LM_NET: Library Media Networking
I have been reading the messages about where we are from and where we are
going trying to decide who to respond to individually and decided I may
as well add my "2 cents worth" to the mix! :-)
I hope I am retired before we are called cybrarians! (I am only 44!) It
brings up the image in my mind of Arnold Schwartzenegger(sp?) and the whole
Cyborg science fiction genre stuff.
I am another life long library person starting with "hanging in" in the
seventh grade, being a library aide all four years in high school,
and going to college to be a school librarian. When I got out I was
competing with teachers who had gone back and gotten library
degrees(who the schools seemed to prefer at that time) so after doing
a couple of non-library things for a little over a year, I got a job
in a university library. After 13 years there I was
forced to look for other employment because my husband found an out of
town job and at that time I finally got a high school library media
position. I was in that job for three years and was "riffed"(I hope this
means what Cheryl and I think!-it's a long story) and have been substitute
teaching for the past three years(minus 10 months recuperating from a
broken back and neck-another long story). This past spring I was able to
substitute for nine weeks in a library which was a real switch. I also
have been working part time in a public library since January and love
that. There are several openings in my area finally and I am waiting to
hear from one of them including the place I subbed at for 9 weeks. After
subbing in the classroom for three years it makes me really appreciate
what teachers have to put up with, although I hope kids treat regular
teachers better than they do substitutes! :-) I also am on the Civil
Service list for librarians and am in for a prison library opening,
but there is no Internet there and it is a 40 hour per week/52 week
per year job(BUT with excellent pay and benifits).
Getting back to the title thing, I wish the librarian profession had not
"given in" and changed to the "media specialist" label without trying
harder to change people's image of what a "librarian" can do. I like the term
"library information specialist" or "Library Information Center" as I
feel very strongly that we cannot forget our roots in books and reading.
I always end up telling people "library..." something to explain what I
do or want to do anyway! We still call doctors Dr. Whomever even though
they might be in any one of hundreds of specialties. Please, lets not
forget our roots, we can still be modern and high tech no matter what we
are called. I also read somewhere that when schools are trying to pass
bond issues and the general public see these grandiose plans for remodeling
and new schools they are more receptive if they see library(which they
recognize) rather than whatever else we have called the same place over
the years. Well, sorry if I got verbose, I should have said 10 cents!
Heidi Rawson-Ketchum
at home in Bronson, MI waiting to hear! :-)
LM_NET
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