Lesha,
I feel I have to comment on one subject: that of the theoretical knowledge
of the university degrees. I completed a 9month Post Grad Diploma to become
a qualified librarian (thought the term may invoke some comments from less
enlightened people), and I ahve to say that once I actually got a job, the
reality bore little resemblance to the theory.
I had never operated a library management system before starting work, and I
am now responsible for one. I spent about three weeks classifying books,
and cataloguing which I could not even begin to attempt at the moment
without a refresher course from one of my colleagues.
But I do have one defence of the course, and that is that it does highlight
the way you are supposed to think as a librarian, it shows you how your mind
is supposed to operate, how you are supposed to approach problems logically
and address them systematically. But more hands on experience would have
been very useful.
And we have one gentleman working for us here, in a department of seven, and
he is a trainee administrator.
Sarah Telford
Information Researcher
Information Resource Centre, Halliburton, Hill Park Court, Springfield
Drive, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 7NL Tel: 01372 863105, Fax: 01372 863180
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lesha Fossey [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 18 January 1999 16:56
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: gender question, and more
>
> I've just been looking at the membership of this list, and we have 488
> members!
> Not much traffic for such a big list though :-( .
>
> So I'll try to kick off some discussion by commenting that of the 488
> members, I
> could be 99 per cent sure of the gender of 474 of them (the other 14 had
> subscribed with initials, or had unusual names, or unisex names). Of the
> 474 for
> whom I'm pretty sure of the gender, 370 are female, and 104 are male (i.e.
> 22
> percent male). I will also comment that in the Library system where I work
> there
> are 44 women and 22 men. (So it has a higher proportion of men than the
> list
> does). The Librarian is a man; the Deputy Librarian is a man; the 3
> Sub-Librarians (next level down) are men.....
>
> What do others think about the gender balance in the information
> profession?
> Does anyone think that more men are interested in "information work" posts
> in
> companies etc rather than more "traditional" public or academic Library
> work?
> What about the 104 (or more) men on this list? What sort of Library/Info
> work
> are you in/interested in being in? What do you think are the stereotypes
> of
> Librarians today? What do your mates think of your chosen career path? Do
> they
> say "oh, you must like books", "I wish I had a nice quiet job like a
> librarian"
> and other such inflamatory things? ;-)
>
> When I created this list I intended it to be a forum for the discussion of
>
> "current professional issues" which we might want to write about in our
> PDRs; so
> we could test out our ideas, justify our arguments to others, etc. So
> here's a
> few more suggestions for topics of discussion:
>
> Have those of you working in academic libraries noticed an ever more
> "demanding"
> attitude from the students, especially now they pay fees, etc? How can we
> (or
> SHOULD?) we change to meet these changing expectations? My own view is
> that we
> should endeavour to provide a good service to individual students, but we
> must
> also ensure that they realise THEY have obligations TOO, to their fellow
> students! E.g. it really annoys me when a student complains because
> another
> student hasn't returned a book they need, but then keeps a book overdue
> which
> has been recalled by someone else! I could go on about this topic for
> hours;
> what do others think?
>
> And what about level 4 NVQs as a possible future route towards
> professional
> status? The potential pros and cons of this? Do we NEED the theoretical
> stuff we
> learned during our Library degrees? Or is a more competence-based
> qualification
> the way to go?
>
> Well, that's enough to be getting on with for a Monday! I expect to see
> the
> amount of list traffic rocket! (or else!)
>
> Lesha (list owner)
>
> --
> ----------------------
> Lesha Fossey
> Assistant Librarian, Circulation Services
> University of Exeter
> Stocker Road TEL: 01392 263867
> Exeter FAX: 01392 263871
> EX4 4PT E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]
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