Readings for 10/2

Hegemony’s Handmaid? By Christine Pawley

Pawley sees libraries as adding to class distinctions. It is her view that we must be vigilant and realize exactly what we are doing and in what direction we are going. Whether it be implicitly going along with corporations and already empowered classes to increase the prestige of our profession, or to be champions of parity between the classes. She doesn’t paint a very optimistic picture of the profession of LIS. It seems we are below the real sciences, and corporate world, but are trying to leech off their success and carve out a niche for ourselves. Her message though is for educators of future librarians to inform the new future information professionals of this class divide and continue a debate about it. Personally I would like to be still keep some dignity trying to bridge the class divides while still being a respected professional with sufficient remuneration for my compassion and what not. But often it is not possible to make good money and be a good person too.

Teaching at the Reference Desk by James K. Elmborg

Instead of simply helping people find what they need, Elmborg believes it is the duty of reference librarians to educate those in an academic environment to become independent researchers. One interesting point that he discussed was about the “chaos of composing” a paper or any literary work, and how he compares this to research. Often people just go pell-mell into their research without any clear idea of what it is they want. Elmborg realizes this and tells us that we need to be aware of students’ diverse backgrounds and learning styles. His approach to the actual “reference encounter” is noteworthy. Instead of telling the student where to go, we should be asking the right questions that get the students’ researching juices flowing. Questions that help the student think in a systematic way. The most important part I saw though was that teaching should be student centered, not simply some authority figure speaking at a student. This promotes independence and involvement, ultimately leading to better understanding.

Toward a User-Centered Information Service by Ruth C.T. Morris

A knowledge nugget that I took away from this article is the inarticulateness of users. It was clear that users often do not know what they want until they see it, but I did not realize this until Morris pointed it out. Searching for information is a very subjective process. A user may be looking for one thing and as the search progresses they select materials little related to their original search. This is because an information need is hard to define. The reason for this is it is because it is something we do not know. There is a gap in our knowledge and we can see that, but what exactly fills the gap we are at a loss to explain. I am still a bit confused about the difference between user-centered and information-centered though. I have trouble demarcating actual examples of each. I believe discussion and more reading will help me better understand this.

Mom and Me by Wayne Wiegand

This is a heartwarming tale of senior citizens and their recalcitrance towards change, and trying new things. In actuality it does show how our own information needs are based on our own conditioning, values, and personal context. Wiegand’s mother’s needs were for a smooth ride, and something people commented about after church, not a car that received a five-star crash test rating, or one whose fuel economy was best in class. Wiegand’s proposed “personal information economy” is an interesting idea. It may be obvious, but people are value different types of information differently because of their own backgrounds.