Describe and compare different organizational settings in which information professionals practice.
The winding path I’ve taken during two years of academic study at SJSU has allowed me to explore and write about several types of libraries, namely public, academic and special libraries, with an emphasis on the latter two. The variegated landscape of librarianship was one of the appealing aspects of acquiring an MLIS degree, though from the beginning I was mainly interested in doing curatorial or similar work within archives and special collections. I’ve discovered that librarians and information professionals in these diverse settings share a great deal of common ground, yet their work can also sharply diverge based on the particulars of their institutions and practices designed to meet their patrons’ needs.
All these library types are being transformed by rapid technological changes and shifts in user needs and expectations. Admittedly, this is not a new phenomenon, but the pace of innovation and disruption has arguably accelerated. One result of these changes is most libraries today are more networked and thereby able to offer greater resources than ever before – even without taking into account the explosive growth of the internet. An example of technology-based service which has been successfully and popularly deployed in all kinds of libraries is PDA / DDA (Patron Driven / Demand Driven Acquisition) which allows users to select an eBook which is not in the library’s collection and immediately download it to their reader device as the library seamlessly pays the vendor and adds the item to the eBook catalog on the back end. Taking a broader view, many new opportunities to enlarge collections and expand resources present themselves to public, academic and special libraries, however they sometimes bring concomitant problems. Despite the growth of library consortia, shared collections, archives and cataloging – which all put information at the fingertips of users without needing to be purchased or managed locally – this embarrassment of data riches brings significant challenges. Among these are handling new kinds of patron requests, investing in electronic content, revamping reference sources and services, providing online access to new tools and dedicating the time required to meet an ever-steepening digital literacy curve for both librarians and library users. Change management and related planning efforts are non-trivial undertakings, and most attempts to “future proof” one’s organization by anticipating technological trends more than one or two years in advance are notoriously ineffective. Depending on the library type, the same can be said about accurately predicting demographic and consumer preference changes (for public libraries), developments in competitive business environments and subject expertise (for special libraries), and research, publication and archiving / curation changes (for academic libraries). That said, the library profession in general places a high priority on adapting to and embracing new technologies even in the face of challenging budget and staff training constraints.
Virtually all public and academic libraries (and some special libraries) have mission, vision and values statements which distill the identity and purpose of their institutions, support desired organizational cultures, help guide strategic planning and align policies, procedures and programs. These statements are communicated to stakeholders throughout the organization – from front-line staff to institutional administrators – to solicit feedback, new ideas and buy-in. Through a planning process which weds analysis to strategy, mission statements are eventually extrapolated in terms of goals, objectives and metrics which set expectations and enhance accountability. While the data points and performance indicators will vary, metrics are important to all library types as they ultimately help demonstrate the library’s value to stakeholders and provide managers with feedback that can suggest ways to fine tune its services, programs and materials promotions. The larger point is that metrics connect back from objectives to implementation to operations to goals to stakeholder buy-in to analysis and finally to mission, vision and value statements. Henry Mintzberg underscores the profound benefits of mission-anchored planning: “strategies can be rich visions, intricately woven images that can create deep-rooted perspectives” (1994). Though they may derive from similar values, the details of how these strategies will be “operationalized’ may sharply differ depending on the library type.
Mission, vision and values statements are also conveyed to the communities and patrons the library serves in hopes of clarifying the role of the organization and increasing engagement with library users. They frequently draw on the principles articulated by the ALA in their Code of Ethics (1995), as well as their documents defending intellectual freedom and other values distilled in their Freedom to Read (2004) and Library Bill of Rights (2019). The San Francisco Public Library offers a fairly typical public library mission statement: “We work to ensure free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning and the joys of reading for our diverse community.” Their vision statement is more succinct, but equally broad reaching: “Fostering shared experiences for a connected community.” These are not particularly creative examples of Mintzberg’s “rich visions,” but they nevertheless capture a sturdy purpose-driven institutional philosophy which can inform a wide range of policies and practices and create a culture centered on communities and users. While academic libraries and even stand-alone special libraries can be public facing and / or also serve different types of patrons, there is generally more emphasis on outreach and marketing to diverse communities in public libraries’ mission statements and everyday activities.
