Man, I was so intensely terrified in my second year of grad school — scared I wouldn’t get a job, scared I wouldn’t get a good job, scared I’d have to make lattes for a living, scared I’d be bad at everything, all the time. And then, when I took my new job, I was scared of the business world, scared I’d suck at this new gig, scared of the professional and lifestyle changes, scared I’d hate Sales. No more being scared, Meg! I’m not dodging bombs or performing brain surgery blindfolded. There really is no reason to be so scared. Also, everything worked out, I love my job and the work I do, and I haven’t had to make a single latte in years. All that fear was really unjustified, and didn’t get me anywhere. Silly.

I spoke with three other librarian people, all of whom had some really valuable things to say as well. One important theme that arose was the need to have, and to be — a mentor. Mentorship is huge, and it’s so key to passing on insights and good judgement from one generation of librarians to the next.

Another theme that came up was the myth that you have to figure out what type of library sector you want to work in for the rest of your life right now and go with it, because you can never ever leave that field to go do something else. Um, what? That’s just crazy talk. Transferable skills are easy to come by in our profession, and organizations love to hire people with an outsider’s perspective. Stay engaged with the profession, know how to talk the talk (one library’s company research is a other library’s prospect research is another library’s competitive intelligence), and you’ll go places.

Another important thing we discusses was the need to always advocate for yourself. Ask questions, be confident of the value you bring to your organization, show off your achievements, let people know how keen you are and what good ideas you have. Good things happen when new librarians speak up and assert themselves in the field.

It was a great evening, and I learned a lot. There are some really smart, dynamic, creative students coming out of the iSchool right now, so watch out. And if you’re in a position to hire new librarians — take note!

UPDATE: My friend (from the Internet, we’ve concluded that we don’t think we’ve ever *actually* met) Graham Lavender posted a refined view of my original statement. He says, you can’t stop being scared. But what’s important is this: “Don’t let being scared stand in your way.” Read his response here. Thanks, Graham for your insights!

Image from the Library Juice Press website, libraryjuicepress.com.

An interesting read awaits me! Once I figure out how to buy a book that I am QUITE CERTAIN will not be at Chapters anytime soon I am buying The Politics of Professionalism: A Retro-Progressive Proposal for Librarianship by Juris Dilevko. He is a professor at the Faculty of Information (and from whom I took a fantastic class called “Literature of the Social Sciences and Humanities”), and has published a most controversial book on the shortcomings of library education. A shortcoming, he argues, that has resulted in a profession distracted by fleeting technologies, preoccupied with professional advancement,and unconcerned with “the possession of meaningful knowledge that can be turned toward social good.”

WELL.

The first chapter is online (Merci a Monica for sharing that information), and is an enticing read for those among us who care about library education. Which is me. Why? I dunno. But I’ve blogged about the issue before. And I’m NOT EVEN IN LIBRARY SCHOOL ANYMORE.

I think I agree with some of what he says regarding subject knowledge, and the need for more reflective thinking in our profession. But I wonder about where many of my colleagues fit into his vision of librarianship, i.e. Librarians who work with eLearning, or digital initiatives, or information systems. I’ve seen what happens when those arenas are left to non-librarian technical teams, and it ain’t pretty. Or those who manage the libraries, and worry about glamorous things like who’s going to cover the desk when everyone is on vacation, or where we’re going to get the money for more computers. I wonder about where they fit in. But perhaps those questioned will be answered in Chapters 2 through 6.

“As a recent MISt graduate and new academic librarian, this experience allowed me to gain invaluable insights about the newest trends in my field, giving me a significant advantage as I attempt to establish myself as a new librarian. The CLA Conference allowed me to see myself in this new profession, and gave me guidance for where to focus my own research and programming efforts. Furthermore, presenting at the poster session was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed the exercise of seeing through a research project that involved survey-creation, collection, analysis and synthesis of the research for our presentation, and it allowed me to network with others in the field, to create key professional relationships, and learn more about the vendors and their presence in librarianship. I’m very appreciative of FIAA for providing generous financial support for what was an excellent professional opportunity.”

I read a fascinating article in the New York Times several weeks ago, which I’m eager to write about – and not just to show-off the fact that I read the New York Times.

