- At UC, the status of the librarian series is under pressure on the one end from paraprofessionals whose work seems to overlap with ours (the Career Compass initiative at UCB is potentially spreading to other campuses) and at the other end from persons hired in the Analyst series who do similar work but are hired outside the librarian series so they can be paid higher salaries.
- Technical skills are essential for librarians but they are not the only skills we need. Management and interpersonal skills are equally essential.
- As a profession we need to promote ourselves as having these and other skill sets.
- Current librarians need the time to read, research, and be involved in professional issues; ideally more librarians would be hired to allow this. This is a professional issue and a retention issue.
- Librarians should reach out to library and information schools and let them know what skills and values we want future librarians to have.
- Should LAUC lead a discussion on what are the values and philosophies unique to librarians? When we digitize books, for example, we do so through the lens of promoting public access, preservation, standards of quality, and the needs of present and future scholars and readers. Google may share some of these values – what distinguishes us?
Corliss Lee, UCB (recorder)
Dana Peterman, UCI
Dean Rowan, UCB
Socrates Silva, UCLA
Jill Woolums, UCB
Michael Yonezawa, UCR
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1 comment:
The presence of UC librarians on our campuses is important and should evolve with the University, not only in terms of technology but literacy, research norms and the overall UC culture of excellence. This requires scholarly innovations, collaboration with research departments and publishing. Can the libraries sustain the challenges we face to continuously nurture such an environment across all ranks and divisions? How can we build on some of the achievements to move forward meaningfully?
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