Public libraries are by far the most visited and socially engaged of the three types of libraries under discussion. In the Dictionary of Library and Information Science, Reitz defines public libraries as institutions which “provide unrestricted access to library resources and services free of charge to all the residents of a given community, district, or geographic region, supported wholly or in part by public funds” (2002). A Gallup poll in December 2019 found that Americans go to public libraries twice as often (10.5 times a year) as the next most popular activity (going to the movies). And when we consider the off-site services and outreach performed by the majority of public libraries, the number of lives touched and likely improved by this steadfast institution expands further. For the INFO 210 course on Reference and Information Services I interviewed Jane Pratt, the Administrative Librarian of the Richmond, California main library system. We talked about the many programs they offer to take the library to people’s communities and homes through book mobiles and book vans and visits to assisted living facilities where they deliver requested books and lead book clubs. We also discussed how libraries have played a vital role for decades in connecting citizens with critical assistance in the form of information and tools related to government, businesses, non-profit groups and other data in the public domain: help with resume writing, filing taxes, looking up public environmental data, finding key federal or local agency resources, and much more.
If there is a broad trend in this aspect of public libraries’ utility to its users, it appears that the number and complexity of them is growing, mainly in response to popular demand. The San Francisco Public Library in 2009 was the first public library to hire a social worker to relieve librarians from trying to meet patrons’ complex needs without proper training. Colin Dwyer describes how Leah Esguerra, the first SFPL social worker, “developed systems to connect patrons with mental health services, help them find jobs, get them legal support” (2019). Based on her successes, Esguerra expanded her versatile offerings to help find permanent residences for housing vulnerable people. In a somewhat different vein, public libraries are experimenting with a huge range of other community and user-centric programs. In my neighborhood this includes a tool lending library and a bike repair and training center. A 2013 Pew Research Survey discovered a thriving ecosystem of new public library offerings “in the wild.” Some notable entries in their long list are digital media labs, augmented reality mobile apps, rapid text, phone and online reference services, community gardens, musical instrument check outs, and perhaps catering to the more hipster end of the community, one library rolled out “Speed Dating and Speed Friending, Punk Rock Aerobics, Broke A$$ Holidays, and Herb Garden Mixology” programs.
By contrast, the major user groups in academic libraries are of course students, faculty and researchers from other institutions. There are numerous librarian roles that are unique to universities, such as embedded librarians with subject expertise (a secondary post-grad degree) who work in tandem with professors to provide both subject knowledge and in classroom research support and literacy instruction. The latter is a high priority in academic libraries as both undergraduate and graduate students need extensive training in the basics and finer points of scholarly research and writing. This encompasses locating appropriate sources in the library’s electronic journal databases and elsewhere, understanding the difference between quoting and paraphrasing, and mastering reference citations. This activity is frequently structured using the ALA’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. There are also university librarians with tenure and who research and publish, work on committees and enjoy faculty benefits. Another area of specialization found in academic libraries is digital curation and archiving. At many research universities, librarian curators have become tightly integrated into the research “lifecycle” of faculty members by ensuring data is captured at its inception, properly bundled with critical metadata, preserved on distributed server networks and ultimately made available to other scholars through publication and access to archived data sets. Building on this topic, my first piece of evidence examines the evolution of the “informationist” in health care organizations into the “research informationist” providing various kinds of support for “eScience” in academic settings. As an interesting side note, while academic libraries have experimented with similarly unorthodox (some of which are now fairly conventional) programs and services developed by public libraries that I described above – among them “digital toolsheds, “idea labs,” and “escape rooms” – Alia Wong, in a 2019 article in The Atlantic, wrote that “survey data and experts suggest that students generally appreciate libraries most for their simple, traditional offerings: a quiet place to study or collaborate on a group project, the ability to print research papers, and access to books.” That said, it seems unlikely to me that academic libraries will get rid of their media labs, data management services, GIS / mapping tools and related resources altogether given their critical, integrated support for digital scholarship.
