1. EducatorsāTogether
Dorothea Salo
ILAā/āACRL
7 MaY 2013
Hi, good to see everybody. What I want to do in these ļ¬fteen or twenty minutes I have is to suggest that even though Iāve gone over to the enemy
and become a library-school instructor (boo! hiss!), we have more in common than we think we do.
Weāre all -- library schools AND librarians -- living with some fears about our place in the world and even whether we still have one. And we donāt
always respond to those fears, individually or collectively, in the sanest or most productive ways. I certainly donāt! And that leads to some super-
extra-common cultural malfunctions and unhelpful mindsets in our library organizations AND our library schools that keep us, collectively, from
responding to current challenges as well as we can and should. Finally, weāre all racing to keep up with change.
But change doesnāt have to be scary or unfathomable or stonewalled. Iām going to close my remarks in a bit with two ideas from startup culture
that I hope will ļ¬avor all our discussions today, and one more phenomenon that all of us are having to think about, because weāre educators
together.
2. With friends like these...
Michael Kelley, Library Journal, http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/04/opinion/editorial/can-we-talk-about-the-mls/
Chealsye Bowley, https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/guest-post-why-am-i-getting-my-mlis-because-i-have-to/
So hereās the world I live in. Library-school students dissing the work I do, high-proļ¬le professional publications asking whether itās even
necessary. And these two pieces turned up in the last two weeks! It just doesnāt end. If weāre to consider Chealsye Bowley and Michael Kelly friends
of library education, who needs enemies?
And, you know, I wonāt call for a show of hands, but if I asked how many of you out there agreed with these assessments, the only thing
restraining a lot of you would be politeness. I know what the lay of the land is.
3. Libraries, too.
Jenica Rogers, āKeynote from NLS6: Moving Beyond Book Museumsā
http://www.attemptingelegance.com/?p=1947
Thing is, itās not just me in that boat; itās libraries and librarians, too. Hereās a title slide from Jenica Rogers, āMoving Beyond Book Museums,ā
which just begs a lot of questions.
4. Libraries, too.
Mita Williams, āThe future of libraries is...ā
http://librarian.newjackalmanac.ca/2012/11/
the-future-of-libraries-is.html
Jenica Rogers, āKeynote from NLS6: Moving Beyond Book Museumsā
http://www.attemptingelegance.com/?p=1947
Mita Williams, who says, āLetās get the bad news over with. It looks like weāve passed the point of Peak
Librarianship.ā
5. Libraries, too.
Photo: Julian Burgess, āINTERNET,ā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/aubergene/3066850162/, CC-BY
Mita Williams, āThe future of libraries is...ā
http://librarian.newjackalmanac.ca/2012/11/
the-future-of-libraries-is.html
Jenica Rogers, āKeynote from NLS6: Moving Beyond Book Museumsā
http://www.attemptingelegance.com/?p=1947
Hereās Hugh Rundle, ādematerialisingā libraries, which sounds like something out of a science-ļ¬ction ļ¬lm.
6. Libraries, too.
Photo: Julian Burgess, āINTERNET,ā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/aubergene/3066850162/, CC-BY
Mita Williams, āThe future of libraries is...ā
http://librarian.newjackalmanac.ca/2012/11/
the-future-of-libraries-is.html
Metropolis Magazine, āStill Here,ā http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20120720/still-here
Jenica Rogers, āKeynote from NLS6: Moving Beyond Book Museumsā
http://www.attemptingelegance.com/?p=1947
And when the best thing Metropolis Magazine can ļ¬nd to say about libraries is that theyāre āStill Here,ā well, um. Yeah. Not even sure where to go
with that.
7. A natural
response
Photo: Maria Morri, āotk dream 2,ā CC-BY
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/idhren/3056180752/
And the very natural response to all this challenge and negativity -- and, frankly, insult; I feel insulted by Ms. Bowley and Mr. Kelley, and I donāt
see why I should hide that -- the very natural response is knee-jerk. I see a lot of knee-jerk responses in librarianship, and Iāve been guilty of
quite a few myself as I try to defend the work I do. Appeals to tradition: āitās been this way a long time, so why would it stop now?ā Appeals to time
poverty, knowledge poverty, all the reasons we can come up with not to acknowledge the challenge, much less meet it.
8. A natural
response
Photo: Brad.K, āOstrich Butt and American Flag,ā CC-BY
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/stopbits/3584145338/
And hereās another natural response: if we just ignore it, itāll go away, right?
Well, look, I can tell you that discontent about library school aināt going NOWHERE. I believe the same is true about higher education, and by
extension, academic libraries.
9. The best
responses?
Photo: Maria Morri, āotk dream 2,ā CC-BY
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/idhren/3056180752/
Is jerking our knees really the best response we can muster?
10. The best
responses?
