA and ALCTS, this event features the CEO of the YWCA of Metro Chicago.

1-2:30pm
McCormick Place, W192
Asking for a Friend: Tough Questions (and Honest Answers) About Organizational Culture

A panel of public library administrators vow to "tell it like it is" regarding organizational culture.

1-5:30pm
McCormick Place, W471a
ALCTS Board of Directors II

This is when the transition from outgoing ALCTS Board of Directos and incoming ALCTS Board of Directors happens. Lots of good feelings and a few tears.

ALA Council Sessions:
ALA Council I
Sunday, June 25 from 8:30-11:30am
McCormick Place, W375e

ALA Council II
Monday, June 26 from 8:30-11am
McCormick Place, W375e

ALA Council III
Tuesday, June 27 from 7:30-9:30am
McCormick Place, W375e

With a loose grip on a very tight ship

Like many of you, I went to ACRL in Baltimore last week. I was on a panel about gendered expectations for library leaders and I presented a paper that used the Framework as a lens through which to view cataloging policy and practice. I tried to think of a thread that unifies my feelings about my ACRL experience, but I honestly don't have one. So I'm going to give you a few disjointed, half-formed thoughts.

1.) ACRL is not my home within ALA--that's ALCTS, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. I was really happy with the increased number of collections and technical services programs this year. While I haven't been a supporter of ACRL creating a section specifically to address collections and technical services issues, I think that having a venue within the ACRL conference to talk about these issues is really important. Also, I found that having more collections and technical services-related programming helped make me feel like I wasn't a weird outlier for attending ACRL. I hope that the 2019 installment of the conference will continue this trend. If you're a collections or technical services practitioner, I would encourage you to propose a session. If the content isn't there, there isn't much the program planners can do to raise the visibility of this part of academic librarianship.

2.) I was troubled by the number of programs that were social justice-themed or Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)-themed that were proposed and lead by white men. I feel like it requires a significant lack of self-awareness to be a white man and think that you're the person uniquely qualified to speak on issues related to social justice and/or EDI. It's especially shameful when you consider that nearly 90% of librarianship is made up of white people. And it does a lot to perpetuate the gross white savior narrative upon which librarianship seems to be built. I know that social justice and EDI are hot topics right now in librarianship, so everyone wants to be on record as saying something. But if we really want to advance these issues in our profession, those of us in positions of privilege would do well to sit down and make space to amplify the voices from marginalized communities. See also: the Roxanne Gay Q&A debacle of Aught Seventeen.

3.) I grow more and more annoyed at the Q&A periods during conference sessions. By the end of the conference, I was getting up and walking out when people finished their presentations. I feel like these Q&A periods do little to advance the work of the presenters and that questioners rarely ask good questions that are generally applicable to all in attendance. Instead, these questions usually fall along one of two lines:

1. The questioner has no question.
2. The questioner has a question that is so specific to their particular situation that the answer to the question is of little value to anyone other than the questioner.

I started to think that the Q&A period should be done away with and the time given back to the presenters. But the more I think about it, I think maybe that the Q&A period, with  some tweaks, could be useful. So don't approach the microphone unless you have a question that is general enough as to be valuable to all who are in attendance. And also, yes, do use the microphone--even if you think you can project.

4.) I had a real love/hate relationship with the social media back channel at this event. I found myself using the back channel to say some things that weren't very kind about situations and programs in which I found myself. I feel like everybody has to decide for themselves how they use social media, so this is more a self-critique than a hot take on the social media back channel writ large. At some point, in wanting to build a brand and cultivate a following, I lost track of my authentic voice in favor of something snarkier. And I don't like how I feel when I do that. I think I need to spend time thinking critically about how I use my voice in online spaces. As someone who wants to be taken seriously and who wants to have their voice heard, I recognize that my words have power and that I bring energy into a space with what I say. Maybe it's all the weird things happening in my life and in the world but at some point, I started putting snark in front of thoughtfulness in the words I express on social media. As someone who wants to build a Unified Library Scene, I can be truthful and say hard things without being...unkind, and I really need to think about how to strike that balance. That being said, I really appreciated the tweets that a lot of you made during the course of ACRL. I appreciate how thoughtfully and thoroughly you documented sessions and how smartly you held us all accountable for the ways in which we forgot to be our better selves during the course of the conference.

