New Librarians' Symposium: Talk on NLS 2006 -

Kate Gordon reports on a recent conference attended

Over the weekend, I attended the 2006 New Librarians’ Symposium, held at the University of New South Wales, in Randwick. I’d never been to Randwick before. In fact, I’d never been to Sydney before, so it was all rather exciting – if a little bit scary!

The New Librarians’ Symposium is held every two years and, seeing I only graduated 2 years ago, this was my first one – also rather exciting if a little bit scary! As I am so deeply committed to my work at St Virgil’s, I missed out on the first day of talks, but I did make it to the cocktail party – just! Who knew it took 40 minutes to get a taxi from the airport to the State Library of New South Wales – according to Whereis.com, it’s a 9 minute journey! Anyway, the taxi ride was pretty cool. The shops in Sydney are open 24 hours leading up to Chrissie, and there were people EVERYWHERE, and I had a very cool taxi driver, from Iran, who gave me a running commentary, and espoused the gloriousness of Sydney life, while at the same time comprehensively bagging out Tassie. Apparently all we have down here are trees. I told him at the rate we’re going, we won’t even have many of those left any more soon!

Anyway, the cocktail party was great fun. I even mingled and made small talk, which I’m usually horrendously bad at – and that was even after missing the Networking 101 session that was held on the Friday, so go me! After the cocktail party, we headed out en masse down to the Rocks – I totally embarrassed myself by yelling out very loudly things like “Oh my goodness! Look at that! It’s the Opera House!”, “Good grief, look at that! It’s the bridge!”, “Wow, look at that! It’s where they film Kochie and Mel!”

After fish and chips – just chips for me – and a really cool and completely inexplicable fireworks display (we liked to think it was for us!), about 20 of us proceeded to take on the Sydney nightlife & party hard …. And, at 12 o’clock midnight, ended up in a late night bookshop. Talk about your librarian clichés.

We must have looked a sight, too – we were all still frocked up from the cocktail party. For anyone who has ever been in my office, I shall now amaze you with a statement: I was out at 12 o’clock at night, wearing just a dress. No coat. No scarf. No beanie. Sydney rocks.

Anyway, we got home … eventually … and the next day it was time for the “real” reason we were there – the conference.

The first keynote speaker was insanely good, talking about the role of the modern librarian. A lot of what she talked about was stuff that’s very close to my heart. Libraries are not just about books any more. They are about information. Information is no longer our cash crop – it’s everywhere, ubiquitous. The ability to access, manage, synthesise information is where it’s at. She also believes strongly that a library should be a place of pleasure, which I completely agree with. If the library is a fun, safe place to be, patrons or students are more likely to want to come there, and work there. She said the traditional view of libraries as strict, oppressive and all about enforcement of rules is no longer the case & it scares people off. The measure of our success as librarians is a) if people enjoy the experience and b) if they get good results from their work. We need to publicise our skills as information retrievers, as well as empowering patrons to find information for themselves. At St Virgil’s, that is one of my main aims. A student may spend a whole lesson trying to find a piece of information that I, with my skills, could find in a minute. I don’t believe, though, that librarians should be the guardians of the holy grail of information. I truly believe that the way to end oppression, free people and empower them is to inform them, and teach them to inform themselves. That’s what I aim to do here.

My favourite quote from her talk was “Librarians like searching, everyone else likes finding”. That is so true! One interesting thing she said was why she believes that people have a misconception about librarians. They believe we are unskilled. We “check books in and check books out”. As my friends always used to ask, “Why do you need to go to uni to scan barcodes”? She believes that the reason for this is that we are the one profession that does not require appointments to access our services. We sit at a counter like retail staff. Librarians have to go to uni for 5 years to be qualified, and yet, unlike lawyers, doctors, accountants, we give our time all the time, without appointments. She said that in libraries where librarians have begun to set up appointments, they are valued more and sometimes their pay is even increased! Unfortunately, I just love dealing with the boys too much to try this practice. I love being a jack in the box!

The next session that really interested me was a talk on the portrayal of the librarian in popular media. As you can imagine, there was much talk of pearls and specs and buns, but also reference to a few more funky librarians: Rachel Weisz, the sexy librarian in “The Mummy” – apparently every man’s fantasy (“Why, Miss Jones, you’re beautiful!”) ; Giles from “Buffy”; and even Weird Al Yankovich’s “Conan the Librarian”. As the speaker said, it’s not worth caring if everyone thinks you wear spectacles and cardies and are an unmarried spinster with a cat. The only people who care how librarians are seen are librarians.

The most relevant speaker for me was John Chisolm, who spoke about “falling up the career ladder” – the librarian as manager. This year I have kind of taken on the management role for the first time, so what he said hit home for me. He believes that, in general, librarians aren’t geared to be big, capitalist, CEO-type managers. In his words, by nature of our chosen profession, we aren’t “captains of industry”. We’re “pinko lefty librarians”! We’re commies who give stuff (information) away for free. He also had lots of good tips for how we can turn our natural dispositions to our advantage, though.

Another quote which I thought really encapsulated the importance of librarians and our role today was one from the final speaker, Christine Bruce, from her talk on Information Literacy: “Information technologies are no longer a luxury, but a basic human right … information reduces inequities, promotes tolerance and mutual understanding”. Last week Julia came to me asking for a DVD on spin doctors & propaganda and their role in how the public view war. Informing the public gives them power to make change, gives them empathy. Makes them better understand what’s going on in the world, their place in it, and the place of others. The role of the librarian is so important in this.

The NLS has heightened my enthusiasm so much for the job I have at St Virgil’s, given me heaps of ideas and recharged my batteries at a time of year when they were running slightly flat! As the keynote speaker said, for the librarian, giving information is the way we show love – each time we provide information, we are giving a little gift of love!

I’ll just finish now with something a little bit lighter. We each had to produce a creative piece on why it’s great to be a young librarian. I wrote mine in approximately 3 minutes, so it’s rather naff but, I hope, a little bit of fun. The form actually said “tell us why being a new librarian rocks”, so that is the theme of my piece. Here goes:

That “ooh” moment.
That lightbulb flash.
Proving it’s true it
comes out in the wash.

Oh, so that’s why I’m like this!
Odd one amongst men.
I’m not really a freak.
I’m a librarian!

That’s why I like searching –
Solving mysteries – by gooey!
I’m actually not bizarre!
I’m excited by Dewey!

That’s why I like giving
Gifts of info! By gov!
It’s my way of helping
It’s my show of love!

I don’t have a bun.
I love Opeth, Metallica.
I’m a little bit gothic:
Slayer Bibliographica!

I’m not a stereotype
But I finally belong.
I’m normal amongst you,
New librarian throng.

So rock on, librarians.
Be proud of yourselves!
Don’t hide under desks!
Don’t cower under shelves!

Say “I am Librarian!
I’m invincible!”
Have your own “oo” moment.
Go hard & go well.

by Kate Gordon