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[mcroft]

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Comments

[la-directora.livejournal.com]

Which almost makes you wonder if, with the internet, librarians will eventually become obsolete. (Other than dealing with things like rare books, of course. I meant rather as sources of information.)

Nope...

[kcarp.livejournal.com]

Someone still has to be able to TEACH folks how to access the information.

I'd go into more detail, but I need more sleep first.

K

Re: Nope...

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

I'd be really interested in seeing a sociology of gender book or paper (pop-soc, if it's a book. IANAS.) that went into the transition of the librarian position from a position dealing with books to a position dealing with information and the ways in which that has affected the "pink collar" association of librarian as a woman's job.

Re: Nope...

[johnbrandon.livejournal.com]

Well, speaking as an actual, card carrying librarian, I think I can help with these sorts of things :)

First, the Internet is not going to eliminate librarians. There were all sorts of death knells for the profession at first, but then someone finally realized an age old truth; It doesn't help to have all the information in the world if you are just going to place it in a random pile. Librarians are the people who are actually good at *organizing* information. I had a cataloging teacher in Library school who liked to hang out with cutting edge Comp Sci people, just so she could hear their latest ideas on organizing online content. She's sit there and look vastly impressed and then say, something like 'Wow, you managed to come up with an idea all on your own that Monks in Europe have been using for centuries. They even ironed out that problem you're still struggling with by doing this _________. Yeah, they got that all out of the way back in the 16th century. I can give you some references if that would help . . . ." Places like Google and the corporate world are snapping up Library school grads at such a pace that Public libraries are having a hard time keeping positions staffed. Its really amazing. Teaching can be an important aspect of being a librarian, but really its more a side line than the main show. However, since they created the methods for organizing the info., librarians tend to be the ones who have to explain it to others.

As for the sexual identity of the profession, the idea of it being a pink collar position are relatively recent and almost exclusively an American innovation. Melville Dewey (as in the Dewey Decimal system) noticed in the late-ish 1800s that there were suddenly a large increase of educated women in America who couldn't get jobs and were not suited by education (and, he believed, temperment) for the more 'traditional' roles available to women. He reasoned that he could hire them, at reduced salaries compared to men, and train them in his systems and they wouldn't have the gumption to argue with him (proving beyond all shadow of a doubt that Dewey knew books, but hadn't a freakin' clue about women). In places like Europe, Library's are primarily staffed my men. THe transition you are curious about is going on, but in the US, the stats are still something like 4 out of every 5 people in the profession are female to male.

Sorry, who knew I was paying attention in all of those basic grad school courses :)

Brandon