This tweet from Bill Denton made me laugh … and then grimace.
First rule of librarianship: You talk about staffing the ref desk. Second rule: you talk about staffing the ref desk.
— William Denton (@wdenton) April 4, 2012
As a profession, particularly those of us plying it in academic libraries, we have become too focused on the service aspect of our work. Yes I know we are supposed to help people but that doesn’t mean that “service” is the only modality.
The service role has overwhelmed the much more important learning role. I’m looking to re-balance this state of affairs. I’ll be talking about this soon at two conferences. The context is the so-called “crisis in academic librarianship.” A phrase I’m quite tired of hearing. Hope you can join me and my colleagues:
OCULA and WNYO ACRL Spring Meeting April 27th
Canadian Library Association Annual Conference May 31st
…Mike
