I had the great displeasure of seeing one of those ads casting a negative light on librarians the other night. A matronly librarian was being questioned about how quiet the new car model was. Not only was this offensive, it was promoting a competitor's vehicle! (Bob works for Ford --Ed.) This is a time of great challenge and opportunity for our profession. Despite the negative stereotypes of the profession as being introverted and obsessive, we are at the cutting edge of the information revolution that has seized the imagination of the industrialized world. The only problem is that as we innovate, we also have to contend with the problem of trying to do more with dwindling resources. Librarians sit and wonder how they will be able to bring the benefits of the Internet to their customers as they struggle to contend with the day to day rigors of their jobs.
We are in a time of fundamental change; a time that requires us to take bold steps to insure the future of the profession. Old dogma concerning the nature of collections needs to give way to innovative ideas on providing accessto information upon demand. Libraries need to see themselves as components of a broader information coalition rather than parts of monolithic bibliographic bureaucracies. Dewey's view of the mission of libraries: to collect, organize and disseminate information, remains as valid today as it was in his time. However, we have become obsessed with the number of volumes rather than motivated to provide useful information to our clients. Giant libraries carry their aging, brittle collections like shells upon the backs of snails.
But everywhere there is reason for optimism. Each year our meetings bring more stories of partnerships in innovation, of insights into the potential of Internet resources, and of librarians--sober, timid librarians--creating real value with information technologies. This is an exciting and important time to be a librarian. The field is changing and we all need the insights and creativity of our peers in finding new models for a very old profession. It is not an accident that interest in our group, and membership, has been increasing.
ELD fills a role that other groups, such as ALA or SLA, do not. We address the specific needs of engineering librarianship and offer pragmatic solutions to real world problems faced by its practitioners. More than that, however, we have helped forge a link between librarians and the engineering community. For several years we have been successful in creating publications and conference sessions that have captured the attention of ASEE. I am extremely pleased that our program chair, Andy Stewart, has been able to win a a mini-plenary position for our division at the annual meeting in June. (See program description in next article.) These are extremely coveted slots and this marks our first mini-plenary after several years of competing for one! Good going, Andy!
We have done well in creating respect for librarians and librarianship. We have done well in sharing "lessons learned" with our colleagues. We have done well in anticipating the future and in helping to shape it. But we must do more. As a division, how can we be most valuable to our members and our profession? Rather than complaining about our problems, let's shatter those old stereotypes by coming up with some aggressive new solutions. Who knows, in a few years, the TV ads may feature a librarian demonstrating the speed and agility of a new vehicle by roaring past a Ferrari!
Bob Schwarzwalder
Chair, Engineering Libraries Division
Head, Information Services, RLIS
Ford Motor Company
313/323-2789 (Voice) 313/323-7936 (Fax)
rschwar3@srllib.srl.ford.com
| Submissions due | Issue |
| Feb. 5, 1996 | March 1996 |
| April 1, 1996 | May 1996 |
A few of you more schedule-conscious types may have noticed that the submission dates for the next two newsletters, March and May 1996, have been bumped up. This is to allow extra time for your editor to produce the news -- from Dublin (Ireland -- not Ohio!)
I will be on sabbatical at Trinity College for six months beginning in January. My projects will include instructional/outreach endeavors and Web pages with Trinity librarians. I will also be pursuing some research, and hope to fit in a bit of travel as well, particularly to other Irish and U.K. libraries.
I do not yet have an address on the ie-net, so please go ahead and use my hal address for now. If anyone is interested in helping with domestic production (i.e. printing and mailing) of the newsletter, do let me know!
Dena Thomas, Editor
Centinnial Science & Engineering Library; University of New Mexico
ph: 505-277-5327; fax: 505-277-0702;
dthomas@hal.unm.edu
Copyright © 1995 ASEE Engineering Libraries Division