How to be an Awesome Librarian in this 21st Century?

By Jolo Van Clyde S. Abatayo, RL

Working with Significant Catalysts

Indeed, no man is an island. Librarians are expected to be great leaders and at the same time humble followers. Librarians can’t stand on their own that’s why it is very essential for us to learn to work prolifically with other people.

In the book entitled “The Atlas of New Librarianship” that is authored by R. David Lankes, it is stated there that librarians must acquire core skills such as the ability to work in interdisciplinary teams. In working with these teams, librarians should foster a harmonious relationship with other domains and paraprofessionals. Having a fruitful relationship with these individuals, librarians can do their responsibilities successfully and they can render reliable services to their valued clients.

Moreover, because of the differences that we have, it is also hard for us to work with these individuals. Librarians should understand the essence of diversity. We must be educated about the importance of harmonious relationships amidst social classes, political, religious, and cultural differences. Also, we must appreciate everyone’s strengths and weaknesses so that we can formulate possible strategies, programs, and activities that will augment the quality of our services. Thus, working with them will bring academic excellence, research development, and community progress.

            Effective communication is also a must in order to disseminate and deliver what are the necessary reports and messages that we want to convey for the betterment of our library functions and services. You know when we deliver effectively what we want to address, everyone will be informed and enlightened on the objectives and the goals that we want to attain. I believe that if all of us are good listeners, we can avoid conflict and misunderstanding.

            I just want to share something about my personal and professional experiences. As a Readers’ Services Librarian of Saint Michael College of Caraga, I have to work pleasantly with my fellow librarians, support staff, and student library assistants in order to efficaciously do my responsibilities and for me to provide the information needs of my valued library patrons. I also need to collaborate with the faculty and other members of the academic department for they have subject expertise. Moreover, when we procure library resources, we need to ask for their knowledge regarding the subjects they teach. We absolutely need their recommendations regarding what library materials to be acquired, that’s why we facilitate annual collection mapping and evaluation with their assistance. Also, I need to solicit bits of advice from my fellow Caraga Librarians because they also have the proficiencies that I don’t possess. With the helping hands of these significant catalysts, we can do the things that we think are impossible!

Coping with the Evolving Higher Education

            The evolution in higher education is quite a challenge to all librarians. It is a very serious disruption in our part as information professionals because it brings so many changes to our perspectives, approaches, methods, and systems. I think that it will mainly affect our functions and services because, in this new world of information, we should expect the unexpected! New things must be welcomed and embraced.

            When it comes to the curriculum, of course, there are major disruptions because, in this 21st-century world, information technology is dominating. Higher education is evolving and upgrading because it demands more. Physical classrooms aren't the only learning milieus we can have nowadays. Teachers can now do their instruction online. Actually, there is now a learning management system for K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and corporations that enables users to create, manage, and share contents and resources. It is a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that is a cloud-based platform that provides tools to manage any classroom and learning environment. I am talking about the Schoology.com. The teachers can now give assignments and other activities through this and they can also assess the performances of the students by using the effective tools that this technology provides. Schoology is just one of the massive online instruments that educators can utilize. I encourage them to deeply navigate and explore the world of IT. If only all Filipino teachers are positively willing to embrace what we have today, like in other countries, instruction here in the Philippines will be one of the finest!

        In the field of librarianship, our library functions and services are already influenced by IT through automation and computerization. As librarians, as I always mention, we must cope up with trends. We should really work hard to familiarize IT concepts and its applications. We must integrate what we have with the goodness brought by IT. We should not only focus on the traditional ways because, as of today, it is also very necessary to embrace emerging technologies for these tools will enhance the quality of service that we render to our patrons.

            According to Eric Jennings on his article entitled “The Relevance of Academic Libraries in the Twenty-First Century”, the major challenge for the 21st century academic librarians is to keep the libraries and the profession relevant to the users especially that Google and the Internet are on the peak. These noticeably affect the profession in different aspects. However, they are not absolutely threatening because there are now possible ways that academic librarians can do in order to stay significant throughout the twenty-first century. As librarians, we need to re-evaluate what we do and what we have so that we can cope up with the sudden changes that influence our library services and functions.

I have read a chapter in a book entitled “Reflecting on the Future of Academic and Public Libraries.” It conveys on how academic and public libraries should look and work like in the future. Of course, it is expected that there will be big and critical changes when it comes to the services and other library endeavors but as librarians, we need to be adaptive to these changes. There are many ways we can do like:

·         Examine the current state of the library, summarizing existing literature on the topic to sketch in the historical background;

·         Project into the future, using SWOT analysis, environmental scans, and other techniques to posit how library infrastructure (such as staff, collections, technology, and facilities) can adapt in the decades ahead; and

·         Construct potential scenarios that library leaders can use to forge paths for their own institutions.

I just want to add something about the responsibilities of an academic librarian. Dr. Marianita Dablio, our Master of Arts in Library and Information Science (MLIS) professor at Lourdes College, Cagayan de Oro City, shared to us in our class about knowledge management. It is now the newest trend in the field of library and information science. We, librarians, should now effectively organize and manage the knowledge that our libraries can provide to our library clienteles. We should efficiently handle every information or resource within our libraries so that the users can fruitfully use them in their academic or research endeavors.

Furthermore, I really admire Dr. Dablio for she’s very eloquent and proficient when it comes to librarianship and information science. I honestly consider her as one of the coolest seasoned librarians because of her brilliance and adeptness in the field. I am so fortunate to be an MLIS student of Lourdes College because the instructors/professors are conversant and adroit. It’s really great to have individuals who are really capable when it comes to our profession because you can really learn so much from them.

Indeed, it is really hard to adapt to these fluctuations but since we are awesome librarians, we are expected to be catalysts for change. We should not stumble. We should believe in ourselves. Let us be more open to new things. Learning mustn’t stop. Librarians must work hard to be always on the top!

References:

Hernon, P. & Matthews, J. R. (2013). Reflecting on the Future of Academic and Public Libraries.

            London: Facet Publishing.

Jennings, E. (2013). The Relevance of Academic Libraries in the Twenty-First Century.

Retrieved last November 14, 2018 from https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/65093/jennings_relevance_libraries.pdf?sequence=1

Lankes, D. R. (2011). The Atlas of New Librarianship. Retrieved last November 13, 2018 from

http://www.acikders.net/pluginfile.php/1874/course/section/940/R.David_Lankes_The_atlas_of_new_librarianship.pdf

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