The op-ed “End of University as We Know It” is written by Mark Taylor, chairman of the religion department at Colombia University (Read it! It’s a fascinating piece). He argues that academia is broken, and has several recommendations for how to fix it. He states that the current arrangement of faculties creates divisions where there should be collaboration. Faculty encourage their graduate students to pursue research within narrow areas of work –subfields within subfields within subfields – ultimately robbing these students of an opportunity for a real stab at a teaching position upon graduation. These students are attempting to enter academia at a point when there is a glut of graduates and a diminishing number of openings, and they are completing doctoral work without a broad understanding of the field they’ve been studying, or the implications of their research beyond their own area of study (Taylor tells of attending a meeting of political scientists who had gathered to discuss why international relations theory had never considered the role of religion in society. “Given the state of the world today,” he writes, “this is a significant oversight.” Uh, yeah dude. I’d say so).

Taylor calls for a radical restructuring of academia to bring renewed vitality and relevance to the research and education that take place in institutions of higher learning. A few of them really resonated with me, and touch on the kinds of issues I’ve been thinking about throughout these past two years as a graduate student. Some of the recommendations Taylor makes mirror closely my own experiences at the University of Toronto. For example, he calls for a restructuring of the curriculum, such that the traditional division of departments is replaced with a curriculum structured like a web, which fosters cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural initiatives. Bring together scholars from religion, politics, history, economics, anthropology, sociology, literature, art, and philosophy to engage in comparative analysis of common problems, rather than analyzing various topics through a single lens.

Moreover, Taylor asserts the need to abolish permanent departments, and create problem-focused programs, which rise and fall with changing societal challenges and developments. Taylor sees these zones of inquiry including topics such as Mind, Body, Law, Information, Networks, Language, Space, Time, Media, Money, Life, or Water. This recommendation is particularly salient for me – I just graduated from the Faculty of Information – a school that brings together faculty members with backgrounds in the humanities, computer science, politics and policy, library and information science, cognitive science, philosophy, and probably some others, to study Information in all its manifestations. There are some growing pains pertaining to the faculty’s move from a traditional LIS school to an Information School – Alumni worried about the place of libraries within this new faculty, concern about increased focus on business or commercial interests rather than the values upon which libraries and library schools were built, general discontent among students who feel like cash-cow casualties of these radical changes, etc. But if Taylor’s assertions are correct, it was a wise move that will eventually breakdown the barriers of departments and faculties in the Ivory Towers (and in doing so, hopefully quell the concerns of alumni, students, and faculty).

And in fact, support for this type of faculty was echoed at the 2009 CLA Annual Conference I attended in May. Joseph Janes – keynote presenter at the conference, and faculty member at the University of Washington’s Faculty of Information – asserted that “iSchools” benefit from the rich interactions and cross-disciplinary opportunities not found at a “traditional” LIS school. He said simply (and I paraphrase), “I wouldn’t teach at a school that didn’t have people studying Information beyond the traditionalLIS scope. I want to be with people who study policy, usability and other non-library topics.” So, a guy who studies traditional LIS topics, self-identifies as a librarian, and who wants to be at an Information School. Pretty sound endorsement.

But back to Mark Taylor: He identifies the need among graduate school educators to expand the range of professional options for graduate students; they need to be prepared to enter jobs in businesses or non-profit organizations, since most will not stay in academia throughout the duration of their career. They need the skills and knowledge to prepare them for the work world and it’s real-life challenges. As a student who lobbied for the last two years to get a co-op at U of T’siSchool, I couldn’t agree more. While I think I received a pretty chilly response from those in the faculty, members of academia need to recognize the rich interactions and partnerships that can occur with highly skilled graduates who appreciate both the theoretical knowledge and practical experiences they got during their education. It’s not selling-out, it’s reality, and students need venues in which to exercise the valuable lessons from classroom.

So – some thoughts on the academy. Issues I’m sure I’ll continue to ponder in my role as an academic librarian.

We are extremely pleased to announce the third volume of the Faculty of Information Quarterly: The Housing Memory Conference Proceedings (http://fiq.ischool.utoronto.ca/index.php/fiq)!