Stay positive,
Erin

Be What You're Like

I attend the Charleston Conference every year, and this year it made real to me changes in my professional life. I knew that I was in a more administrative role now, and I knew that I had strong connections throughout the library community and with the surrounding industries. It wasn't clear to me until last week that I didn't really understand or believe those things. Being in a place I've been before many times and seeing how the experience has changed made me come to terms with where I am in my professional identity and allowed me to confront what that means more directly.

I believe that our personal identities are set at times and, although malleable, tend toward a blend of ideal and reality. In my head, for instance, I am a 24-year-old tae kwon do black belt who hasn't been practicing a lot but can still do everything I could at 18. That's simply not true, but I want it to be and it informs how I want to live in the world (and impels me to make steps toward being, you know, fitter). I am really not sure what my professional identity was to me before last week, but I think it was set somewhere around "I pretty much have some things figured out and I'm doing okay." At the conference, I realized that a lot of people know me, and know me for some of my ideas. I realized that I have important things to say, and that I am in a position to say them, which I was not three years ago. Not the same position. I realized, basically, that I have levelled-up to Mid Career.

Being in a place where it was obvious where I am in my career and who I am professionally made me realize I have a new range of responsibilities.

To Say Something: People know who I am and listen to the things I say. I no longer have the ability to defer my thoughts or opinions to those "more suited" to speak on issues that I am knowledgeable about. It is important that I stand up and say something, knowing that I have a voice that many others do not.

To Do Something: I need to, in my daily life, do more to make sure that my personal work and the values of the organizations in which I work adhere to my values and the values that I want the profession to uphold. In some areas, this is quite a lot of work. In others, it isn't too much. All of the areas are important.

To Support People: As much as I adore being asked to share my opinions on important issues, it is important for me to share my platform with others. I think we need to listen to the experiences and advice of early career librarians as often as possible, and I am no longer that voice, I am the one that makes sure that voice has a platform. As I move more and more in administrative circles, I am further separated from the doing of things, and I will have less authority on which to speak about some issues -- even as my voice grows. I have a plan to work with any (any) early career librarian who wants to speak or write on issues that I find important. I have a plan to seek out voices that others are not hearing. To keep saying things that not everyone has heard and everyone needs to hear.

These things important to do on their own merit, but they also help me stay focused on what drives me in the profession when confronted with a mountain of tasks every day. Taking time to talk on twitter or over gchat with early career librarians invigorates me. Presenting sessions that end with "you need to do more of this" and translating that into "we are going to do more, you and I and anyone else" is something I'm striving to continue doing.

So, what about you? Where are you in your career and what responsibilities do you have related to that position? Are you comfortable there?

Keep Rockin'
Rachel

Let's put our heads together

I am really fascinated by the work done by Ithaka S+R. Even when I don't entirely agree with what's written in their publications, I find myself using their writing as a entry point for engaging with academia and the academic library. The most recent Ithaka S+R issue brief, Talent Management for Academic Libraries, was published on September 1st and I thought it had a lot of interesting things to say about recruitment and retention of academic librarians.

Talent management is a field of human resources management made famous by the 2001 book The War for Talent. In it, the authors discuss the ways in which companies could (and should) be deliberate in how they recruit, retain, and develop employees. Talent management (and The War for Talent) has become the go-to strategy for recruitment and retention in technology start-up culture and Deanna Marcum, the author of the issue brief, takes the tenants of talent management and applies them to the field of academic librarianship.

When considering the recruitment of new talent to an organization, talent management suggests that an organization should do as much work recruiting talent to the library as it does posting a job vacancy and passively accepting applications. In the brief, Marcum writes:

In an organization possessed of a talent mindset, managers and colleagues are creative in building candidate pools. They network through the community to identify the best possible candidates, reaching out to them and selling them on the awaiting opportunity. When they see that a vacancy may arise, they may bring potential candidates to campus for a visit or a talk. They participate in the selection process muscularly, rather than passively. They actively engage throughout the hiring process, recognizing that it is among the most important tasks the organization takes on.

