Thing 15: Library Advocacy

I'm not sure where I belong. On one hand I'm a librarian at heart and truly believe in all the good things that librarians and libraries give to society. On the other hand I don't identify with other (public) librarians at all and I'm not much interested in working in a (public) library myself.

And I'm genuinely annoyed of having to fight prejustice and ignorance all the time when I tell that I'm a librarian. So you put books on shelves? No. I put knowledge into people's heads!

The fact that we feel we have to tell "look we're funny/chick/up to date, too" - makes me a tired and I tend to leave people alone with they misconceptions. They probably have clouded minds in other areas, too, and my life's too short for that.

But enough about me, I might just be having one of those days ;-)

I liked the Voices for the Library initiative very much.
Similarly, a Danish think tank, Libraries of the Future (webpage in English), has had a look at the economic value of (mainly public) libraries for society. 
The fundamental argument for libraries is that children who visit libraries are better readers - better readers are more likely to get a higher education - more people with higher edcuations mean higher productivity which is good for the economy. It's as simple as that.

Other than the educational contribution, the report also talks about a cultural/social contribution and a digitalisation contribution that positively affect our economy.
Get the report in English here.

This kind of businesslike argumentation appeals to me. It think it's essential that we try to quantify the benefits of our libraries and speak the language of decision makers in order to lose as little funding as possible.




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Jeg bliver træt, når jeg møder folk, der stadig tror, at bibliotekarer sætter bøger på plads og desuden har læst dem alle. Kom nu ind i det 21. århundrede! Men mit liv er for kort til at jeg gider prøve at omvende dem.
Derfor foretrækker jeg de factorienterede tilgange tila t bevise bibliotekernes værd og bibliotekarernes bidrag på mange aspekter i samfundet fra uddannelse til integration og lige adgang til digitalisering. Det er et sprog beslutningstagerne forstår, og som måske kan bremse besparelserne en smule.

Thing 14: Augmented Reality

Wuhu, I got the Anatomy 4D app to work and there was a little skeleton standing on my keyboard in front of the screen :-) Fascinating.

But I still have a treacherous feeling that augmented reality is a tad more cumbersome than real reality. Does the Anatomy 4D app really give me more information than say a book or an animation - or is it just more fun to play around with?

There may be something in the LibrARi app. I liked the idea of helping people to locate a book on the shelf and to point to other relevant materials elsewhere. But I haven't had any experience with augmented reality yet, so to me it's still all theory.

Thing 13: Professional Organisations

I have been a member of the Danish librarians' organization, Bibliotekarforbundet (BF), since I graduated in 1994. It's headquartered in Copenhagen.

Over the years I have used BF's different services on several occasions and if I lived in Copenhagen I would have used it even more. There are no local branches of the organization and eventhough we live in a small country it still takes me three hours to go to Copenhagen - it's a lot of time to spend on a two hours event on a Wednesday afternoon. Some of the events take place in other parts of the country but not nearly enough if you ask me.

 

Employment and salary

There's no collective agreement between employers and employees in the corporate world like between the local authorities and librarians in public labraries, so when I got my first job in a private company I got help from BF to settle on a reasonable salary level for me to negotiate for and to read through the contract of employment before I signed it.

Member of special interest group

When I was working in different companies I was member of a networking group of other librarians in the business world. We were - and still are - a minority among librarians and the focus of BF has been on public libraries. But even though private librarians have very diverse jobs according to industry, some things are common, e.g. marketing/positioning efforts in the organization or compliance to copyright and license agreements.

Courses and other professional input

BF arrange seminars or workshops on both "union stuff", e.g. retirement planning or stress management, and professionally relevant subjects like online tools and teaching skills.

National conferences

Every other years there's a national meeting for all memebers of BF - a weekend full of professional and social content. And it's free - so I usually attend to get something in return of my member fee :-) And of course get new impulses and meet old colleagues and fellow students.

Conflict with my employer

I have been lucky not to have had any serious conflicts with any of my employers but this years I've experienced some changes at work that I couldn't accept just like that, so I consulted my professional organization for counselling. They couldn't do anything to help me and the changes became effective nevertheless, but still it was a positive experience to talk to a legal consultant and discuss the situation.


As I went through my list of touch points I was surprised how much I've actually used my organization. But with 936 € a year  in member fee, I think I should, too! :-)



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Jeg blev medlem af bibliotekarforbundet, da jeg blev bibliotekar DB i 1994. Siden da har jeg brugt forbundet i mange forskellige sammenhænge. De er et forholdsvist dyrt forbund af at være medlem af, så jeg sørger for at få noget for mit medlemsskab - selv om det meste fagligt relevante foregår i København.

Thing 12: Conferences

Conferences - I can only dream about them for the time being.

Unfortunately, there's not much room in the budget of our organization for attending conferences. So thanks for the internet and the many (free) ways to obtain new knowledge and connect with other information professionals - like Rudaí23 :-)


I have attended two international conferences in my carrier, the latest was Online Information in London in 2011. In fact, we only visited the exhibition and the short seminars in connection to it - not the real conference. But it was very interesting and I remember that it gave me the feeling of belonging to a professional tribe :-) I realized I had gained enough work experience to know what most of it was all about - I benefited from the halv hour seminars and I could talk to vendors about their products. Nice experience.






Internet Librarian International 2015 in London in October would be really great to visit (in my dreams!).
The programme looks very interesting and especially day two would be relevant to me. Among other things I would have chosen to hear about Good customer relationships: proving value every day, The pressures on Google: why search isn’t simple any more and Librarians and information literacy: the key to first year student success.
I noted that there are quite a few Nordic speakers on the programme, nice to know that we can make a contribution to the international community :-)


As a semi-independent information professional I would like to learn from those who actually make a living on freelance information services, so attending one of  the annual conferences of AIIP would be genious!

Our own professional organisation for librarians in Denmark arrange national congresses every other year. In 2014 the overall theme was librarians' professional DNA focusing on identity and roles. What I appreciate the most, is that most of the speakers ususally are from outside library circle, so they contribute with other views on our profession - not always pleasant, but definitely true!


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At tage til internationale konferencer ligger ikke lige inden for rækkevidde - så jeg kan bare drømme.
Heldigvis ligger der masser af gratis, fagligt stof på nettet, så jeg bliver ikke helt udsultet.
Men jeg ville virkelig gerne med på Internet Librarian International i London til efteråret. Der vil være masser af nyttigt fagligt udbytte - især i forhold til search.
Den amerikanske organisation for selvstændige informationsprofessionelle ville være drømmedestinationen - dér kunne jeg lære så meget!
Herhjemme har vi Bibliotekarforundets årsmøder hvert andet år. Det er lidt en fætter-kusinefest, men der er da også et fagligt udbytte, fordi der kommer indlægsholdere ude fra, der bidrager med nye syn på vores profession.