Is Librarianship For You?

Stereotypes and Myths
There are many stereotypes and misperceptions about librarianship and the roles that librarians and other information professionals have in various work settings. Debunking some of these stereotypes may be helpful to you in deciding whether librarianship is the professional path that you want to follow.

Myth 1. Libraries are Quiet and Restful Places of Work
Myth 2. Librarians/Information Professionals Don’t Have to be Managers
Myth 3. Librarians Like Rules
Myth 4. Librarianship Involves Loving Books
Myth 5. Information Work is Non-Controversial
Myth 6. Information Professionals Don’t Need to be Proactive
Myth 7. Anybody Can Work as an Information Professional
Myth 8. Librarians Strive to Help (It's not a myth!)

Myth 1. Libraries are Quiet and Restful Places of Work
First, a commonly-held idea is that libraries are quiet, tomb-like places of restful reflection. A corollary to this is that a library is a good place to work if you are introverted and don’t like working with a lot of people. Both of these statements are far from the reality in most libraries. Libraries generally are busy, active places where members of a community or a particular organization come for a wide variety of reasons. You have only to experience the boisterous activity in a children’s story hour at a public library or observe the steady flow of students using the reference desk in an academic library to realize that most librarians spend a large part of their day interacting with library clients of all sorts. Indeed, in corporate and government libraries, most of a librarian’s job centers around working directly with individuals who are employed within the organization and who have a need for precise information. Accordingly, librarians, like many other professionals, need to have good interpersonal skills along with their solid knowledge of library resources.

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Myth 2. Librarians/Information Professionals Don’t Have to be Managers
Another related stereotype is the notion that being a librarian means that you can have interesting professional work on a daily basis and largely avoid administrative and managerial responsibilities. This may be true in some cases, as not all librarians have managerial roles, and yes, because information-related work is so diverse, it is usually stimulating and interesting. However, according to a recent large study of librarianship in Canada (8Rs Research Team, 2005), librarians increasingly are expected to undertake managerial tasks such as staff supervision, developing budgets and library policies, writing planning documents, developing library services and programs and the like. The study notes that “three in every five professional librarians work in management positions” (p. 9) and that “71% of library administrators reported management skills as an important competency to look for when hiring” (p. 9). While this is true across all types of libraries, it is particularly the case if you are responsible for running a smaller library with a limited number of staff, as is often typical of libraries within organizations, corporations and government departments. In such cases, you will, of necessity, become the library manager.

Reference: University of Alberta, 8Rs Research Team. 2005. The Future of Human Resources in Canadian Libraries. Published by the Canadian Library Human Resource Study.

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Myth 3. Librarians Like Rules
Another common misperception is that librarians are rule-bound individuals who take great glee in shushing library users and enforcing rules. In actual fact, librarians are in the business of public service, and often need to think in new and innovative ways in order to best serve the clients of their libraries, whether they are members of the public, students, or workers in a corporation. So, for instance, public librarians are involved in, or sponsor, a wide variety of interesting community initiatives, such as literacy programs, latch key children’s programs, teen outreach, specialized information services for businesses, reading clubs, database searching workshops, job search strategies, and a variety of cultural events such as art shows, speaker series, film nights and musical concerts. Although libraries have policies that need to be respected (such as policies relating to overdue materials), librarians only enforce these policies to promote fair and equitable access to, and use of, the library for all patrons. As an example, the library in a research department of a large corporation is not much use to its users if the library materials have disappeared and cannot be found.

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Myth 4. Librarianship Involves Loving Books
A fourth stereotype of librarians is that the work they do is centred on books, and that therefore having a love of books and reading on its own will necessarily make you a good fit for a career in librarianship. There is a kernel of truth to this in that librarians have to be prepared to serve a wide variety of people who could have questions about almost any topic, so reading widely is a beneficial practice for librarians. Patrons of public libraries, in particular, frequently seek advice from librarians about good books to read, and thus being an avid reader is an asset when the librarian is helping clients with their reading needs. As well, because librarians interacting with the public need to be well versed in current affairs, reading the newspaper or watching/surfing newscasts is also helpful. However, since librarians are problem solvers who have to contend with a lot of other issues and tasks in their daily work, simply loving books is not enough. In actuality, because a lot of information today does not even come in book format but is electronic, librarians also need to have an affinity for working with electronic information technologies such as databases and the Internet in addition to materials that are paper-based.

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Myth 5. Information Work is Non-Controversial
Librarianship is frequently represented as a non-controversial and safe occupation where the worst that can happen to you is that a book lands on your head. Along this vein, libraries are viewed as a sort of quiet backwater, where not much happens and no difficult decisions have to be made. However, librarians often have to make difficult decisions about controversial issues as part of their daily work. Some examples include i) a patron is incensed that the library holds a copy of a book that s/he thinks is offensive and wants it removed, ii) a patron is annoyed that a homeless person is asleep and snoring in the newspaper reading room and wants him ejected from the library, iii) a patron complains about a group of students who are working together on a project in a university library and are talking excitedly about their project, thereby disturbing other patrons, or iv) the Vice-President of a corporation has asked the librarian to get some crucial competitor information for her that can only be obtained by using personal connections. All of these situations, which variously involve issues of ethics, power relations, and policy, require librarians to make, and act on, difficult decisions.

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Myth 6. Information Professionals Don’t Need to be Proactive
All of the previous examples illustrate the need for librarians to develop philosophical frameworks and policies that adhere to ideals of what it means to provide accessible, equitable and ethical library service to a wide variety of library patrons. Librarians, therefore, need to develop a personal philosophy of service and to adhere to certain codes of responsibility put forward by various professional bodies such as the Canadian and American Library Associations. One such code is the CLA statement on Intellectual Freedom. As well, rather than being passive workers in a large, impersonal system, librarians are encouraged to be proactive and take an advocacy role. The American Library Association has an advocacy mandate and has a permanent roundtable devoted to helping librarians to understand their social responsibilities as professionals who serve the public.

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Myth 7. Anybody Can Work as an Information Professional
Finally, there is a lack of awareness that librarians are university-educated at the graduate level and that a degree in library and information science qualifies you for many different roles as an information professional. The skills and expertise learned in most North American library science programs are highly transferable, enabling you to work not only in more traditional libraries, but also in diverse areas such as web management, advancement research, information systems, knowledge management, health information, community information networks, information management, and archives/records management, to name a few.

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And Finally
8. Librarians Strive to Help
There is one stereotype about librarians that should be encouraged and embraced, and that is the idea that librarians are basically nice folks who know a lot and are there to help. It has been well established that despite the fact that public and academic libraries are tax-supported, there are many people who do not use the libraries available to them. In some cases, they are reluctant to approach librarians for assistance for a number of different reasons. Librarians in all types of libraries need to break down such barriers by demonstrating that they are friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and efficient in their interactions with their clients. While this is sometimes a challenge, it is, nonetheless, a goal well worth striving for.

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