Wednesday
Aug192009
Mindset List for Librarians
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 09:10AM 
The Beloit College Mindset List for 2013 was published recently. One of things that today's entering college students have never done (according to item #4) is "... used a card catalog to find a book."
Hmmmm, I wonder how many librarians starting their professional careers today know what it means to "file above the rod" and why one would do it?
Do we need a Mindset List for New Librarians?* Let's give this a try...
The Mindset List for Librarians Entering the Field in 2009
Librarians entering the field today...
- Have never had to type a catalog card.
- Have never looked something up in the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature.
- Have never maintained a vertical file.
- Have never attended a F2F graduate school library class.
- Have never puchased (or rented) a 16mm film, VHS tape or LaserDisc. (Let alone a filmloop or filmstrip.)
- Have never NOT had the Internet as a resource.
- Have never checked out 5 1/4 floppy disks of MECC games.
- Have never arranged for interlibrary loan of a physical book.
- Have ever worked in a library without student workstations or a computer lab.
- Have never sent overdue notices to parents by postal mail.
So, 10 off the top of my balding head. And yours....?
*Thanks to Nancy Everhart for this idea.
Reader Comments (20)
Have never cataloged an item by referring to a classification book. Are not familiar with the term "stacks."
As an older grad student back in 2005-2006, I had classmates who had never used a card catalog. It was certainly a reminder of how much older I was. But I currently do 3 and 8, so they aren't completely dead yet. =D
Have never opened a school library on a 90 degree August day with no air conditioning. Yes, I know that this is still true for many of you. My thoughts - and sweat-soaked memories - are with you ;-)
And another:
Have never used that a-to-z flip-section thingy to sort the individual book checkout cards with each student's carefully scrawled name & due date stamped.
I'm not a librarian yet, but I used card catalogs up through undergraduate school! Of course, they were transitioning then (late 80s) but they still had the card catalogs. I used the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and even *gasp* microfiche. More than half of my current graduate library classes are F2F (or at least half)! I've used all of those mentioned film media (and even reel-to-reel audio)! I used to have a stack of 51/4 floppies w/games. But yeah, it changes all the time. I think that's one of the most awesome things about the field. I was talking to an SLMS last year who had worked for more than 20 years. When she started there was NO computers in the school. They got their first one for the principal's assistant. Now she's showing teachers how to stream online video. It's amazing.
Have never had to rubber stamp a due date or write a student's name on a check out card. They may, however, have smoked dope. A lot of people have.
Have never had to type a catalog card on a typewriter
Don't know the meaning of the term "P Slip"
Had to THREAD a 16 mm film projector
Looked for "snags"
Have never colored a transparency with colored cellophane...or "cut" a stencil on the typewriter for the ditto machine...or used the highly-prized direct-line library phone to call the reference desk at the public library for answers to reference questions!
As a current MLIS student and a young one at that (26 yrs old) I can say most of those are true! Although my program is distance, it does have a f2f component. I also remember computers in my 1 grade class...but no internet at that point...overall, pretty accurate!
We have a GREAT inter-library loan system in northern New York based on a union catalog of holdings of school, public, academic and special (even prison and hospital) libraries and an electronic bulletin board appropriately called "Icepac." We use it a LOT for books, especially for our senior projects. Fewer, almost non-existent with databases, are the requests for periodical articles.
And, about five times a year, I make phone calls to arrange for a same day or next day ILL, followed by an electronic request for stats, of course.
What is also amazing is the parts of our jobs which haven't changed!
They have never seen or used an accession book! I took mine with me when I retired from public school work. I knew the new young librarian that replaced me wouldn't understand the value of them or the time that went into maintaining them!
I am not young but I am a new librarian. Recently a retired librarian told me she lamented that we had no typed up list of every book in the library. I explained to her that we could generate such a list at any time with the computer catalog. We could do it by subject, by author, by Dewey, etc. She was not impressed because she couldn't put her hands on it and flip through it.
I am old enough that I occasionally slip up and call the catalog the 'card' catalog by accident. I know how old folks are by the chuckles I get and how young folks are by the blank stares.
I loved the card catalog so much that when I found one ready
to be discarded, I snagged it for my own library at home.
I have 2 small African Violets in 2 open drawers. In other
drawers I keep paper clips, markers, batteries, and sticky notes.
My mother's 1930s Remington typewriter
and a typewriter I received for Christmas (1956) when I was 6 years old both sit
on top with a few of my prized first editions. And yes, I also have a card sorter (the a-z flip-section thingy mentioned above :-).
It's been grand to see so many changes in libraries. Thanks for my visit to the past.
The one thing that has not changed is our ability to connect our patrons with the information they need!
Thanks to all of you new to the field of libraries.
Hi DIane,
Yup - or assigned a Cutter Number. Oh, I think "stacked" has a different connotation today. ;-)
Doug
HI Andy,
Judging from others' comments, I was a little premature in writing off ILL. Come to think of it, I just got a book that way last winter. But vertical file? Local news?
Doug
Hi Mary,
I'm afraid our buildings here from the 20s and 30s are still mostly AC-less! I forgot about those flippy things!
All the best,
Doug
Face it, Ninja, you're old!
But how many of these things will you have to use and support as a practicing librarian???
Thanks for the reminder about the microfilm. I've had both reels and fiche in my libraries.
Doug
Hi Mary,
Yes, but I, like a good librarian, never inhaled.
Doug
HI Guusje,
OK, I don't know the reference to "snags" except when fishing. What does this mean in the library world?
Doug
HI VWB,
And I can't say I miss any of those. I do remember using a razor blade to "delete" errors from the back of a ditto master!
Doug
Hi Sara,
Others reminded me that ILL is not yet dead. OK, OK... But wait til Google Scan the Book project gets finished!
Doug
DIane,
I forgot all about accession books (and accession numbers!).
Doug
HI Scott,
Had your librarian friend ever heard of a "printer?"
I still call it the "card" catalog too. Old habits die hard.
Doug
Hi Joyce,
I used a discarded catalog to store my cassette tapes in for years. Of course, cassette tapes are a thing of the past as well!
I agree that helping our patrons with information needs has not changed - just the tools.
All the best,
Doug
Two things I don't miss are:
The accession book
Doing inventory by hand using the shelf list
Make that three things, I don't miss the shelf list either.
Hi Guusje,
There are a LOT of things on this list I don't miss a bit! It's a great time to be a librarian, despite the challenges.
Doug
How about the piece of furniture that was the card catalog? I was part of automating a school library for the first time. The librarian kept the computers on top of the card catalog. Thought that it could help students with spelling...they could look at cards to find words they couldn't spell. I don't think I ever saw a student pull out and look at the cards.
instructively Laban, 'll announce .
Have never checked a book out with one of those punch date machines that were so popular (at least where I was!) in the 1960s. They took a piece of the margin of the card every time a date was added.
I'm not a librarian yet, but I used card catalogs up through undergraduate school! Of course, they were transitioning then (late 80s) but they still had the card catalogs. I used the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and even *gasp* microfiche. More than half of my current graduate library classes are F2F (or at least half)! I've used all of those mentioned film media (and even reel-to-reel audio)! I used to have a stack of 51/4 floppies w/games. But yeah, it changes all the time. I think that's one of the most awesome things about the field. I was talking to an SLMS last year who had worked for more than 20 years. When she started there was NO computers in the school. They got their first one for the principal's assistant. Now she's showing teachers how to stream online video. It's amazing.
Spelling Games for Kids