The Internet has brought new duties and new organizational structures to traditional library jobs, but the mission remains the same

Julie James works for the Library of Virginia helping to bring technology to public libraries around the state. But when she headed off to library school in the early 1990s, James (on our cover) proudly brought along a manual typewriter. She went to graduate school for the same reasons would-be librarians have for generations—a desire to serve the public and a love of books and reading—not to play with a bunch of gadgets.

"We got USENET accounts, and that really grabbed me," James explains. "When my friend showed me how to get information on All My Children, I realized it's not all nerdy computer stuff." Text-based USENET may seem quaint now, but the web was just evolving. "Then they showed us what a clickable browser environment was—Mosaic was in development in Illinois—and I thought, 'This is going to be big.'"

Ten years after James entered library school, students are still enrolling for many of the same time-honored reasons. However, our daily duties and the tools used to achieve our goals have changed dramatically in the last decade. "It used to be that there were a few computers in a little room, and they were considered a separate part of service; only a few specialists knew the intricacies of Dialog searching," says James. "Now technology has penetrated every facet of library service, and every staff member has to know something about technology."

Those changes in turn have affected how we interact with and structure our organizations and how libraries are perceived by constituencies and funders. Often the new roles are built on old ones. Many of the changes have been situational, depending on the talents of the people at hand and the most pressing demands on scarce resources. Now that the new economy has gotten old, we can step back and take a snapshot of some of the different roles wrought by the Internet.

New titles

Front-line librarians and library administrators alike realize that in order to meet customer needs in 2002, most staff have to be available and trained to provide resources in both traditional print and digital formats. Plenty of librarians have integrated technology into their jobs without any change in their job description or title. The reference librarian uses the Internet, the online library catalog, and online databases to help patrons locate materials. She continues to do what she's always done; the change is in the tools she uses.

However, librarians are not just called librarians anymore. Increasingly their job responsibilities and titles provide a framework for the technological role that they play within the library. Professional journals and electronic mailing lists reflect these new roles. They are filled with openings for Technology Consultant, Technology Training Coordinator, Head of the Digital Information Literacy Office, Information Systems Librarian, Head of Computer Services, Webmaster, Cybrarian, and Internet Services Librarian.

Techie as teacher

In the old days it was called bibliographic instruction—librarians working with patrons to help them learn how to use the library catalog, indexes, and reference books successfully. Librarians still teach their customers these specific skills as well as their digital equivalents, like how to choose the right Internet search engine and how to build successful database queries. Now they also teach the mechanics of computing, from mouse skills to word processing. As Rachel Singer Gordon, cofounder of Bibliotech Consulting, says, "It's irresponsible of a library to put out computers for patrons but not provide any training on how to use those computers."

Even small public libraries provide classes to patrons on a wide array of technology-oriented topics. Director Arlene Sahraie, Fairview Public Library, NJ, says, "We never did any kind of training before the Internet. The teaching role the library staff have taken on is one of the biggest changes we've seen."

Reflecting others' concern, one librarian wonders, "How far can we go in forcing librarians to teach when it's not what they want to do?" Often, the job goes to those who see it as a chance to step in and possibly to move up, or to those who have previous teaching experience.

Stephanie Goodliffe, an instruction librarian at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, spent time in the classroom as a part of the Teach for America program. After getting her library degree and working as a children's librarian, it was a natural transition for her to move to an academic setting and teach students how to use library resources successfully. Goodliffe not only teaches students library research skills and basic computing, she also works with colleagues to develop lesson plans that other librarians use with students and provides training to co-workers on topics like teaching classes.

Training the trainers

Kate Todd is the technology training coordinator for New York Public Library's Click On project, which provides training for the public in many areas of technology. Currently, the training is primarily led by outside consultants, but the goal of the project is to have NYPL librarians lead the training. However, Click On staff discovered that many librarians do not have the skills required to organize, manage, and run computer training sessions.

The staff identified four areas in which librarians need help: lesson plan development, classroom management, classroom time management, and theories of learning style. In order to give librarians the requisite skills, NYPL is using grant funding to provide training and support to librarians. The funding enables librarians to attend sessions on training topics as well as to see their peers in action.

