Comments on: Are Personal Librarians a Waste of Time?

By: tootall

tootall — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:01:56 +0000

I think the concept of a personal librarian is great, and I believe Yale University had a program in place before Drexel. The problem lies in execution. How many academic librarians are actually good at marketing themselves or their services? If it’s an outreach service, the librarians are responsible for doing the legwork. It’s kind of like sitting at the reference desk and wondering why no one is coming up to ask for help. But, when you actually get up off your duff and walk around the library, lo and behold, people ask you questions. It’s called outreach, and it works if you know what you’re doing.

By: I Like Books

I Like Books — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 10:59:43 +0000

I’m trying to think of which lower-division classes I’ve taken that required the library. There was that speech class, I mostly used the databases like JSTOR but I could do that on my own. Got some stuff from the public library, too. The textbook for a statistical physics class had references in the problem sets, which I went to for help with the homework, but I could do that on my own. Mostly, I think, it was pretty well covered by the assigned textbooks and classroom supplements. I’ve gotten supplementary textbooks for classes I’ve had trouble with, but I could figure out how to use the catalog.

But when I DO go to the reference desk with a challenge that I can’t figure out for myself, I’m usually disappointed.

By: Elena1980

Elena1980 — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:40:34 +0000

What Jack says. Lesse how it works out, get a report then do mud-slinging or hand out the mea culpas later, kay?

By: JackAttack

JackAttack — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:23:56 +0000

Librarians are trained to be kind, supportive, and judgment free when it comes to our patrons. So why are we so quick to judge each other when someone tries something new? How about giving it a little more time, and not declaring it a failure when there’s less than 100% response rate? How about we use forums like these for collaboration and constructive feedback, rather than cutting each other down?

By: Philly-area librarian

Philly-area librarian — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:48:32 +0000

Despite the potential feel-good aspect (the librarian inferiority complex at work again) of the program, I sincerely doubt many of the undergraduates need the library either. Heck, I got my MLS at Drexel and managed to finish with a 4.0 without ever once needing to use the physical library.

By: NotMarianTheLibrarian

NotMarianTheLibrarian — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:08:04 +0000

So glad we’re not doing this. I have more than enough work to do (reference desk, IL classes, committee work, writing, other duties as assigned, etc.) without having an assigned group of students.

We are supposed to be teaching students, not hand-holding them. Their academic success should be on their shoulders alone. If they lack the guts/intelligence to ask for assistance or guidance? No one will be holding their hand throughout this life – they might as well get used to it and college is a mighty fine place to start.

By: John

John — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:17:45 +0000

I’m a community college librarian, and I’ve encountered too many students who have little to no experience in a library. They don’t know what can be found in one or how to access its resources — or that one can ask a librarian for help. So they don’t ask and try to write a last-minute research paper with Wikipedia.

If students have a sense that there’s someone that they can ask — someone who isn’t a complete stranger — then they’re more likely to start using the library.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:38:21 +0000

At Drexel: I’m guessing the existing liaisons to each subject area take that portion of new students?

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:38:05 +0000

I’m guessing the existing liaisons to each subject area take that portion of new students?

By: Techserving You

Techserving You — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 19:51:57 +0000

I would also have found this off-putting as a student. I don’t think that the system fails because of students not having previous experience reaching out to librarians, as one commenter suggested. It fails because there is not a need, period. Yes, it’s great for students to get a general orientation to the library, and to know that there are reference librarians to whom they can reach out. But quite frankly the library is not that complicated once the student gets a general orientation. In fact, many libraries are now less complicated than they once were… for instance, it is much easier to figure out how to search in a database than to use paper indexes. Most students do not need an ongoing, forced connection to a librarian. There is no need for each student to be assigned a “personal librarian”. It does smack of both desperation, and underestimation of the students.

I also don’t like the comment in the article which says that the success depends on the commitment of the students in the process… we had similar thinking in one of the libraries in which I worked, and I found it to be very backwards. Librarians come up with services for which there is no need, and then blame students for not being committed enough to the process. Then there’s a lot of hand-wringing over the state of the world today. They NEVER realize that the “lack of commitment” is an indication that their ideas are dumb and a waste of effort.