Librarian

A librarian is a professional person trained in Library and Information Science (LIS) and engaged in library services.

The library profession may be traced to 1876 when Melvin Dewey wrote:  "the time has at last come when a librarian may, with­out assumption, speak of his occupation as a profession".
 

Butler (1933, pp. xi-xii) found it necessary that librarians adopted the scientific method and found the librarian "strangely uninterested in the theoretical aspects of his profession". He further characterized the librarian as an isolated figure, who "stands alone in the simplicity of his pragmatism".

Oberg (1992) finds that in spite of the hundred years that have passed since Dewey's optimist  declaration, we are still left without an adequate definition of a librarian or a comprehensive model of librarianship. The truth is, writes Oberg, that librarians today are as uncertain about what librarianship is as when Butler in 1933 write his book. Oberg (1992, pp. 108-109) further quotes two models suggested by Veaner:

"In 1982, Veaner challenged the profession to decide between two mutually exclusive concepts of librarianship, concepts he termed continuous and discontinuous. [note] 47.
Under the term of his continues model, no sharp breaks occur between the various levels of work or the categories of workers required to perform them. The tasks required of this model, no matter how difficult, complex, or challenging, may be learned by incumbents through apprenticeship, and the individual worker advances on a potential unlimited continuum. If continuity characterizes librarianship, Vearner warns, we must accept that it is a craft and not a profession.
Vearner contends, however, that librarianship is in fact characterized by discontinuity. He maintains that two fundamentally different types of work exist, each requiring its own separate and distinct group of workers. One group functions in a support capacity and is characterized by the performance of process-oriented tasks, i.e., the craft work of libraries. The other group requires graduate-level training and is characterized by programmatic responsibilities and the abstract, intellectual nature of the work performed, i.e., the professional work of libraries.
In Veaner's discontinuous model, the librarian not only assumes responsibility for research, teaching, governance, collection development, bibliographic control, and direct patron aid, but also for planning, analysis, evaluation, problem solving, and administration. In brief, the librarian is responsible for creating the conditions that ensure the success of the library.
The time is at hand to decide between these two fundamentally opposed concepts of librarianship. If librarians continue to avoid endorsing one or the other, we cannot say that we have not been warned. Veaner tells us, that "the problem of personnel utilization can be postulated as a fundamental question of librarianship" and, he cautions, "the answer may have profound implications for the status of librarians, for graduate education in library science, for the academic institution's budget, for collective bargaining, and potentially for class action litigation in the area of equal pay for equal work" [note] 48".
 

Olaisen (1988) discusses whether librarianship is a profession or a semi-profession.

The Royal School of Library and Information Science (RSLIS) was founded in Denmark in 1918 (the term Information Science added to the name in 1999). Today the education as librarian is a 3½ years of study. From 1990 is established an MA in Library and Information Science as a two year program based on BA. From 2001 was a PhD-program added and in 2006 RSLIS for the first time recognized a "doktordisputats". 

Literature:

Audunson, R. (2002). Competing with Maurice Greene: On LIS-education in a period of rapid change; IN: S. K. Hannisdottir (ed). Global Issues in 21st Century Research Librarianship, NORDINFO, Helsinki, 354-368

Audunson, R.; Nordlie, R. & Spangen, I. C. (2003).  The complete librarian – an outdated species? LIS between profession and discipline. New Library World 104 (1189), 195-202.

Bryan, A. I. (1952). The public librarian. New York: Columbia University Press.

Butler, P. (1933). An Introduction to Library Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 

Dewey, M. (1876). The Profession. American Library Journal, 1, pp. 5, 6.
 

Harbo, O. (1988). Signalement af en overbibliotekar. Pp. 367-374 IN: Bøger - Biblioteker - Mennesker: Et nordisk festskrift tilegnet Torben Nielsen. København: Det kongelige Bibliotek i samarbejde med Det Danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab.
 

Hjørland, B. (1993). Informationsspecialistens rolle. Pp. 169-171 IN: Emnerepræsentation og informationssøgning. Bidrag til en teori på kundskabsteoretisk grundlag. Göteborg: Valfrid.
 

Houser, L. & Schrader, A. M. (1978). The Search for a Scientific Profession: Library Science Education in the U. S. and Canada. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press.
 

Iversen, M. (1982). Bibliotekaruddannelserne i Danmark 1918-1978. København: Gad. (Danmarks Biblioteksskoles skrifter nr. 15).
 

Kolding Nielsen, E. (1991). Fra bibliotekar til fagreferent. Pp. 87-105 IN: Bibliotek. Tradition och utveckling. Festskrift till Lars-Erik Sanner den 18. januar 1991. Red.: Ingrid Cantwell m.fl. Stockholm: Stockholms universitetsbibliotek.
 

Oberg, L. R. (1992). The Emergence of the Paraprofessional in Academic Libraries: Perception and Realities. College & Research Libraries, 53, 99-112.
 

Olaisen, J. (1988). Bibliotekarer - Profesjon eller semiprofesjon? Synopsis, 19(2), 59-67.
 

Olsson, L. (1991). Bibliotekarieyrkets framtidida status. Artikel i antologi fra konferencen "Biblioteken och framtiden" i Borås 11-13 november 1991.
 

Ortega Y Gasset, J. (1974). The Mission of the Librarian. pp. 190-213 IN: Of, By, and For Librarians, Second series. Selected by J. D. Marshall. Handen, Conn.: Shoe String Press, 1974).
 

Sanders, L. H. D. (1991). Faculty Status for Academic Librarians. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Vol. 48 (Supplement 11). Ed. by Allen Kent. New York: Marcel Dekker. (Pp. 130-150).

Schreiber, T. & Elbeshausen, H. (Eds.). (2006). Bibliotekarerne. Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur.

Winkel Schwarz, A. (1994). Hvorledes udvikler vi fremtidens informationsspecialister? DF-Revy, 17(6), 155-156 + 162.
 

Ørom, A. (1993a). Bibliotekarieidentiteter, förmedlingsarbete och arbetsorganisation. BBL Biblioteksbladet, 78(8), 228-231.

Ørom, A. (1993b). Bibliotekariske identiteter, formidlingsarbejde og arbejdsorganisering. Biblioteksarbejde, 39, 37-43.

Ørom, A. (1993c). Faglige identiteter, forandringer og forskningsbiblioteker. DF-revy, 16(2), 42-45.  

Ørom, A. (1993d). Formatering af undervisningsområdet - med udgangspunkt i nogle reflektioner over kundskab og information. Biblioteksarbejde, 38, 25-39.

See also:  Documentalist; Information specialist; Professional aspects of LIS; Research Librarian; Subject specialist

Birger Hjørland

Last edited: 10-12-2006

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