Small libraries face the same problems with fewer resources. Fairview PL's Sahraie worked with a teacher who is also a part-time library staffer to develop the training sessions. Once staff became comfortable with leading the training, Sahraie bowed out. Within a very short time after announcing the availability of Internet training sessions at the library, over 300 people signed up to take part, and interest has yet to abate. Moreover, Sahraie says her staff does plenty of on-the-fly technology training every day, as patrons come in looking for help with how to sign up for and use e-mail, search the web, and more.

Rebranding BI

While computer skills may be a new area of training, bibliographic instruction is alive and well but with a different name and a different focus. Information literacy is the byword, whether that means instruction in finding citations in print indexes or using an online database, searching the web, or sending an e-mail to get information. Singer Gordon notes, "The training librarians do now is a natural extension of bibliographic instruction. We are giving people what they need in order to find what they want."

The broader range of questions—and the broader range of knowledge needed to answer them—have simply accrued to virtually all public services librarians. In addition to fielding a wider range of questions from frustrated patrons coming up to the public services desks, librarians now must think about those who are using computers at home, at school, and in offices to locate information but who have no intention of walking into a library to get help. Because people are evaluating and using library resources both on- and offsite, librarians need to understand how to use the resources themselves, as well as how to present resources so others can use them successfully.

Now information systems librarian, Kurt Wagner started at William Patterson University in Wayne, NJ, as a reference librarian/publications coordinator. The publications evolved from pathfinders to webliographies to the library web site. Wagner's job progression makes sense as he continued to find ways to meet patrons' publication needs whether they used the library onsite or off. Still, he worries about being too distant from users and makes sure to spend two hours a week on the reference desk. There he can "see how people are using the interface, what kind of questions are being asked, how things might be improved." A library's web presence is a branch of the physical library, he believes, with managers who can provide information and resources based on user behaviors.

Building the virtual branch

The University of Texas system made an early and strong commitment to distance education and thereby created a constituency that knew the library's web site better than any of its buildings. To deal with those students' information literacy needs, the university created TILT (Texas Information Literacy Tutorial), a web-based bibliographic instruction program that can be run through once or referred back to when needed. It also has become popular with on-campus students.

Such a successful web site wasn't made by placing a few brochures online. "Developing online content is very different from development of print-based content," notes Elizabeth Dupuis, head of the Digital Information Literacy Office at UT-Austin. And, she says, for some reference librarians who just had this task added to their roster, it can be daunting.

Even with a strong knowledge of user behavior, librarians have discovered that developing online content often takes more skills than they learned either in school or on the job. Dupuis says that, as with most web site projects, building TILT mandated partnerships among the divisions of an organization. Librarians need the expertise of technologists, graphic designers, information architects, and content specialists to create web-based resources that can be used successfully by patrons.

Dupuis's prior experience as a reference and information services librarian at the University of Texas, where one of her main responsibilities was to act as liaison between academic computing and the library, gave her some useful experience for working successfully as part of a team. Now as head of the Digital Information Literacy Office, Dupuis is constantly working with other members of the academic community. While her boss is the head of the undergraduate library, Dupuis acknowledges that "less and less do I have one boss. The reporting structure is based more on a service and an idea rather than a specific chain of command." Depending on the project, Dupuis might report to a faculty member, department head, or another member of the library staff.

Teams take over

Though not a direct result of the demands of more technology, working in teams to develop programs and services is becoming the norm in larger public and academic libraries. Teams sometimes consist solely of library staff and sometimes comprise library staff as well as members of other departments within the community. Librarians today need "teamwork skills for planning and working in a fluid environment," says Carla Stoffle, dean of libraries, University of Arizona. "They must have skills to work with others to assess, plan, and build networks of the future. Teamwork needs to be built into library skills."

Kurt Wagner has seen the relationship between the library and the university's Information Services (IS) department grow and change over the past few years. "In the past, IS would install software and hardware, and library staff wouldn't have much input or say in the matter," Wagner says. Now that's changed. "IS and the library are partners. Library staff tell the IS department what their needs are, and the two departments come up with an appropriate solution."

