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October 13, 2003
We're Not Like Other Librarians
After many years of waiting, Pasadena finally has train service to downtown Los Angeles! I love taking the train to work. It gives me another hour a day to read! So I'm doing better keeping up with my professional reading.
This morning I read Knowledge Services and SLA's History: An Interview with Guy St. Clair, in SLA's Information Outlook, September 2003. I know, it doesn't sound like fascinating reading, but I was on the train and figured why not. Turns out, the entire interview is worth the read. But what particularly struck me was his description of the differences between special librarians and "other" (academic-type) librarians.
The point Guy St. Clair makes is that "specialized librarianship exists to provide practical information" ... in contrast to the more "scholarly, academic, cultural..."social-work" type of profession." And according to Guy, "...specialist librarians are different: Sucess in specialized librarianship requires - no, demands, a collaborative relationship between the information provider...and the information customer."
I guess it seems obvious, but I never thought about it quite like that before. I've always thought that our greatest strength was our ability to collaborate. You may think that sounds easy, but it really isn't, and is very important skill for those doing work in the KM area as well. We're generally quite tuned in to our users needs, have good communication skills, and understand user interfaces from the user point of view.
So if you got Information Outlook in the mail this week, don't skip over this interview!
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