Professional Organizations

 

Identifying professional library associations was a challenge. I did not want to research the Michigan Library Association (MLA) and the American Library Association (ALA) and be too cliché. I asked my co-workers about what memberships they maintained. All of them belonged to the MLA and various other non-library organizations, but no other library association. Like my coworkers, I already am professional member of MLA. Therefore I felt it was appropriate to explore other organizations outside of the MLA and ALA.

I have another class this semester with Dr. Anghelescu, and she often talks about the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA). IFLA is very interesting to me because of my background in history. From the IFLA (2013) website:

IFLA is an independent, international, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization. Our aims are to:

• Promote high standards of provision and delivery of library and information services

• Encourage widespread understanding of the value of good library & information services

• Represent the interests of our members throughout the world.

The main benefit to IFLA is becoming a member of an international community. This would enable one to have international professional networks. Becoming a member of IFLA also allows one to vote on global issues that the organization is involved in, and help decide what will be on future agendas. A free subscription to the IFLA Journal, IFLA Annual report and IFLA newsletters are included. There is also a discount offered to IFLA members on the cost of attendance at the IFLA Annual Conference. The only requirement to join IFLA is to be an LIS professional or LIS student. The membership cost is 139 Euros (about $180.00) for individuals and 60 Euros (about $78.00) for students and new graduates. IFLA’s primary focus is libraries on a global scale. Advocacy for libraries in rural countries, bridging the digital divide, preservation, and digital strategies all fall under IFLA’s scope.

 IFLA is very interesting to me because of their focus on preservation and digitization of rare materials, as well as being international ambassadors to libraries. I will join IFLA once I know more about how the organization would fit into my career path, and what type of library would benefit from me being a member of IFLA. It is too big of an organization for my position at a public library.

                Another international library organization that caught my attention was the Masonic Library and Museum Association (MLMA). Both my grandfather and my great grandfather were Masons, and I am as well. It surprised me that I had not heard of this organization before. From the MLMA (2013) website, the mission of the MLMA is “…to assist and support, through education, facilitation of communication, coordination of effort, those individuals charged with, or interested in, the collection, management, and preservation of Masonic heritage.” (Masonic Library and Museum Association, 2013)

                Members are eligible to vote and hold office, as well as receive a subscription to the MLMA newsletter. There are no requirements to join; you do not have to be a member of a Masonic body or a LIS professional to join, just someone who has interest in the subject matter. Membership is $20 for any individual. The primary activities of MLMA are to instruct and assist with preservation of masonic artifacts and materials.

The MLMA really excited me because of my interest in special libraries. I was very disheartened, however, to find that even though the website says copyright 2013, the most recent newsletter I found was from 2006. There was a meeting held in late 2012, but there is not much information on the site about current events. Even though this is an international organization, I probably would not join. I would feel better about joining if there were more current updates to their site, and if I knew how active the group was.

 

Bibliography

International Federation of Library Associations. (2013). More about IFLA. Retrieved June 30, 2013, from International Federation of Library Associations: http://www.ifla.org/about/more

 

Masonic Library and Museum Association. (2013). Mission Statement. Retrieved June 30, 2013, from Masonic Library and Museum Association: http://www.masoniclibraries.org/missionstatement.php

 

 

 

 

Personal Goals and Objectives For My Studies

My goal is to combine history and libraries into my career. There are a variety of ways I would be happy accomplishing this.

• Rare Books/Special Collections - This area is where I would love to go the most after graduation. Working with either one of a kind or extremely rare items.
• Archivist - I interned at an archive during my undergraduate work. I view it in the same vein as Special Collections because most of the materials housed there are one of a kind and very old. I would like to get an Archival Certificate, but until I either move closer to a school that offers it or a program becomes available online, it will have to wait.
• Local History Librarian
• Museum Librarian

Once I have my MLIS, I hope to find a job at an academic library working in Special Collections or Archives. I want to continue my education further by obtaining a PhD. in History, and by working for the institution I hope to get a break on tuition. Additionally, I hope to publish more as my career progresses, both in the field of History and Library Science. Working in that setting professionally with the materials is kind of like being on the front line. Research will be easier as I am more familiar with the resources available, and that will make my time with the subject more effective.

Working on the team blog I wrote about the future of Archives, and how digitization will be the next step. My experience in this setting already has shown that this is the case, so I would like to continue with career development in computers as well.

This goes hand-in-hand with my philosophy on Library Science. We are the gateway to knowledge, and it is our mission to provide access. Many special collections are fragile and restricted use. By digitizing these collections, we can make the information widely available. The Hathi Trust, for example. Having the information online would be a great resource for researchers.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my blog for my LIS 6010 class.

I am a student at Wayne State University in their Library and Information Science program. This blog will be for my Introduction to the Profession class.

I want to give a quick introduction of myself to any readers out there that aren't in my class. My name is Chris, and I work as a Library Assistant at the Okemos Library in Okemos, Michigan. Obtaining my MLIS is the next step on my career path. My undergrad work is in History, and it is my passion. I hope to continue to use both sets of skills as a historian and a librarian to Special Collections, Local History and Archives.

Now that the basics are out of the way, let's get to the meat of the assignment:

"Provide 3-5 assumptions, assertions, or beliefs that you hold about the LIS professions.."

1) You'll never get rich being a librarian.

This is a joke tossed around the library often. While I do believe this to be mostly true, because I have looked at the job outlook and salary expectations in journals and reviews (Some even prepared by the instructor of this class, the dynamic Dr. Maata!), our salary range as librarians will cover a comfortable living more often than not. For me, it's not about the money, it's about having a job I'm excited to go to every morning when I wake up.

2) Librarians have good job satisfaction.

Looking at myself and my peers in the SLIS, we are all switching IN to becoming librarians. We all come from very diverse backgrounds, where we were unhappy. Now, looking at my co-workers, many of them have been at their jobs for anywhere from 10-20 years. Not many careers can boast that type of consistency now. Going back to the job outlooks again, I believe I read somewhere that the field was going into a growth spurt. This is not due to job growth, but because of so many librarians retiring. Again, I'm hard pressed to think of many careers anymore where people actually retire after spending most of their working years in that same profession.

3) There are more libraries out there than the general public knows about.

I have to point this out to family/friends whenever I explain to them where I am heading with my education. Many of them only see librarians in the Public/School/Academic setting. My own job experience so far has proven this to be completely incorrect. Librarians are present in large corporations, hospitals, medical information centers, museums, art galleries, government agencies (FBI, CIA, State, Federal…). Really anywhere a large amount of information is needed to be accessible. In another class I am taking this semester I had to visit 3 different libraries straight away. While I was out doing this, I was driving in Downtown Lansing where I passed the Michigan State Police Headquarters. As I passed the building, I thought: Yup, they probably have a librarian in there too.

4) It is not our job as librarians to censor information.

This is a definite belief of mine about the profession. I also carry this torch as a historian as well. Things happen in our world, and for better or worse, it is our job to inform those who seek the knowledge. We do not advocate it in any way, but we do have a responsibility to be impartial. No information should ever be off limits. (Unless it's classified.)

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now. That's it for my first post. I look forward to sharing my thoughts as the semester progresses.

~Chris