The Darien Public Library, CT, has taken a proactive approach toward collaboration and teamwork. Darien PL developed and maintains the town web site. Library staff work with town staff as much as possible to gather and cultivate information. And several staff have made commitments to fostering new skills. One staff person at the library is primarily responsible for the town web site, but there are lots of webmasters on the library staff. "We have to have a webmaster on call all the time," says Director Louise Berry. "Emergency information could come in at any time, and it would need to be posted." The library provides cable modem access to those working from their homes so they can make changes when necessary. By being the point of action for the town web site, the library is now the town's focal point for community information.

Flattening the organization

In some cases, the increased use of teams has brought a reconsideration of the library's organizational structures. "Libraries don't have the time to use traditional hierarchical systems to train people," says Arizona's Stoffle. "In the past, for example, you were a reference librarian, then head of a subunit, then head of a department, and so on up the chain. Only going through the system did you learn the skills necessary to do the job. Now libraries have to have everybody able to lead projects and be members of project teams. The old system trained too few people."

Stoffle and her staff at the University of Arizona watch patterns of use and staff accordingly to maximize customer service and access. Some may not like the idea that temps assist staff at particularly busy times. The upside is that people are often hired at a higher classification level than in the past, and their raises are based on their learning and their application of that learning.

One of the prime examples of the flattening of the organizational structure is frequently seen in who creates and maintains a library's web site. "Maybe the page in the library does the web site because she's the only person in the library who knows how to do it," observes Julie James.

The advent of the computer maven

In the best of all worlds, the person managing the technology would have both library and systems skills. However, it is still uncommon to find librarians who have a strong enough IT background. Bibliotech's Singer Gordon calls herself an "accidental systems librarian." She was a reference librarian when she fell into her job as head of computer services at the Franklin Park Library, IL. She saw that the library's technology needed to be managed and no one else was doing it. She ended up handling the library's NT network, providing tech support, and developing and maintaining the library's web site.

At the same time, she continued to work on the library's reference desk. However, she realized soon that she needed a new job description. She worked with the library administration to create a new department—Computer Services—which she would head up as its sole staff member. The change in job description not only clarified Singer Gordon's duties but also led to a salary increase and raised her placement on the library's organizational chart.

Such opportunities have spread with the spread of the PC. "Even in the smallest libraries someone has to take care of the computers," says Singer Gordon. More than just having a finite skill set in putting together a local area network, for instance, those who rise outside the confines of traditional hierarchies are the self-taught techies who continue to learn and think about the place of technology in libraries. "Library directors need to have someone on staff or someone they can consult with informally to talk about the implications of their technology decisions," says Carson Block, technology consultant at the High Plains Regional Library System, CO.

The outsourcing option

Libraries without technology-savvy staff often outsource computer maintenance, upgrades, and other demanding tasks. Outsourcing can be more efficient when those who provide the service have years of specialized technical expertise. On the other hand, outsourcing arrangements might mean that a library has to wait for its computers to be fixed. "Losing immediacy is the biggest danger of outsourcing," Block says.

There is also danger in hiring a technology company that doesn't understand how libraries work or having staff who are unable to handle simple forms of technology troubleshooting. "Staff can't be afraid of the machinery," says Fairview PL's Sahraie. "We must have staff who can do the troubleshooting—fix paper jams, put ink cartridges in, etc." Sahraie relies on the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS), which is able to draw on experience in both worlds.

Guy Dobson, the Internet services librarian at BCCLS, has worked in public, medical, academic, school, and private libraries and has gone from typing cards for book pockets to customizing the consortium's web catalog. What Dobson thinks is important, however, is his origin as a traditional library/book person. He knows what is required to provide good service to patrons.

Unforseen opportunities

"Five years ago, it never would have occurred to me that I would be doing what I am doing," says Dobson. Today patrons expect their libraries to provide technological information solutions both on- and offsite. In turn, librarians need to be ready to learn new techniques and tools in order to provide training onsite or online, develop new programs or services as a part of a team, or learn how a particular piece of hardware or software works.

Dobson was able to change and grow as his own interests and the needs of BCCLS members changed. Several of the librarians interviewed for this article had similar experiences. Owing to their own sense of curiosity, interest in learning, and support from administration, they were able to rethink their jobs and the kind of work they wanted to do in libraries. As Julie James says, "It's an opportunity for us to become even more relevant."

Reprinted with permission from Library Journal

Original article on the Library Journal's site