CONNECT Forum Archive

Let’s face it – the telegraph and carrier pigeon are no longer effective means of communication and professional development. And Library journals are great but the information only flows in one direction. Today’s well-informed professional librarian has dozens of websites, blogs, lists, and video channels at the fingertips. But which ones are the best for keeping up with the profession and which are the best for networking?

Yes, I know we are rapidly gaining ground on The Singularity. And yes, when the day comes that every human baby receives an upload of the sum total of Earth’s accumulated knowledge before its first diaper change, reference librarians will join lamplighters and knights in the dustbin of history. But Raymond Kurzweil doesn’t think that day will come until 2045 and besides, even Google’s founders have said, “It will be about 300 years until computers are as good as, say, your local reference library in search.”

So we’ve still got work to do, people! And despite the proliferation of online information and search engines which make it seem easy, the job of finding the right answer or the best information can be just as hard as it ever was. I like to say the needle (i.e. the best answer) is the same size but the haystack is exponentially larger.

Are we getting our RDA? No, not “recommended daily allowance.” RDA is Resource Description and Access. And the answer is yes, we are. In the coming weeks the Cataloging department will begin implementing the new RDA standard. The new standard is intended as a replacement for the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules 2 which many of us wrestled with in library school. What will the changes mean for MLS for both librarians and for our customers?

Meeting Information:

Date: December 11, 2012
Time: 2:00-4:00 pm
Location: Southern Oaks Library

Join with fellow librarians around the system for an afternoon of camaraderie and information sharing. Our profession is rapidly changing before our eyes and, like it or not, we’ve got to change with it while holding on to our core values. In this session we’ll be examining our professional identity as librarians as we have open-ended discussions about what it is we do and why we do it.

We’ll have a fun small-group activity to get us rolling and then later we’ll use media representations of librarians to kick off a discussion about who librarians really are, what our core values are and how we can use that information to improve our performance. Think about your favorite library characters from books, television, and film and be ready to share and discuss.