This issue is the collection of articles submitted from presenters of the Housing Memory conference, held at the Faculty of Information during March, 2009. The event – which brought together students from across North America, and featured a keynote address from Geoffrey Bowker of Santa Clara University – was a great success, and the provocative, compelling presentations given are captured through these proceedings.

The theme of the conference was meant to bring together and showcase the diversity of work done by graduate students in the Information community. The theme, “housing memory,” allowed for an exploration of memory and its manifestations in forms such as archives, libraries, museums, information systems, texts, and material or digital artefacts. This broad area of inquiry considered the implications of the institutionalization of memory, and engaged issues such as policy, practice, politics, history and technology. These themes – brought together in an exciting, vibrant conference – are echoed in these fascinating and reflective works.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the journal, please contact fiquarterly@fis.utoronto.ca.

Sincerely,

Meghan Ecclestone,

Past-Managing Editor

Faculty of Information Quarterly

Table of Contents:

Guest Editorial
Ania Dymarz, Monica Rettig, Conference Organizers

Articles

‘The Sun was Obscured by the Smoke of Books’: Libraries and Memory Institutions in Conflict Since the End of the Cold War
Bruce Harpham

Unity in Diversity: Multiculturalism, Nationalism and the Representation of History in the Slovak National Museum
Justin Joque

“We’d Lose Our Shirt!”: How Canada’s Cultural Policy Has Shaped the Canadian Literary Canon
Rebecka Sheffield

The People’s Papers? A Comparison of the Treatment of Government Leaders’ Records in Canada and the U.S.
Katharine Dunn

Subject Headings (Mis)Informing Memory
Margaret Peachy

District Six Museum’s Critical Pedagogy: Making Spaces to Heal Community Memories
Laura Gibson

Into the “Immortal Well”: Uses of Time Capsules in the Present
Emily Beliveau

Food Conjures Memory: Making Memory in the Museum
Zella Llerena

Naked Memory: The Spencer Tunick Experience in the Museum Space
Valentine Moreno

Performance as Exhibit: When Edward Curtis met the Kwak-waka’wakw
Hannah Turner

Making the record from memory: A case for documenting the personal
Vivian Wong

Memory and Knowledge in Organizations
Meghan Ecclestone

Patterns of Remembering on Résumés
Ferhan Tunagur

I went to some very interesting sessions where – true to form – I obsessively took notes on the various topics covered. My friends Ania, Monica, Bruce and I participated in the poster session, in which we presented on new student initiatives at the Faculty of Information. Ania and Monica discussed the brilliant success of the Housing Memory student conference, Bruce discussed his launch of the iSchool Podcast, and I covered the work done with the Faculty of Information Quarterly. People were very receptive to our work (librarians are so nice, seriously), and were keen to talk about the initiatives and technologies we used to achieve these projects. It was good practice for the CLA poster session in which I will be participating at the end of May. Key factors in poster session success: poster design, logistics, and being shameless about passing along your handouts.

The conference was a great opportunity to connect with the other Toronto universities (it seems there are nearly as much collaborative and sharing opportunities among the three schools as their ought to be…), and a neat dynamic the big ol’ schools (hello York and UofT @ St. George), and their nimble little counterparts (enter Ryerson, UofT @ Mississauga, and U of T @ Scarborough). Like a family reunion!

I’ll post more about the specific sessions in some subsequent postings – there was lots of neat stuff discussed in areas around information literacy and research help that I’d like to pick up on as I embark on my work at York. Monica, Ania, and Bruce have already written far-more reflective and insightful postings on their own blogs which are worth checking out. All in all: A lovely, thought-provoking day.

UPDATE: Here is what our poster looked like! Doesn’t seem like much in this little space, but it was very lovely in real life.

I have been on temporary hiatus from this poor, neglected blog throughout the past semester. This is because I have been so busy at school, that all I want to do when I come home at night is: 1) Eat a delicious dinner, and 2) Allow my tired brain to be washed over with the mindlessness of prime-time television. Glorious, glorious television!