Special libraries are a broad category and can be found in myriad contexts, from embedded “information centers” in hospitals and other health organizations, to deeply topical libraries in museums and corporations, to autonomous niche interest entities. It’s also not difficult to find special libraries within academic institutions alongside the primary library and other library facilities, particularly in the form of architecture and visual libraries found at universities with substantial departments in those fields. There are even entirely digital special libraries with collections of digital objects such as text, audio and visual material which are stored, organized and made available online. These libraries can also vary greatly in size. Some may be run by one individual, especially when the library services are delivered remotely, but more we find groups of a few information professionals working on site, particularly in corporate facilities or academic libraries. In business and health contexts it’s common for special librarians to wear many different hats – unlike in academia or public libraries, where there is more specialization and larger staffs. Special librarians must often be administrators, collection managers, literacy instructors, reference providers, research assistants and more all at the same time.
Healthcare organizations from hospitals to clinics and research organizations were among the first to establish special libraries staffed with information professionals who are also often subject specialists. There are a number of configurations and service models for these types of libraries, among them embedded librarians that follow doctors through their daily rounds – this ties in with the aforementioned “informationists” who pioneered a new type of non-desk-bound librarianship – and more stationary librarians who manage stacks and electronic resources, perform research and create reports requested by users. In other settings special libraries may be called on to collaborate with individuals or departments to provide other value to the parent organization. A special library in a museum, for example, might work with curators and other colleagues to select, design and stage an exhibition using archival objects that may be spread across both museum and library collections. A more far-reaching contribution from information professionals in special libraries to their organizations is found mainly in the business world in the practice of what is called knowledge management (KM). My second piece of evidence for this competency is a paper on KM that I wrote for INFO 231 (Issues in Special Libraries and Information Centers).
References
Dwyer, C. (2019, July 17). Your Local Library May Have A New Offering In Stock: A Resident Social Worker. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/07/17/730286523/your-local-library-may-have-a-new-offering-in-stock-a-resident-social-worker
Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016). In American Library Association. Retrieved March 02, 2021 from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
McCarthy, J. (2020, January 22). In U.S., Library Visits Outpaced Trips to Movies in 2019. Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/284009/library-visits-outpaced-trips-movies-2019.aspx
Mintzberg, H. (1994). The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Reitz, J. M. (n.d.). Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science. Retrieved February 5, 2020, from https://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_p.aspx
Pew Research Center. (2013, January 29). Innovative library services “in the wild”. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/01/29/innovative-library-services-in-the-wild/
Semertzaki, E. (2011). Special libraries as knowledge management centres (Chandos information professional series). Oxford: Chandos Publishing.
Wong, A. (2019, October 4). College Students Just Want Normal Libraries. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/10/college-students-dont-want-fancy-libraries/599455/
Evidence for Competency B
Evidence 1
For a paper on the “research informationist” profession I investigated its origins within healthcare and health science organizations. The latter originated in the late 1970s from the confluence of the clinical medical librarian and library liaison roles, both examples of library outreach programs designed to deliver specialized services to their clinical or academic colleagues. Research informationists have sprung up in the past two decades to provide similar delivery of crucial information to researchers. Academic research informationists need a broad skill set that includes data management and data preservation; fluency in new trends in scholarly communication; sophisticated search, appraisal and synthesis of search results; various kinds of instruction in diverse settings; funding compliance and grant writing skills; and in some cases preparing manuscripts and even co-authoring articles.
Evidence 2
I spent a large part of the summer session in INFO 231 on Issues in Special Libraries and Information Centers studying Knowledge Management (KM). While KM is now found in a few academic and public libraries, it originated and evolved within corporations and their special libraries / information centers. KM is a complex process which requires close coordination between information professionals and IT departments. Its goal is to connect workers throughout the organization in new, content- and context-enriched ways. KM aims to undo the compartmentalization of knowledge and develop mechanisms that support the sharing of different kinds of institutional knowledge and information. While primarily focused on increasing access to intellectual property and other knowledge distributed throughout organization, the assets held by special libraries themselves – their online public access catalogue (OPAC), listings of favored expert resources, electronic journals and Library 2.0 tools, etc. – often provide the foundation for KM.