Photo: Maria Morri, āotk dream 2,ā CC-BY
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/idhren/3056180752/
Is plunging our heads in the sand really the best we can do? We smart, experienced, educated, capable people?
11. Probably
not.
Photo: Maria Morri, āotk dream 2,ā CC-BY
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/idhren/3056180752/
I really donāt think so, no. I can do better. So, I think, can we all.
12. Whatās going on?
So Iām going to switch gears a bit and brieļ¬y mention a few things weāre seeing in the world that I think motivate some of the challenges to
librarianship and library education that weāre seeing.
13. Photo: Julian Burgess, āINTERNET,ā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/aubergene/3066850162/, CC-BY
itās all on the
right?
Hereās a thing we all know already: undergraduates, graduate students, even faculty who should really know better -- they think itās all on the
Internet, just sitting there waiting for them.
14. itās all
right?
Photo: Alan OāRourke, āFREE sign,ā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/toddle_email_newsletters/7002322316/, CC-BY
And that belief correlates with another, which is that all the information they can access is ļ¬oating out there free for the taking, no costs at ALL
associated with it.
15. itās all
right?
Photo: Steven Damron, āopen sign,ā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/sadsnaps/3676812382/, CC-BY
And we all know itās not that simple, but them NOT knowing that has two bad knock-on effects for us: ļ¬rst, that itās unbelievably hard to engage
many students and faculty in discussions about open access and open data, even after last yearās Academic Spring; and second, weāre swiftly
running out of options for the now-inevitable moment when we have to admit that the money we have doesnāt cover the materials they need. If
thereās a question bigger than āwe did the Big Deal; what now?ā in academic libraries, Iām not sure I know what it is!
16. MOOCs
The free-versus-open, who-pays arguments are migrating from serials to MOOCs. If youāve been ostriching for a while, you might have spaced on
the Massively Open Online Course thing, but I ļ¬gure Iām not talking to too many ostriches, so. Lots of big questions in the air about what these
startup initiatives mean for academia, library schools no exception, and of course that means big questions for academic libraries as well.
17. e-textbooks
Inside Higher Ed, http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/02/rices-open-textbook-arm-double-its-offerings
The Digital Reader, http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/04/26/the-perils-of-digital-textbooks-coursesmart-
crashes-during-exam-week/
Library Journal, http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/10/opinion/peer-to-peer-review/
preventing-the-second-big-deal-peer-to-peer-review/
One of them is reinvolving ourselves in textbooks, which weāve studiously avoided doing, but post-Wiley v. Kirtsaeng, we may have to rethink. Iām
on record saying I think the rush to yet another Big Deal with big content companies for e-textbooks is a bad idea that will backļ¬re, and weāve
seen purely immediate reasons to be cautious, like the CourseSmart exam-week crash -- but I also think thereās so much potential here for
academic libraries to support open approaches that materially beneļ¬t BOTH students AND faculty authors!
18. rda and
bibframe
Eric Miller, āBIBFRAME Transition Update,ā http://www.slideshare.net/zepheiraorg/bibliographic-14207718
Technical-services folks, youāre not exempt; I donāt know that I need to say much more about RDA and BIBFRAME, except that Iām right there in the
same boat with you, trying to ļ¬gure out enough about linked data to teach it to people!
19. research, data,
decisions
Project Information Literacy, http://projectinfolit.org/
Instruction librarians, Iām guessing you know about Project Information Literacy already, but for the rest of us, itās an ambitious research program
into how college students and new graduates deal with information, as well as how the rest of the world WISHES they would. And itās fabulous and
you should check it out, not least because it points to another big question: how do we use data, use research, to guide our decisionmaking? Weāre
being expected not to ļ¬y by instinct any more, and thatās not at all a bad thing, but it takes some shifts in mindset.
And of course Iām also nodding here to the new information-management challenge represented by research data in all its myriad forms and
formats. Talk about your big questions! But itās a question thatās not going away any time soon.
20. What can we learn from
whatās going on?
What can we apply from
whatās going on?
I can stuff my library-school students full of facts and tools and even techniques for using the tools all day, and sometimes I do, because I have to.
You reference librarians and instruction librarians can do the same -- āhere, desperate undergrad, have these twelve citations to peer-reviewed
papers on your topic!ā -- and sometimes you do, because you have to. But we both know thatās not ideal. We all need our students, and even our
fellow faculty, to do some analysis and synthesis around their information problems. So we should expect the same of ourselves. Itās not enough to
know whatās going on; we need to ļ¬gure out what we can learn and apply from it.
21. Assessment
Image: Sean MacEntee, āsurvey,ā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/smemon/6289600762/ CC-BY
And that brings me to the A-word. I get assessed a lot: my students get their innings at the end of every semester, once a year a colleague
assesses my teaching, during my annual review Iām asked how I plan to improve my teaching and Iād better have a good answer, and so on. Thereās
Big Kahuna assessment for us, too; weāve got an ALA accreditation cycle coming up.