I think this is an interesting idea for academic librarianship, and I suspect a lot of this kind of recruitment already happens off-the-record. If you are an administrator, you probably know someone that you would love to have working in your library. And if a job comes open that fits with that person's skill set, you're probably going to send them an email or call them or seek them out at a conference. I think this kind of recruitment is especially important if your library is in a perceived undesirable location or if you worry that the salary and benefits package may not be enough of a draw to someone in the field.

The potentially problematic side effect of this kind of talent recruitment is a fixation on fit. While it isn't necessarily problematic for administrators to identify potential employees who are forward thinking and are well regarded professionally, it veers into problematic territory when those recruited are chosen because they look and act like the existing members of the organization. Smarter people than me have written about fit and I encourage you to read them. Angela Galvan wrote a piece for In the Library with the Lead Pipe about the how whiteness and middle class-ness are inextricably linked to librarianship. Jacob Berg blogged about how fit is an unconscious bias that causes us to favor applicants who are like us. And in most cases, "Like Us" means white, middle-class, heterosexual, cisgendered people.

So here's my take: we shouldn't dismiss recruiting talent out of hand just because it has the potential to be problematic. Instead, let's revisit Marcum's piece. In it, she asserts than in an organization that recruits and retains using a talent management mindset, all of the staff have a role to play in identifying potential new colleagues. She writes:

All staff are on the constant lookout for excellent additions to their teams, even when there are no specific vacancies to be filled.

So, if it's up to us to identify our potential colleagues, let's use our positions of privilege to identify the people from underrepresented groups who would make great colleagues. Let's worry less about fit and more about giving a platform to the smartest voices in our field that have, to this point, been marginalized. And let's not do it because we expect a plate of cookies for being good allies. Let'd do it because it will be beneficial for librarianship, for our libraries and for those we serve.

Stay positive,
Erin

 

Housekeeping (06/24/2015)

A couple of random things...

Thing #1:
Rachel is organizing a learning community. The Librarianship and Critical Theory Learning Community will organize its learning around various themes, the first one of which is Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies.

If critical theory and learning in community are your jam, indicate your interest via this online form.

I won't write more about this in case Rachel decides to blog about it.

Thing #2:
I'm headed to ALA Annual in San Francisco tomorrow. I am always a bundle of nerves the day before I travel and today is no exception.

If you're San Francisco-bound, I'd love to say hello. The best way to find me is to send me a friendly 'Where are you?' tweet. I'm @erinaleach.

A couple of programs I'm looking forward to:
Telling your story: why technical services matters:
http://alaac15.ala.org/node/29756

Cataloging and Classification Interest Group (featuring Emily Drabinski and Amber Billey talking about gender and RDA):
http://alaac15.ala.org/node/29207

And a couple of programs I'm involved in:
ACRL Undergraduate Library Section's Mid-Level Manager Discussion Group (I'm co-presenting with Michelle Millet on strategies to engage disengaged and difficult staff):
http://alaac15.ala.org/node/29407

Creative Ideas in Technical Services Interest Group (I'm the IG Chair):
http://alaac15.ala.org/node/29217

If you're ALA Annual-bound, what are you excited about? What programs have I missed?

Stay positive,
Erin

How do you make community?: Erin's ACRL 2015 post

One of my favorite songs is Histories by Erin McKeown. It's where the title for this post comes from.

I spent most of last week in Portland, Oregon for ACRL's 2015 conference. I'd never been to this conference before, but I was able to go because I won a mid-career scholarship. I have to pause this post to say that I am forever grateful to those of you who chose to donate money to the ACRL scholarship fund. You helped fund an experience that transformed me.

The reason I'd never attended ACRL's conference before is that, historically, ACRL has not really focused on technical services. A technical services interest group was started in 2013, but the majority of content at ACRL's conference is directed toward people in other kinds of roles in their library. It seems like both ACRL and ALCTS have come to the conclusion that technical services librarians in academic libraries are more active in ALCTS. And, since ALCTS doesn't have a division-specific conference like ACRL, many technical services librarians end up having to attend the ALAs in order to get technical services content.

