Wednesday evening I returned to the School of Information and Library Science at Pratt Institute to participate in a panel discussion for John Berry’s Information Professions class. Myself, Molly Phelan (Young Adult Librarian, Brooklyn Public Library), Gretchen Hams (Director of Childrens Services, Darien Library), and Josh Hadro (Assistant Technology Editor, Library Journal) spoke about our experiences working in the library world and answered questions posed by the enthusiastic students. It was kind of fun to turn things around 180 degrees. Just a week ago I was sitting at a lunch table with senior managers and library directors and they wanted to discuss what students need to know that they don’t get taught in library school.
Both senior management and students had specific, pointed questions, but there were some broad issues relating to LIS education and entering this field. There were a few themes that remained consistent at both the lunch table and the panel discussion.
You have to really want to do this job. You need to have a vision, and you need to be strong. Pushing and guiding public library services in an innovative, user-centric direction is very, very hard. If you think for a second you are going to graduate school, waltz in and make everything work according to your vision, you’ve got another thing coming. Patience is essential.
Your library degree is entry level. Not only do you need to be a good customer service agent when working directly with library patrons, but you also need to engage in professional activities and take part in the professional discourse. If you aren’t up on the news in libraryland, then you aren’t really doing your job. Don’t wait for professional development to come to you, go and get in on things. What you do in your free time will define what your job will be years to come.
Initiative and drive is the only way you will accomplish anything. Write, draw, code, film, or build proposals and presentations with passion. Speak with conviction. Sell your ideas, and be inclusive. Back your ideas up with data. Again, your library degree is entry level: be prepared to learn everything from municipal finance to graphic design to support your schemes. Learn whatever you can, and use that knowledge to inform your vision.
I think most of what went on that evening is covered in these few statements, but if I missed any key points I bet Molly, Gretchen, Josh or a Pratt student will jump in. In a lot of ways, LIS education and its relevance can seems like a tired discussion, like the needle on a record that just keeps on jumping and landing in the same place over and over again. I’ll tell you what though, tired as it may seem, the discussion is still important. Comments are invited.
There are 4 Comments to "Panel Discussion at Pratt Institute"
I missed the lecture but I was at the PMC on Wednesday (for my student teaching class – LIS 690 with Hochman) and I saw Josh Hadro by the computers. I didn’t realize there was an alumni panel.
Anyway, alumni panels like the one you participated in are really helpful for library students. Not just to discuss the key points, but also for creating a sense of community among librarians and Pratt SILS alumni.
I think you said it, Nate. The degree is at this point a necessary but an insufficient condition for success in a library career.
This profession tends to be a lot more self-selecting than most, but mere affinity for library-types isn’t going to cut it. It’s a starting point, sure, but as we discussed on Wednesday, it’s really the extra interest that sets a person apart and what will get the merit of their ideas exposed eventually. Good to hear that the same holds true for those further on down the line — then the trick is holding onto the ideas and enthusiasm while working up to the senior levels.
Nate got the ideas and content. The panel was based on the suggestion of a student in a previous section of the Information Professions class at Pratt. My class features speakers, most of whom are administrators of various types of libraries and enterprises. He suggested that students would benefit by hearing from speakers in ther first or second jobs in the field, giving them a taste of a librarian’s working life reight after graduating with an MLIS. It was a fine idea, and the panelists were compelling. The students seemed transfixed. Thanks. Nate, Josh, Gretchen, and Molly.
Nate got the ideas and content. The panel was based on the suggestion of a student in a previous section of the Information Professions class at Pratt. My class features speakers, most of whom are administrators of various types of libraries and enterprises. He suggested that students would benefit by hearing from speakers in ther first or second jobs in the field, giving them a taste of a librarian’s working life reight after graduating with an MLIS. It was a fine idea, and the panelists were compelling. The students seemed transfixed. Thanks. Nate, Josh, Gretchen, and Molly. John Berry