by Ginnette Calvo
One of the aspects that interests me the most are the new roles in which librarians can perform, the Mortenson Center Associates Program has been the ideal platform to achieve this.
Librarians as Global Leaders: Sustainable Development
Libraries have evolved from spaces that provide information to more comprehensive spaces for collaboration and promotion of culture, values and social transformation.
According to Clara M. Chu, Director and Mortenson Distinguished Professor at the Mortenson Center, librarians have a fundamental role as peace builder, as leaders in the promotion of sustainable development and as a leaders working with community for social transformation (C.M. Chu, personal communication, May 29, 2018).
Examples of libraries as peace builder, leaders in sustainable development and working with communities for social transformation are:
- Providing support during crisis. An example of this is the Ferguson Municipal Public Library (FMPL).
- Supporting humanitarian causes. The initiative Libraries for Black Lives promotes equity for this population. The movement is led by library workers, advocates and archivists.
- Developing initiatives for collaboration. The Mortenson Center develops the Libraries for Peace initiative, “to strengthen international ties among libraries and librarians worldwide for the promotion of international education, understanding, and peace” (Libraries for Peace, 2018, para. 2). Source: Libraries for Peace. (2018). Libraries for Peace: a Initiative of the Mortenson Center [Website]. Retrieved from https://librariesforpeace.org/about/
This new approaches are in line with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which:
“are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity” (UNDP, 2018, para. 1).
Source: United Nations Development Programme [UNDP]. (2018). Sustainable Development Goals [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html
The idea is that governments around the world integrate the objectives in their agendas, for this the support of many people is needed and this is where librarians can provide a great help.
MORTENSON CONFERENCE ROOM, MAY 29, 2018.
Librarians in the marketplace intelligence
Liz Aviles is the Vice President of Market Intelligence at the Upshot Agency, a successful marketing agency. She is a graduate in Library and Information Science. A big part of her job is the “research for concept support”. Through this process, she provides the necessary information to support the company’ decision making in an specific concept or project. Therefore, one of the main library knowledge that she applied is the information retrieval.
The information is mainly retrieved from specialized databases that are acquired by the company. According to her, she must know a little about many things in order to be efficient in her work, and in order to achieve this, she stays daily updated on the new trends through continuous research.
UPSHOT AGENCY, JUNE 1, 2018.
Key lessons from Liz Aviles to succeed in the corporate environment:
- Align your priorities with your organization. It’s about what the company needs.
- Embrace strategy/ Not tradition. Be present, be heard.
- Be flexible and curious.
- Be a brand. Create your own brand (series of attitudes that define our style).
- Be a competitive advantage, be a resource for the company and be aware of the best practices.
- Have the ability to find patterns and trends (trend trackers).
- Consult other professionals.
- Be adaptive and strategist.
- Always go further, seek to contribute beyond the responsibilities.
- Actively get involved.
(L. Aviles, personal communication, June 1, 2018).
Librarians as trend trackers
Miguel Figueroa works in the Center for the Future of Libraries an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA). An important part of his job is identify new and emergent trends relevant to libraries and librarianship. Acording to the ALA, trends collection:
“Is available to help libraries and librarians understand how trends are developing and why they matter. Each trend is updated as new reports and articles are made available” (ALA, 2014, para. 1).
Source: American Library Association [ALA]. (August 8, 2014). Trends [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/tools/future/trends
According to Miguel, the new trends are related to the way in which librarians develop their work in an innovative way, either with technology or through the interaction between people (M. Figueroa, personal communication, May 31, 2018).
ALA, MAY 31, 2018.
To recover these tendencies, the following mechanisms are employed among others:
- Scanning newspapers and reports.
- Through the consultations about different topics that ALA’s members send to the Association.
- Through observation of the work of librarians.
My new learnings:
- Beyond the traditional role of the librarian characterized for providing bibliographic material, and solving queries, we need to be agents of change in our communities and participate actively to provide support on issues of great importance such as sustainable development, peace, equality, among others.
- Strategic alliances and collaborative work are vital to our work.
- We have to adapt to the changes, this requires: to develop new competences, to work interdisciplinarily, to keep ourselves updated permanently, to be trend trackers and to observe the best practices.
- Visualize ourselves as leaders and recognize the importance of our work, because what we do has an impact on our communities and we can make a difference.
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