Roles.

[three reflections and then a tie-in.  this post is more abstract.  you can tell by my lack of capitalization and bracket use.  let's call this my "aha" moment.]

1. 

Once as I was checking out at Target, the cashier attempted to engage me in small talk.  Since I hate small talk but am still a decent human being, I smiled and chatted.  When I told her I was a librarian, she said something like, "Oh.  I didn't know those were still needed."

And you know how sometimes it isn't what the person says but the way they said it?

Yeah, it was one of those times.

You're a cashier, I thought.  Let me just go over to the self-check-out lane.

[But I didn't say that.]

2.

You all remember KONY 2012?  How everyone was like, "Yeah!  Let's go get the baddest of bad guys!"  And it was SUPER popular for like a month or two and now nobody talks about it?

It's like it was the first bad thing to ever happen in the world--the way people reacted.

Except it wasn't.

It was just what everyone was talking about.

Let's talk about the North Korean Concentration Camps.

Or child sex trafficking.

No?

3. 

Facebook status:

Hey does anyone know a really good site to download books from besides Amazon? 

[10 comments later]

April: The library.

So:

So, okay, this post is a little abstract.  But this is where I'm going with this.

We've read a bunch of documents this week about the changing role of the librarian.  The blended librarian.  The embedded librarian.  Moving beyond the one-shot.  These are all great things.

The fact is, our profession is a constant battle for relevancy and advocacy.

Why?

Mindsets.

It's going to be really hard to change the stereotypical image of the librarian.

A recent Pue Survey said that people still think of books when they think of libraries.

And how many,  how many times have you heard "You need a Master's Degree for that?"

My first three examples demonstrate mindset and the weight of buy-in.

It's almost like: how can we make the status of the 21st century librarian go viral?

Librarian/faculty collaboration is a key factor.

Convince the academics and the students will follow?


The relationship between faculty and the way we interact and sell our image to them is going to be key to our jobs.

How can this happen?

Maybe:
-Building relationships outside of our time of need.
-Advocating for the importance of information literacy.
-Marketing

(See: p. 374 of the Blended Librarian doc.)

Thoughts?