MACMLA 2014: From Old to New: Surviving and Thriving in a Changing Profession panel

From Old to New - Surviving and Thriving in a Changing Profession panel

In order from left to right: Carla Funk, MJ Tooey, Dixie Jones, Jamie Blanck, Ellen Detlefsen

Ellen Detlefsen, School of Information Sciences at University of Pittsburgh

  • rethinking librarians and peers beyond the traditional academic, research libraries – roles of public librarians, school librarians
  • trends include
    • working with diverse populations (LGBT, older adults, etc)
    • curriculum design
    • consulting
  • 1990s first shift of Pitt’s name to Information Sciences (emphasis on plural)
  • 2000s beginning of online education, collaboration/sharing of coursework (for the same price of home-school location)
  • move towardsinternationality
    • at Pitt, 1/3 of students are from countries other than the US
  • 2010s: theiSchool movement (Information School)
    • 59 iSchools worldwide
    • 28 have their roots in a “library school”
    • strong emphasis on the human-component
    • diversity/inclusion
  • Pitt now teaches
    • metadata, not cataloging or indexing
    • anything digital (digital libraries, digital curation, digital resources management)
  • Cross-area collaboration
    • Ex: cyberbullying research interest for children’s librarian, as well as
  • The Future:
    • increasing tuition costs, decreasing grants dollars
    • increasing international and undergraduate students
    • decreasing number of MLIS students (perhaps short-term)
    • jobs aren’t necessarily “new”, but emerging since some others are exploring this already
      • librarians embedding in medical journals and blogs
      • informationists roles
      • systematic reviews – http://youtu.be/5Ezs1DPUKXA; The Incidental Economist
      • empowering users in the information commons
      • clinical specialist
      • consumer health information specialist (we risk losing this to other groups like AMIA, nursing – we need to either define our role or collaborate better with others)
  • 4 new directions
    • interprofessional education
    • geographic information systems
    • voice/speech recognition technologies
      • EMR/EHR
      • translation software
    • robotics
      • simulation, inventory, pharmacy, senior care (research occurring in Japan), primary care

 

Jaime Blanck, Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University

  • Follow informationist model
  • Concern that library would go away
  • Need to maintain strong collections and maintaining awareness of these resources
  • Core services – collections access
    • focus on digital
    • course reserves housed in Welch sites around campus, check-out based on honor system
    • free ILL
  • Core services -informationists
    • literature searching, systematic reviews
    • database training
    • present at seminars, rounds, journal clubs, and morning reports
    • research consultations
  • Embedded services
    • clinical discussions (not just searching, but integrated throughout the whole process)
    • department research committees
    • department office hours, in labs, etc
    • curriculum planning and course participation (School and department level)
  • Expanding skills to meet user needs – many of these are self-training
  • Strategic partnerships
    • Cochrane Library – Trials Search Coordinators
    • Milton S. Eisenhower Library
      • Entrepreneurial Library program (data management)
      • GIS & data services
  • Culture of assessment
    • Assessment committee
    • Value Survey
    • LibAnalytics
    • Needs assessment for global health information services (getting ready to do this)

Dixie Jones, Director of Health Sciences Library at LSU Shreveport and MLA Past President

  • always going to be a need for accurate, accessible information
  • health information literacy and engagement in EHRs
  • eScience, compliance with public access, systematic reviews are emerging areas
  • other non-traditional spaces for librarians include managing maker-spaces (Jean Shipman), managing the dormitory (Arkansas), being in the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)
  • we can serve on other non-traditional committees to expand our role and adapt to user needs
  • writing services to help with manuscripts, grant applications is also a new area
  • Thomas Frey top trends
    • communication systems
    • all technology ends
    • tech size
    • time is changing lifestyle
    • moving toward verbal society
    • global information needs
    • global systems
    • transitioning from product-based to experience-based societies

MJ Tooey, Executive Director, Health Sciences and Human Services Library at University of Maryland, Baltimore and another MLA past President

  • Library having 3-fold way of describing itself
    • Expertise
    • Resources
    • Place – physical and virtual
  • important to align with institutional priorities – find the empty spaces and places
  • we need to be on equal-footing alongside other professionals
  • upcoming trends
    • bioinformationist
    • health literacy (ex: consent forms in plain language)
    • we need to expand our portfolio of those working in the library – for example: instructional designers, data experts, marketing
    • scholarly communications/rights management
    • GIS
    • makerspaces – data visualization, 3D printing, etc
  • to address these new items, we can’t be afraid to leave some of these things behind
  • stay ahead of trends, so it is easier to find your place

Carla Funk, MLA Executive Director

  • library associations are losing members, so they are going out to find like-segments similar to other groups listed before
  • we have more men entering medical library field than before
  • micro-credentials, such as disaster information specialist and big data, is a growing trend
  • global information needs and services

Question

  • How to convert soft money positions to hard money?
    • MJ noted that her library rethinks every position  that reopens.  Also, people are much more mobile than they used to be.
Share this Post