What Iāve found, and what I want to suggest to you, is that the A-word isnāt a function of a hype cycle, though it is high in hype just now.
Assessment is a key part of how we compare what weāre doing to what the world is telling us we need to be doing.
22. Strong opinions,
weakly held
hat tip
Bob Sutton, http://bobsutton.typepad.com/
my_weblog/2006/07/strong_opinions.html
I also want to suggest a mantra for todayās discussions. Itās one I use myself, because Iām as tempted as anyone to ļ¬y off the handle -- perhaps
more than most. āStrong opinions, weakly held.ā To me, this means not fence-sitting, but really pursuing things I think deserve to be pursued --
but not ignoring whatās going on, either, and admitting that Iām not always right the ļ¬rst time. Or the second. Or, you know.
23. What should we change
based on
whatās going on?
Right, so weāve looked at whatās going on, and done some critical thinking about it. Now we have to switch from the brain to the hands. Itās not
enough to think; itās NEVER enough to think. We have to act based on what weāve thought. In library school, we know that; itās why we insist every
student do a practicum, itās why I assign lashings of hands-on projects and service learning. In libraries... well.
24. Startup culture?
Photo: National Assembly For Wales / Cynulliad Cymru, āChildren & Young People's Committee / Y Pwyllgor Plant a Phobl Ifanc,ā
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/nationalassemblyforwales/4768213892/ CC-BY
Except for the gender ratio, this could be a lot of library meetings Iāve been in. Maybe you too. Two people arguing, ignoring everybody else in the
room. One guy staring at papers, completely checked out; another staring into space. (These are the ones I personally identify with, by the way.) I
donāt even know WHAT is going on with that blond dude. This isnāt a meeting thatās going to result in a whole lot of action.
25. Why not?
Photo: smlp.co.uk, āItās a No!ā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/biscuitsmlp/2247299538/ CC-BY
Canāt speak for all of you, but when Iāve checked out of meetings, itās usually been because I saw the writing on the wall, and the writing on the
wall was a big giant NO. Didnāt matter what I said, didnāt matter what anybody said, because whether itās two dudes arguing or just plain old
inertia, the default was NO and I had zero chance to change the default.
26. Photo: smlp.co.uk, āItās a No!ā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/biscuitsmlp/2247299538/ CC-BY
Startup culture doesnāt do the big giant NO thing. This isnāt an unalloyed good; it can sometimes mean less direction than might be useful. But my
sense is that libraries have gone way too far the other way. The writing on the wall cannot stay the big giant NO.
27. lazy consensus
Photo: Erich Ferdinand, āNoā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/erix/99778255/ CC-BY
So hereās an idea to get us to yes, and I happily acknowledge that I stole it from Bethany Nowviskie at Virginia. Itās called ālazy consensus,ā I use it
a lot for collaborations Iām in charge of, and itās as simple as āsilence implies consent.ā Somebody wants to do something? Great. They can unless
somebody vocally objects. That ļ¬ips the default stance to yes, and puts the burden of persuasion on the naysayers. Just this, I think gets us a lot
closer to productive startup culture.
28. Failāfast
Photo: Dagny Mol, āFail Roadā http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/ļ¬reļ¬ythegreat/2845637227/ CC-BY
And now the four-letter F-word. No, not that one. A worse one. Startups fail. Itās a fact of life! And itās not fun, but people get through it, and
hereās how.
31. reskill
Library Journal, http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2012/12/opinion/peer-to-peer-review/
continuing-education-in-lis-how-should-we-train-reskillers-peer-to-peer-revieww/
Digital Humanities Questions & Answers, http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/
what-libraries-are-doing-a-librarian-re-skilling-program
Because what happens with failure is that you LEARN from it, and learning is the last idea I want to leave you with, since weāre educators together.
My MLS is eight years old. Whatās happened in those eight years that my instructors couldnāt have told me about if theyād WANTED to, because it
hadnāt happened yet? Well, practically everything I talked about in this talk, for starters!
So post-MLS learning is an urgent need in this profession, and my sense (as you can see from what Iāve pinned here) is that libraries are just
starting to rethink how itās done, which means that library SCHOOLS need to sit up and take notice. I hope some of us get a chance to talk about
that in a bit...
32. Weāre in this
together.
Letās get it right!
because weāre educators together, weāre in this crazy shifting information landscape together, and itās important that we get this right.
33. This presentation is
available under a
Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0
United States
license.
Photo: Erich Ferdinand, āNoā
http://www.ļ¬ickr.com/photos/erix/99778255/ CC-BY
http://www.slideshare.net/cavlec/educators-together
Thank you.