It is hard for me to admit, but it is over a year since I last posted here. To be fair to myself, it has been a very big year...
New responsibilities, new projects, new success and failures, learning how to self-manage... Something has shifted inside me that is making me reflect on the last year and the way my self-image has changed.
When do you think you went from being a "new Librarian with potential" to a "Librarian"? Honestly?
I mean, we all know that we are never finished developing ourselves (I'm not indicating I have reached some sort of destination), but in terms of identity. Did you do something well, do something 'terrible', or was it a very gradual process? Seriously, comment!
Librarians seem to talk excessively about our identity, but what does it actually mean for us to identify with our profession, as a professional and as a person?
Some of the stuff I have been reading includes:
The Academic Librarian's identity conflict, by Steven Bell
The Great Librarian Crisis of 2013, by Chris Bourg
Re-thinking Our Professional Identity in Light of
New Responsibilities, by Elaine R. Martin
Occupational Role Identity of Women Academic Librarians, by Dr Pamela J. Cravey
How to survive the zombie Librarian apocalypse, by Jennifer Lagarde (this one being my particular favourite, even though more aimed at school librarians)
Just for perks, some great quotes about Librarians are:
“Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a culture was solely related to how many librarians it contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?” - Neil Gaiman
“Don't mark up the Library's copy, you fool! Librarians are Unprankable. They'll track you down! They have skills!” - Charles Ogden
“[Librarians] are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them.” - Michael Moore
“Librarians are the secret masters of the world. They control information. Don't ever piss one off. ” - Spider Robinson
“In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us to swim.” - Linton Weeks
“In fact a few simple mathematical calculations reveal that if reference librarians were paid at market rates for all the roles they play, they would have salaries well over $200,000.” - Will Manley
“To be great at something, you must look to the great ones of the
past and improve on the ideas and techniques that they started. I
was motivated to do better—to improve on the ideas of others.” - Scott Douglas (Librarian)
“They open up the world. Because knowledge is useless if you don’t know how to find it, if you don’t even know where to begin to look." - Patrick Ness
“Librarians wield unfathomable power. With a flip of the wrist they can hide your dissertation behind piles of old Field and Stream magazines. They can find data for your term paper that you never knew existed. They may even point you toward new and appropriate subject headings. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule...” - Erica Olsen
