Maybe not so Specialized Librarians

In yesterday's class we discussed the structure of your typical library, or what my professor referred to as the 'Classical View'. Branched under the Library Adminstrators (directors, board, etc.) you will find a division between the Public Service librarians and Technical Services librarians. Public Service librarians are the librarians you see and talk to when you enter the library, such as the Reference Librarians and those at the Circulation Desk. Technical Services librarians are the librarians you don't see. These librarians work in the Systems, Cataloging, and Acquisitions departments. As Professor Lankes jokingly suggested, they are divided between the librarians we show to the public, and those we hide from the public.

Having worked in an academic library's cataloging department, I have personal experience with technical services librarians. Although many of these cataloging librarians were wonderful people and very committed to their work, they did seem to be a bit more buttoned-down and curmudgeonly compared to the always smiling and helpful reference librarians wandering the shelves. It seems only natural that a library student might choose one of these directions depending on their own personality. For instance, the more outgoing person would rather work in reference or interlibrary loan where they could assist patrons directly, while the more subdued person would prefer a technical services position where they could keep to their own quiet workspace.

The more I think about it, the more it seems that dividing librarians into these two categories seems almost clique-ish and professionally restrictive. While it might be unwise to completely remove this division between library specialties, isn't our MLIS degree supposed to make us capable of being good at both public and technical library services? Professor Lankes suggested that rather than molding ourselves into one of these categories, we should focus on molding ourselves to the community our library serves. The profession of librarianship is shifting as society's needs for information change, and we have to be prepared to change as well. I wonder if those same cataloging librarians, who have been catalogers for 20 years or more, would be able to shift and work in reference services for a day. Or if the reference librarians would remember their OCLC well enough to catalog a few carts of books and other materials if they really had to.

I have nothing against having a specialization in one's field. It would be ridiculous to assume that every librarian can do everything in a library (although there are librarians that do do everything when they are the only one!). I simply think that it's probably good for a librarian to actually practice the core value of "education and lifelong learning" that we promote to society, so that we don't end up professionally identifying ourselves by the Fill in Your Libray Specialty Here clique someday.