Katherine J. Blackwell @katherinejblackwell - Tumblr Blog

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tofupixel

Goots (geese)

200x200 pixels, 26 colours, based on this photo.

Finally finished this OMG!!! Probably took me 20 hours in total but also I've been insanely busy and tired...!!

Prints available!!

jamsandsuch

“oh a book about the creation of the oxford english dictionary how fun” i said with joys

i was then shot 57 times

fox-teeth

Today's my birthday and I'd like to share a new comic with you, it's called Marginalia. It's a love letter to all the weirdness of medieval manuscripts, and you can read it by unfolding a single sheet of paper!

Risograph print editions are also available in my shop.

bramble-berries

the problem with being creative is that you start to feel very guilty when you haven’t created anything in a while

captain-cargoshorts

do you get upset when a field isn't ready for harvest at all times? your seeds are doing mysterious things in the dirt. but you have to leave them hidden in the dirt or they won't grow

sometiktoksarevalid

ober-affen-geil

What this video does not cover is that librarians are also responsible for advocating for funding, curating the collection (all media types including electronic resources, physical books, audio books, film/tv collection, and if their library has a program for it non-media items like clothing/instruments/tools, etc), CREATING and advertising the programs this librarian is talking about, and managing volunteers/part time workers. This doesn't even touch catalogers who have specialized training to properly label media to make it findable by patrons.

I ultimately specialized in archive work instead of library work, but they are sister specialties. I took courses in computer coding, sociology, and disaster recovery. Who deals with a collection that has been affected by a flood or other natural disaster? The librarians. Who advocates to the town for yearly funding that is part of local elections? The librarians. Who defends against book challenges when people try to restrict freedom of choice by calling for a ban? The librarians.

Yes, it's a master's degree. And every minute of it counts.

ober-affen-geil

#fellow mlis haver and yeah#collection management and project management are huge areas#that yes require expert education to become proficient in#some skills could be learned on the job#but the degree gives you a foundation that is extensible across different types of collections#also reference skills#people who have a certain aptitude for information location often do not realize and do not believe you when you say#that many many people do NOT have those skills#and it is a specialized skill to be able to help others locate information#that they may not be able to clearly describe#'i don't remember the title or author but it was about this train conductor and i read it about ten years ago...'#type stuff#and also also there is SO MUCH digital information created these days#with unique privacy copyright storage and access concerns#in addition to infrastructure maintenance#which in many/most institutions a SINGLE librarian will be asked#to research develop and maintain on a shoestring budget#anyway#the masters of library and information science is a hugely variable degree that deserves respect

stellar tag addition here

tucsonhorse

Someone walks up to you and says that they need information and they don't even know how to describe what they need. They settle on wanting information about the building a local highschool is in because they're doing a thing about the history of the highschool and already have all the info off the highschool's website.

What do you do? What information are they actually asking about? How do you search for that information? What sort of resources do you look at? What resources does your library own? If you don't have resources, where do you send the person?

And can you figure all that out in the 30 seconds or so that you have to think before the person gets impatient?

This kind of thing is just *one* class I had in my MLIS studies.

I wish I could find the chart that one of my instructors used to describe library science. Other professionals have great depth of knowledge in their one field, and that's good and important. Librarians need to have shallow knowledge of many, many fields and know how to find the deeper knowledge when needed. That breadth of knowledge and skill in finding more isn't something anyone just knows.

And that is just reference work, which is one small portion of what even a "reference librarian" does, I know cause I am one.

sometiktoksarevalid

katherinejblackwell

Something important to add on to what this person said at the end: Not everyone working in a library is a librarian! And I feel like that's important to note for understanding why librarians need a degree.

The people who are checking out books to you at the front desk or shelving materials or checking the returned items in are most likely not librarians. I'm sure there are some libraries not getting the funding they need where librarians do have to share in that work, but from my (admittedly limited) experience, in an average library, the people who are checking books in and out and shelving things are circulation staff. I think a lot of people who don't know very much about libraries/library work think that everyone working in a library is a librarian, so I can understand why it would be confusing that librarians need a degree.

Circulation positions, at least in the area I live, are entry-level and mostly part-time positions that do not require a degree of any sort. We don't need degrees for a lot of the work we do. You need some training to learn, like, the procedures for signing people up for library cards, or how to shelve materials, or how to check things in using the library's software, but definitely not a master's degree.

Librarians are not doing circulation work! They're doing a lot more in-depth stuff like answering patron's questions about how to use their laptop or phone, planning any programs that the library holds, managing a budget and deciding what materials to buy for the library's collection, helping you and your kid find the right books for their first research project in school, and taking the time to look up resources with you so they can point you in the right direction when you need a service that the library doesn't provide. Which is why librarians need to go to school to learn skills like collection management, cataloging, research methods, various web skills, and other specialized skills for those who want to be children's/youth librarians and tech librarians.

Circulation staff do also answer a lot of questions, but the really in-depth stuff is directed to the librarians, because that's what they are trained for. This isn't to say circulation staff aren't important. Every single person in the library is important. The library wouldn't function if materials weren't being put away or checked in, and librarians would be completely overrun if circ staff weren't there to field questions for them at the front desk. But the two positions are distinct and require different training, and I think that's important to understanding why librarians need degrees!

underwaterfraulein

Building off of this - the TikTok focuses on the areas where librarians are actively engaging with members of the public, and that is extremely important! But librarians are also doing a TON of behind the scenes work that depends on their specialized training related to things like collection management and cataloging.

A big chunk of my friend group have librarian qualifications, and their degree is actually a Master's of Information Studies - among many other things, librarians basically learn how to manage and organize huge quantities of information, both practically and from philosophical/ethical perspectives. (What information is included in a collection/dataset and why? Who should have access to what information and why? How do you ensure that information access protocols are being legally followed?)

See also, the idea of metadata, i.e. data about data. If this sounds complicated, you can understand why you might have to go to school for a while to deal with it! :)

Plus, the program that my friends went through is also offered alongside programs for archive management and museum studies - and those are jobs that I think are much less prone to this "why would you need a degree for that" kind of thinking. And those are jobs that are a) less female-coded, and b) even LESS focused on public service in the public mindset, which I think also bizarrely plays into this devaluing of skills.

writing-is-a-martial-art

I keep making lists. Perhaps I might even follow through on some of them

One day i will write a poem that's not a numbered list of instructions

a-tangled-mermaid

Sigh. At least I have this.

bedupolker

Opposable thumbs are handy

rosieandthemoon

from 1640

#god.#are q done?

kairosrhys

Which one is your favorite? 🩵

#are q done?

imanbenerrabeh

thrift shopping & coffee with new friends 💌

#are q done?

tanoraqui

“I asked chatgpt” well I journeyed to Rivendell to seek council of Elrond Half-Elven, wise among men and wizards alike, and he invited me to a meeting with representatives of all the free peoples of Middle Earth. It turns out that my trouble is but part of the trouble of all the world, the origins of which lie in earlier, grander ages—but none of us stand alone!

#are q done?