Message-Id: <mailto:199411291639.KAA13727@library.wustl.edu> Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 11:41:49 -0500 From: "Margaret N. Webster" <mailto:mnw3@CORNELL.EDU> Subject: Re: Position description To: Multiple recipients of list IMAGELIB
The reason you would probably not be given this job does not center around which degree or degrees you have earned but on your ability to perform the necessary duties. Granted, that the vocabulary which includes terms such as "slide library", "slide librarian", etc. may be misleading to the uninitiated. However, the reasons for establishing the analogies are obvious when one stops to consider what the position of a "slide librarian" traditionally has entailed. It is rather obvious that a slide library is not filled with books but rather with slides; that a slide librarian is responsible not for a book collection but for a slide collection. These terms have been borrowed in order to describe the functions and the positions in terms which educational administrators can understand and which place these positions with other like positions within an institution's hierarchy of positions. In some institutions similiar analogies are made with museum structures--i.e., slide "curator" & slide "collection."Another important determining factor centers around the placement of these positions within the institutional structure. Nearly 50% of my colleagues ( including myself) who are in charge of slide collections are administratively responsible to an academic department (chair, dean, etc.) not a library (librarian or director). This means that academic credentials are often privileged by search committees when the appointment is controlled by a department. For those colleagues who are part of a library structure, the MLS (or equivalent) often becomes the privileged degree. Nevertheless both Ben Kessler and Eileen Fry are correct when they point out that neither degree alone is adequate; some of us would argue that expertise in computer and imaging technologies should also be added to the list. Successful slide librarians or curators must be qualified information managers, must have a good general knowledge of the fields of art and architectural history, must have a good reading knowledge of several foreign languages, and must be well versed in computer and imaging technologies and database management. Furthermore, professionals in this field are often in charge of the entire range of activities--administration, reference, acquisitions, technical services, etc.--which in larger academic library contexts are generally divided into separate areas of expertise.
As the field of slide librarianship evolves the terminology is also changing and in flux--the position is often referred to as a visual resources professional and the collections are often known as visual collections, etc. Both the current reality and the yet unrealized potentials of computer and imaging technologies are radically changing the ways in which users expect to find and to use visual information and the both the content and form which it takes. These changes are acknowledged in any number of position announcements in which competency in traditional librarianship is required along with subject area expertise (or vice versa), and competency in database development and management skills along with competency in imaging technologies are also required. It is rather remarkable that institutions are able to fill these positions which require incredible levels of professional expertise and competency at pay scales which technically require only one Master's level degree.
The most frustrating aspect of the current discussion is not that members of this list are unaware of what a slide librarian is, but that they are all too willing to make critical judgements about the professional status and competency of others without first investigating the issues. The parochial attitude that only those initiated who have earned an MLS or MLIS are "rightfully" entitled to positions which carry the title "librarian" is ludicrous. Afterall, we are all--inspite of and because of our diverse backgrounds--committed to providing access to information to our users in a professional way. It is only through competent collegial work which utilizes and builds on skills gained from a diversity of backgrounds that we will be able to deliver to our constituencies.
>I'm glad to be getting some feedback...especially since most seem to support
>my original beef, namely: Why should non-librarians (i.e. someone
>with no) be given positions that are rightfully ours? Would anyone
>contemplate hiring a non-engineer to build bridges? Or someone with no medical
>degree to work as a doctor? I think not.
>
>It really is true that we have to stand up for our rights, make noise and be
>noticed, or else the jobs will continue to slip away...
>
>PS. I acknowledge that many academic position do require a double masters
>these days (meaning an MLS plus a Masters in whatever domain the position
>happens to be in) -- no problem with that. But someone who is not a librarian
>has no business doing our job (& employers have no business hiring
>non-librarians to do professional librarian work)...even if that individual
>has 2 PhD's!!
>
>
Margaret N. Webster College of Architecture, Art & Planning B-56 Sibley Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 EMail: mailto:mnw3@Cornell.Edu Tel.: (607) 255-3300