F08Q1

=Fall 08 Question #1=

Question:
1. Many years ago, Lawrence Clark Powell stated that librarianship involved love of books, love of people, and a need to bring the two together. Does this seem true today? Why or why not? Justify your answer and explain what elements of that statement, if any, would you change to reflect the realities of a professional practice in the early 21st century? In your response, please address all three elements of Powell's original statement.

Current responses:
Leland: I believe the underlying values represented by Powell's statement remain as true as ever, though the ever faster rate of change in media formats and delivery options do test his chosen phrasing. I would make three fundamental changes to Powell's statement in order to broaden it to our current professional context: (1) "love" would be better understood as "respect", (2) "books" would have to become "content" or "information", and (3) "people" would also need to be broadened, for emphasis and clarity, to "all people". Why these changes? Love, though most definitely embodying a positive relationship with its object, can carry with it an underlying premise that the librarian my also only offer the information (whether it be a recommendation for a novel, anthology of poetry, or a preferred author of secondary criticism) that they, themselves, 'love' or approve of. This will not always be suitable to truly meeting a user's information need. Matters of personal taste, ideology or opinion should not negatively impact a professional's service. We may not love the item or information we are passing along, but we must respect a user's need to obtain it. This leads logically into item two, the change from "books" to "information". Not all information needs will be met by a book, nor, for that matter, will all books be in print. They could be audio files, a CD set or an electronic book. This does not even touch on other format types or forms of information, such as statistical data, images, etc.. A professional today must be versed, to some measure, in all of these. Lastly, just as a professional must respect all forms of information and the public's need for any given one of them, they must also show respect for all people. Whether the distinction is that of membership to your library, economic, national, racial or religious. So, in the end, the heart of Powell's call to professional behavior still rings true, though the language and context requires new, broader vision to embrace librarianship in the 21st century.

Older entries:
from Sp07Q2A an excellent draft answer: Jody: Librarianship has expanded to involve much more than just books, so I would say that although this is still true today, it is incomplete. I think the statement would be more correct today if it said: "Librarianship involves the love of information, love of all people, and a need to bring the two together." Even in this statement, I'm hedging, as I'm aware that to bring information to people involves complex technical aspects which may involve bringing the information to web search engines and web agents, or developing new technical capabilities, //in order to// bring the information to people. In addition, I am aware that more work is performed collaboratively now, and much of the demand is for collaborative workspace and collaborative learning and scholarship. Hence, the information may be delivered to groups, and support of the groups is inherent then in the "love of people" and in bringing the "two" of them together. I also altered "people" to "all people" as the growing diversity issues require a concerted effort on the part of librarians to actually meet people where they are with the information they are mediating on their behalf. And of course, I changed "books" to "information" to better encompass the widening variety of formats in which information is available today.