{"id":45003,"date":"2014-05-20T12:32:31","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T17:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=45003"},"modified":"2014-05-20T12:30:39","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T17:30:39","slug":"not-a-dying-career-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=45003","title":{"rendered":"Not a Dying Career Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Brad McNally, former Head Editor, INALJ Ohio
\n<\/a>previously published 11\/4\/13<\/em><\/p>\n

Not a Dying Career Field<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"brad.mcnally\"<\/a>Last week, I heard a question at work that will make many of the folks here on INALJ cringe:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, libraries, huh? What does it feel like to be in a dying career field?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t even know how to begin answering that. I almost made a snarky comment back, but instead I just thought about it. I often see writers discuss the end of the library as an institution, and a career field (such as The End of The Library<\/a> by M.G. Siegler), but I think that many times people don\u2019t particularly realize the things that make libraries so vital. I also don\u2019t think that people generally know what librarians do, nor do they understand that not all librarians are in traditional \u201clibrarian\u201d roles.<\/p>\n

Beyond this, some writers claim they can\u2019t remember the last time they used a public library. This may be true for some people, but it isn\u2019t true of everyone. To be honest, I can\u2019t remember the last time I used the fire station, but that doesn\u2019t make it less important to my community.<\/b> Libraries (especially public ones) do something that very few other institutions can do: they equalize people. Libraries create resources for communities, not individuals. By doing this, the lowest income person can have the same access to information as the affluent individual. Regardless of income, social status, background, or any other issues \u2013 the library offers that person information. If they don\u2019t know how to access it, there are professionals there to help. This is exactly why it isn\u2019t a dying career field.<\/p>\n

Yes, to some people the library is a big building with old books and free Wi-Fi. These people often have broadband Internet at home and can afford to buy books. They don\u2019t consider that for many people, especially in the region in which I reside (rural south-eastern Ohio), Internet in your house could be considered a luxury. This isn\u2019t just because of monetary reasons, but logistical. There are many people who cannot access broadband because of the location of their house and the infrastructure (or lack thereof) around it.<\/p>\n

These articles (or comments, in this case) always inspire a knee-jerk response from me, and many others, at first. I suppose that the reason this type of claim is so bothersome to me is that I don\u2019t feel that much related to libraries is in need of defending. Yes, it is a changing career field, but so are many others. How many adults now remember the use of a whiteboard in the classroom as students? That doesn\u2019t mean that education is dying, but that it is changing. The same could be said of any library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Brad McNally, former Head Editor, INALJ Ohio previously published 11\/4\/13 Not a Dying Career Field Last week, I heard a question at work that will make many of the folks here on INALJ cringe: \u201cSo, libraries, huh? What does it feel like to be in a dying career field?\u201d I don\u2019t even know how…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":58796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,4795,5578,5580,3642,5577,5579],"class_list":["post-45003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-brad-mcnally","tag-community-resources","tag-importance-of-libraries","tag-inalj-ohio","tag-library-careers","tag-m-g-siegler"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/brad.mcnally.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-bHR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}