One interesting project that kept me busy was a presentation for the Housing Memory Student Conference, at the Faculty of Information. This conference was organized by two incredible students, Ania and Monica, who single-handedly organized the event, complete with 24 panelists, a brilliant keynote from information science superstar, Geoffrey Bowker (you can listen to the podcast of his presentation from the iSchool Podcast website here), and a roundtable with a whole bunch of really smart people, who discussed, “memory and its architectural manifestation in archives, libraries, museums, information systems and material and digital artifacts.” Can you IMAGINE doing all that while going to school full-time and working? Good lord.

Anyway: The overarching theme of “housing memory” was an attempt to facilitate broad discussion about how we store, preserve, and institutionalize memory – be it individual, collective, organizational, national, or cultural in nature. The topics were absolutely freaking fascinating, and I was literally excited to hear the presentations. I’m not normally the type of person who gets hyperactive about archival theory, ya know? But I moderated a panel on Memory and Conflict, which included discussion of the Pinochet regime and archives; Apartheid and museums; and libraries in times of war, and I could barely sit still because I was getting so excited. About ideas. And not House. It was awesome (find the abstracts for these presentations here).

My own topic (which, frankly, does get me pretty excited, but that’s just my dorkdom shining through), was part of a panel called, “Collecting, Sharing and… Forgetting?” in which I explored the role of organizational memory, and the challenge of effectively capturing and sharing “tacit knowledge” within companies. Tacit knowledge is the stuff you know, but can’t write down. It’s like riding a bike, or enjoying art – you might know how to do those things, but you can’t just tell someone how to do it. I argued that this type of knowledge – paramount to organizational success – can be exchanged through Communities of Practice, mentorships and storytelling. I was pretty much terrified throughout the presentation and don’t remember much of what I said/did, but it was an awesome experience, and the Q+A period afterwards was an excellent exchange that forced me to really think about my research in this area. I mean, I didn’t get to talk about the radical potential for emancipation through cultural and information institutions or anything. But still. T’was a lovely learning experience.

Those panellists who submitted their papers will be published in the Faculty of Information Quarterly next month (we’re slogging through the editorial process right now). Oh man, I really starting to feel like a real-life grown-up academic person or something!

Everyone who went to the conference said it was incredible; there was a buzz in the air of the Claude Bissell building, and everything went off without a hitch. It was a fantastic experience, and I really hope it becomes an annual event at the iSchool. Yay Ania and Monica!

The Faculty of Information Quarterly (F/IQ) is live and in the the Internets! I’m pretty excited. This first edition takes on a very diffent format than subsequent ones: We got a bunch of interviews with professors from the Faculty of Information to get their views of our faculty’s recent integration in the “iSchool” caucus – the move from a tradition LIS/Archives school to this new information school format has produced some really interesting insights and discussion. We’re hoping that this faculty-driven content will spark lots of thought and debate from students in the coming editions (students: be sure to submit!!).

Check it out here: fiq.ischool.utoronto.ca

Hooray!

What better way to try and fill those gaps than with an academic journal (I just don’t think a Martini Mixer would have taken care of it… though now that I think of it, a Martini Mixer sounds like a great idea…)? A means to help develop this emerging discipline and refine our own understandings of information and its study. I-schools are distinct movements away from our traditional notions of the library and information science field, and I’d like to help smoothen the transition from one to the other. Luckily, there are a handful of like-minded students, so we are taking on the task! Our mission statement reads as follows:

The Faculty of Information Quarterly is an editor-reviewed, open-source e-journal committed to the critical study of information and textual objects.Edited by students and faculty of the University

of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, the journal seeks to provide an environment for the voices of senior and emerging scholars, and in some cases from practitioners in field, regarding the changing shape of the information profession. Meeting the challenges and redefining many of the traditional understandings of the study of information, the journal encourages broad interdisciplinary engagement and fresh critical perspectives that will extend the conversation within and beyond the field.
FIQ encourages submissions from a broad constellation of works on the study of the text, including but not limited to: archival science, book history and print culture, critical theory, cultural informatics, cultural studies, health informatics, information studies, information systems, library science, museum studies, and technology studies.

The journal aims to bring together the voices and readership of both reflective practitioners and scholars working from within the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences, and fine arts. To this

end, FIQ will be comprised primarily of original research, book reviews, occasional guest editorials, and interviews with senior scholars.

Once our website is established, I’ll be sure to post the information here. Wish us all luck!