Introduction
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008I can hear the trumpets blare and can see the red carpet roll out in front of me as I step into the world of MSLIS blogging for the SU iSchool. Wow! What a reception! Hundreds of classmates, faculty, staff, and alumni await with bated breath to read what my take on the iSchool and Library community will be as the new LIS Student Reporter.
Below follows a short profile of myself, my goals for the blog, and my current but ever evolving take on the world of librarianship.
- Name: Scott R. Goff
- Game: Library Science, School Media, Education, and tangents
- Affiliations: iSchool class of 2010 (the class that forever changes the school)
- Stations: iSchool Student, English Teacher, Blogger, and husband to be in less than two weeks!
- Elations: Writing, Reading, Hiking, Cycling, Organization (I love making piles of like things when cleaning, but not necessarily putting the piles back where they go), Carpentry, Coffee, Music, and the rest you should be able to infer from my future entries!
- Blogging Goals: To provide a biweekly perspective on the library profession as a library student. To cover interesting events within our school and community (let me know if you want coverage). To sift through my own thoughts and my classmates about the future of librarianship. To promote discussion of relevant topics.
As this is just an introduction of things to come, I have done my bit. However, I would like to leave you with something to think about that has been as frustrating to me as being confronted with a blueberry pie in a white tee-shirt with no silverware in sight: standardization of public libraries. Our goal to grow around the community we serve is so noble. We create wonderful niches of usefulness. But I have yet to hear any consensus on such issues as: the library as a social place; giving patrons sources or information; coordination with local public education; standard databases; gaming and recreation in libraries; necessary technologies; the library as a technology teacher; etc. While it is great that the Library as an institution is adaptive to its local environments, huge pitfalls arise from a lack of consensus. For example, how could any large scale initiative hope to catch on in a field so fragmented? Who should a rural librarian confer with if there is nobody in a similar situation? How do we ensure we are living up to our standards of equal information access to all if every library takes a different approach; what type of assessment is there to keep us honest? In a country that by evidence values big business over mom and pop’s, can the library adopt a big business model and stay locally valuable?
I apologize for providing more questions (4) than answers (0). I guess it is up to us to even the playing field, 4:4.