So far, this MLA CE course hasn’t introduced me to a whole lot of new services. I already had a blog, a feed reader, and Facebook, LinkedIn, and Myspace accounts. (Obviously, I have a lot of accounts. You can find -almost- all of them between my website contact page and my FriendFeed page.) But I have been meeting other medical librarians and hearing their great ideas, and that part of this class has been very useful.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to connect personally with patrons in the information society. Most of this thinking was done while in library school preparing for a career in an academic library. Well, I was lucky enough to find employment in an academic library, just not the type I expected. In the biomedical library, most of our patrons are doctors or students at least as old as I am. I had prepared to spend time hawking my Facebook profile to barely-listening 18 year olds in an English class so that they would remember when paper-time came that someone at the library cared. Instead, I have a very focused group of mostly graduates who are experts in a subject that I’ve never before studied. It’s been quite a challenge to change my frame of mind (and begin to learn the nuances of medical information searching). So here I am stuck wondering if, even with all the 2.0 know-how in the world, I’ll be able to connect to, relate with, and help my patrons.
The thing about it is that I am a stereotypical millinneal, and to be honest, I now feel like a bit of a hypocrite for not getting it when the so-called “digital immigrants” didn’t feel comfortable connecting with students through these technologies. (I’m not a huge fan of all the divisive labels and stereotyping, but it helps me explain the situation.) Even though almost all of the librarians and doctors I have met have been very encouraging and forward thinking, I now feel unsure of myself in a setting where these are not the norms for communication and my style might be seen as too casual in what I have always considered to be a very dignified and somewhat intimidating setting. I’m quite afraid that the friendly enthusiasm that people have praised in the past will come across as frivolous or even flippant. Any young librarian starting out is bound to be nervous in the first weeks of his or her job, I imagine, but preparing to work in a place where students are (rightfully) so serious and searches have real-life consequences that affect the health of others has been rather sobering to my usual jocular nature.
All that being said, and to answer the actual lesson questions, social networks are a great way to connect people and to give a human face to librarians. I’ve come to know so many wonderful librarians by starting to follow their blog and friending them on social networks. I even follow many of them on Twitter. All of the sudden, you not only know when she has a great idea for a service you can offer your patrons (right away without having to pay for a conference to hear her ideas) but you also know when her kid pours Sunny D down a police officer’s leg or which awesome new movie she’s seen, or even when she suffers a personal loss. And from this you can start a real conversation about librarianship or about other aspects of life. It’s been very rewarding for me personally.
I believe it’s also a great way to offer that human face to patrons. These tools can also be used to alert patrons to new services or resources, but I believe that it is a real value to just be there so that when they do have an information need, maybe they’ll say, “Oh yeah! I can call/chat/write/go to the library!” instead of, “Well, I guess we’ll never know.” or “Well, Google says…”
