Friday, July 14, 2006

If You Are A Library Assistant, So What?

Your work is invaluable in promoting the image of the library and information profession.

Whatever is your title tag, you are first and foremost a knowledge worker, anyways.* Right? Those who think you are otherwise, just bear with them please.**

I found an interesting article that lists the strengths of a Library Assistant:

Merits of the Profession of the Library Assistant, by Bessie Mayes, ASSOCIATES (2006, July, v. 13, no. 1)

Extract: What are the merits of being a Library Assistant? I will define the word “merit” not on whether this part of our library profession is worthy of existence--it is without question very important to the library organization and the community. But I will base the definition of the merits of this library assistant profession on the principle of what merits or worth an employee brings to the profession. This is the only way one can view the worth of any career or profession one chooses, and where we spend many hours of a day giving great attention. Continue reading Merits of the Profession...

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*I think whatever the title, Library Assistant, Librarian, Information Manager, Information Consultant, these are all contributors to the knowledge work.


**Library Assistant
Library assistants are not professional librarians, but they have been trained to help you with many of your research needs. Some reference departments hire library assistants to help answer reference questions and provide general information about the library. source: Library Vocabulary: Common Terms Defined

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mohamed,
I am pleased to see that you have started a blog for Library Assistants and that you have included Bessie's article.

I hope I didn't offend you in our earlier correspondence and I apologize if I came across as a manic defender of library assistants!

I'll be checking your blog to see what develops.
Best,
Wendee
Editor, Associates
rivwe@ucr.edu
http://associates.ucr.edu

M Taher said...

Dear Wendee:
Thanks for the support.

I don’t think you offended me; it was a deal for haves to become an editor; and since I don’t have a Web server to be part of the deal, so I just did not confess my havenotness.

By the way, there are ways to check: I mean to check blog updates. Some use a feeder (on their post or web site and this feeder automatically get the list). Some are more advanced; they use a tool (e.g.., blogbridge) that keeps up and the result is called Reading list, and is generated by your own choice.
Best, Mohamed