The answer to the question posed in the blog titles is that you build community is by finding people whose values align with yours, have hard conversations, and get to work being the change you wish to see.

It is easy to stick to the places that make us feel comfortable and safe. But that's rarely where transformation happens. I learned so much, grew so much, and cultivated so many friendships by attending ACRL's 2015 conference. I met people and had conversations I never would've had if I'd stuck with my technical services friends and only attended programs on linked data or the future of cataloging.

We have so much work to do, friends. The first order of business is to build a reading list of books and articles mentioned at presentations. Watch this space in coming days when Rachel and I figure out the best way to do that.

In the meantime, if you attended ACRL's 2015 conference, how were you transformed?

Stay positive,
Erin

Message in a bottle

Rachel asked me to take over blogging duties today and I asked what I should write about. The writing prompt I received was to write about being along in a job and the importance of being able to geek out once in while. This might not be what Rachel would've given you on the subject, but this is my take on the topic.

In my first job out of library school, I was the only person in my Department who cataloged serials and electronic resources. There were other catalogers in the Department, of course, but I was on an island. It was really hard because I was both new at being a librarian and new at being a serials cataloger. And while there were support systems in place to address the part about me being a new librarian, I was pretty much on my own to figure out the new serials cataloger part.

The first professional conference I attended was a small, serials-specific conference. The programming was top notch and I learned a lot. But more importantly, it's where I met the person who would become my mentor. That conference was transformative because it taught me that I wasn't alone. I might've been on an island at my own institution, but there were other people on nearby islands who were willing to lend their time and their talents to help me figure out how to be a good serials cataloger.

I have really benefited from spending time in-person with my colleagues at conferences. Those lunches, happy hours, and hallway conversations have inspired me in good times and kept me afloat when times were more challenging. And with the development of Twitter, I've developed an online community of like-minded librarians with whom I can connect in real time. In fact, that's how Rachel and I met and started the blog.

I'm now almost ten years into my career. And while I'm not struggling so much with being a new librarian, I'm struggling with being a new manager. And I know I'm not alone on that journey as well. I have a support system to rely on and like-minded people with whom I can exchange ideas and get advice.

So if you feel like you're on an island, look around and put some messages in bottles. You're probably not as alone as you feel.

Our work and our worth

If there was one theme that emerged for me from ALA Midwinter, it was The Invisible Technical Services.

I am certain that this feeling of invisibility isn’t new. I’m also certain that this groundswell of support for finding our collective voice is in some way tied to the fight for resources inevitable in an era of shrinking budgets and doing less with more.  Add to that vendor-provided services like MARC records and shelf-ready books as well as patron-driven acquisitions of new materials and you start to see how Technical Services staff could believe that their contributions go unnoticed.

I think advocacy for the importance of Technical Services in the life of a library is unbelievably important. Our administrators are often tasked with being good stewards of too-small budgets and have to allocate resources in the way the best serves their users. So it’s important for Technical Services leaders to gain the support of their administrators for the work that they do. My belief is that facts do more to win the support of those we report to than any impassioned speech could. If you can demonstrate that you understand the needs of your users and provide data showing how you’ve met them, you’ve increased your credibility with your administrators and made it much easier for them to justify giving up some of their budget to help you meet your goals.

I think that when people discuss making Technical Services visible, they don’t just mean advocating for the work done in Technical Services Departments. I think they also mean affirming the value of the people who do that work. When we talk about The Invisible Technical Services, it is uncomfortable because invisibility is such a fraught feeling. Being heard and seen by our colleagues is empowering, while invisibility is demoralizing. Being invisible makes us doubt our worth and our contributions.

I would argue, though, that there’s a difference between being made to feel invisible, and feeling like you’re not given enough credit for the work that you do. Credit is about your work and visibility is about your worth. So when we consider The Invisible Technical Services, we have to think both critically and realistically about whether we’re talking about our work or our worth. I want to be clear: everyone deserves to be treated collegially and with respect by those with whom they work. Your contributions matter. You matter.

