Op-Ed: Heather Johnson

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on best online college. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com

The Librarian in the Technology Age

Some people wonder why we still need librarians in an age where everything is seemingly available online from research resources to every major newspaper in the world. If you’ve visited a top notch college or public library lately you’ll notice that the librarian is no longer someone who stacks shelves or knows the Dewey Decimal System like the back of their hand. Librarians have conquered online databases and have become more like teachers in this new world of academia. Here are a few ways the librarian’s role has evolved and is more important than ever before:

1. Sifting through research resources. Librarians have to filter through the myriad of resources now available. While there are the major databases that any library would be incomplete without there are so many other obscure sites out there that need to be explored and evaluated. Decisions need to be made whether or not the library will pay to have certain databases available.

2. Producing a reliable web site. Any library worth its salt will have its collection available for perusal online. People need to be able to get all pertinent information about a given book online. Whether the book is available or checked needs to be automatically updated to assist the person looking for that book.

3. Being ready to help users navigate complicated web sites. The librarian needs to be prepared to walk members through web sites or data bases that aren’t particularly user-friendly. Helping people do research is vital to the librarian’s job and they have to have a mastery of every tool available.

4. Be prepared to teach. Many high schools and universities rely on librarians to conduct classes on proper research. This extends to teaching proper research techniques online but attention still needs to be paid to traditional research through books and journals. Many students know how to conduct basically anything online but are lost when they actually have to open up a book and find out what information is pertinent to their research. This is where the librarian performs their traditional job.

5. Interaction with the faculty. Teachers and librarians need to operate on the same page. If a teacher has an idea about how to improve the library, there needs to be an open dialogue across the faculty. Likewise if a librarian notices a group of students struggling with a project in the library they should feel free to not only help out but to talk with their teacher to work through the issue.

By-line:

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on best online college. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com