I think that it is unrealistic to believe that we will earn the admiration of our colleagues by doing the job we were hired to do. And if we’re being honest, do we admire our Public Services colleagues for helping problem patrons or unjamming printers? I think probably that we don’t consider it very much. Just like we probably don’t consider the fact that when the catalog fails to produce the results a user is expecting, they complain to our Public Services colleagues and not to us.

Technical Services colleagues: let’s use data to advocate for both the importance of the work that we do and the people who do it. But let’s also do our jobs to the best of our ability without worrying who's noticing. After all, even if nobody gives us the accolades we believe we deserve, people notice the impact we have.

Stay positive,

Erin

Innovation and being brave: redux

Since part of what we're about here in the Unified Library Scene is learning and growing, I wanted to follow up a post that I wrote with some new insight I stumbled across during my time in Chicago at ALA Midwinter.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about how transitioning from MARC to a post-MARC world would require us all to be brave. I still believe that, by the way. I still believe that being innovative means sitting with our discomfort and moving forward with it.

But even after I wrote it, I didn't feel like it entirely addressed the hum of anxiety I was feeling in the cataloging community. Yes, change is hard. Yes, innovation requires discomfort. But I didn't feel like I'd gotten to the heart of what that anxiety was in my post.

I went to a session at ALA Midwinter and heard a presentation on BIBFLOW. The BIBFLOW project seeks to understand the academic library technical services environment and how the move away from MARC has the potential to impact any number of technical services workflows.

The presenter, Xiaoli Li, made an excellent point that quantified that anxiety that catalogers feel about what lies beyond the edge of a post-MARC world. She asked us to consider how many applications and workflows are reliant on records created in MARC.

Think about that: How many applications and workflows as your library are reliant on records created in MARC? Chances are, it's a lot. And this is why the move from MARC to BIBFRAME is more of an evolution than a simple data conversion. It means rethinking everything.

In that moment, a light bulb went on and I suddenly understood that hum of anxiety I'd been sensing in the cataloging community. It's hard to consider changing those workflows and changing those applications. Those things are difficult and require time and money that you may not feel you have. And what if things aren't perfect? What then?

I guess this is where we circle back to the earlier post about innovation and being brave. Reconsidering how and why you do what you do isn't a bad thing. Yes, it's time consuming. Yes, it's frustrating. But you get to have a lot of amazing 'aha!' moments along the way. And you get to figure out where the pain points are in the processes you often run without considering them.

So, yes. Sit with your discomfort and bravely and boldly move forward. But maybe that first step for you is smaller. Maybe your first step is analyzing a workflow or cleaning up some data. Maybe it's identifying obsolete MARC fields and converting the data. Or maybe it's finding a book that explains Linked Data concepts in language you can understand.

Whatever it is, start today.

Stay positive,
Erin

Conference Power

Academic libraries can be lonesome, especially for folks in areas where there are not a lot of people (like my field of acquisitions). When you're already in a place like that, and you're trying to build the constructive summer, it can be, you know, a little

There are so many paths of new doctor who references I could follow from here, but I'm not going to follow any of them! Admire my restraint!

Just like Erin talked about earlier this week, we gotta take care of ourselves.  Part of that is recharging personally in things like vacations, or playing games, or building elaborate blanket forts, or building elaborate cakes to share with me. Another equally important part of recharging is taking a break professionally.

Stepping away from our daily duties to think big thoughts about what we do, to see what other people are up to, to meet and talk to people who are both as tired of the day to day and excited about the possibilities that exist, to drink new and exciting beers in new and exciting towns.  Yes, my friends, I'm talking about going to a conference.  While it is possible for a conference to be hard work, I also find them extraordinarily rejuvenating.

I just got back from my conference, the Charleston Conference, and I have a TON of new ideas, and a TON of leads to follow up from vendors, and a TON to share with y'all and maybe even a new research project or two. And I'm excited about it all. Again. It happens every year.

The level of interaction with other people can be overwhelming, and the lack of sleep can wear, but I suspend all rules at conferences because the returns on fully engaging are so high. If I wish one thing professionally, it would be a way to get a real conference experience to folks who don't have the means to regularly get to regional or national conferences.

 Go Conferences!

Here's a bonus song about feeling alone and how that's true and not true.