Competency B

Introduction

Information professionals have a plethora of roles and places of employment they can pursue for a career. There are naturally some broad areas of overlap between them. For instance, one requirement librarians of all types have in common, no matter the setting in which they work, is to serve their organization’s strategic goals and mission. They share some of the same essential skills and experience, too. In one survey, special and corporate librarians identified 10 core competencies such as “search skills, . . . evaluating and selecting information resources, . . . the reference interview/question negotiation, and cultural competence” (Davis & Saunders, 2020, p. 772). These are skills that are possible to acquire in a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program.

However, even these similarities can reveal differences. At the heart of Competency B is the message that in order to choose the organizational setting that is right for me and to not only succeed but thrive in that environment, I must have a broad awareness of what those settings are and how they are similar to and different from one another. Below I examine three types of libraries—public, academic, and special—and call out some key factors an information professional working in those environments should be familiar with.

Public Libraries

Public libraries serve a much wider variety of patrons than most other libraries, with a clientele that spans all ages, races, and socio-economic backgrounds within the community. Because of the community-centric nature of these institutions, public library mission statements typically express commitments to ideals “such as lifelong learning, access, trust, reliability, and nonbias” (Crawford Barniskis, 2016, p. 150). The mission statement delineates the boundaries of the library’s areas of service, policies, etc., and Crawford Barniskis argued that “public libraries should allow users to help determine where those boundaries are—with users inside them—while retaining foundational LIS principles such as open access and intellectual freedom” (p. 149).

Libraries of all types must perform outreach and market their services to their clientele, but public libraries do not have built-in audiences the way academic libraries do with students and professors, or the way many special libraries do with employees of the library’s parent institution. Thus, public librarians in particular must continuously be on the lookout for programming opportunities to keep existing patrons interested in the library and to reach out to, win over, and serve new audiences. One way to do both is through exhibits and partnerships, which can bring the library to patrons instead of waiting for patrons to come to them.

This lack of a built-in audience also both provides greater opportunity and puts greater pressure on public libraries to bring people together and build communities. This includes serving as a community center for the general public in the area as well as connecting members of different information communities within the larger populace.

Building communities can also earn patron loyalty, which can be important for building support for funding public libraries. As public libraries get much of their money from taxpayer dollars (or euros, or pesos, etc.), their budgets are subject to reductions during economic downturns or due to shifts in the political landscape, among other causes.

Academic Libraries

Academic libraries sit in a middle ground between public and special libraries. Like public libraries, their budgets—especially those of libraries at public universities and colleges—can take a hit when taxpayer revenue declines. However, academic libraries can be more like special libraries in that they serve a more limited clientele, and with a narrower scope—in this case, providing a teaching and research support function to an audience of students and researchers.

To meet the needs of these learners and teachers, the academic library must be deeply ingrained in the school. It must know which subjects the student body and staff are most interested in, as well as particular challenges or developments the institution and its people are encountering or expecting to encounter. For example, according to English (2011), “As academic libraries extend their digital reach, more students are increasingly relying on librarians to overcome geographical barriers” (p. 22) through tools such as screencasting.

How well the academic library performs these functions could help determine its funding, which it competes for against other departments including unrelated ones such as athletics. Logic dictates that academic libraries can help their cause by aligning their mission statements with the organizational goals of the institution to which they belong, the way special libraries do. However, Million and Haggerty (2020) found “that library mission statements aligned more closely with universities than athletic departments, but libraries received less investment” (p. 192). The mission statements showed this alignment by focusing on core university ideals such as service, teaching, and research (p. 198).

Part of the problem is that “athletics provided a way to recruit students and raise money” (Million & Haggerty, 2020, p. 200) in ways academic libraries do not. To remedy the situation, the authors recommended academic libraries engage in “aggressive marketing and stakeholder outreach” (p. 201), which is a tactic employed by many special libraries, as well as staying “open to alternative revenue generating strategies” (p. 202), such as direct donations or being allocated a portion of revenue from athletic ticket sales.

Special Libraries

Special libraries can be much more difficult to define than public or academic libraries, as there is no set size, structure, scope, audience, venue, purview, etc. that all such institutions have in common. This has not stopped some from attempting to set some boundaries around the term, however. Notably, Crumpton and Porter-Fyke (2016) took their cue from “Bierbaum to define a special library as having four key components: (1) an organized, accessible collection; (2) a dedicated space within its organization; (3) information services actively provided to the library’s community; and (4) at least one staff member in charge of overseeing the library’s functions” (p. 152). Even those authors, however, acknowledged that “the scope of this term [special library] can be very large and the meaning ambiguous” (p. 152).

Perhaps more so than public and academic libraries, a special library must have a mission statement that ties into the goals of their parent organization. Whereas public and academic library mission statements might focus just on the services they provide to patrons, Affelt (2011) wrote that “corporate libraries’ mission statements should convey not only which services will be provided, but also the many ways users will benefit from them” (p. 154). This allows the library to show its value compared to other options the institution might consider in lieu of a special library, such as contract services.

Special librarians must also obtain some different skills compared to what their public and academic colleagues need. Not only must they build standard MLIS competencies, they must also acquire skills specific to whichever industry their organization falls under. Crumpton and Porter-Fyke (2016) wrote that “Since special librarians deal with a different set of duties, skills and strategies, it is difficult to prepare students for every eventuality” (p. 159). The authors wrote that “Because special library careers are often concentrated on a particular subject matter, employers are increasingly asking for a second higher degree from future employees” (p. 160), a requirement beyond the means of many.

Special libraries are also often in a more tenuous position compared to public and academic libraries. While acknowledging that there is no definitive evidence on the matter, Shumaker (2012) asserted that “the perception that there is a trend toward the closure of specialized libraries, especially in the for-profit sector, has been prevalent in the literature in the first decade of the 21st century” (p. 101). In a survey of zoo and aquarium libraries, Barr (2005) wrote that “All too often the library, though important to the functioning and indeed the accreditation of the institution, is seen as nonessential to the day-to-day operations” (p. 72). Barr said that most such libraries have small staffs, and “Even institutions with professional librarians often expect that person to perform other duties as well” (p. 84).

Despite this, special libraries and librarians play vital roles in many institutions, just as academic libraries do in their colleges and universities and public libraries do in their communities. Barr (2005), in the paper on zoo and aquarium libraries, claimed that “A well-stocked, well-staffed library is crucial in providing needed information in an accessible and timely manner to all staff, according to their various functions” (p. 73), while according to Crumpton and Porter-Fyke (2016), “the benefits special libraries bring to non-library and non-educational organizations show the value of the MLIS degree in preparing professionals who can work across institutional boundaries and bring their services to the populace” (p. 163).

Conclusion

Spink and Cole (2006) noted that library and information science (LIS) research has moved from focusing on active information-seeking activities to starting with a consideration of the human problems that lead to information seeking in the first place. My coursework has given me the tools I need to investigate and identify these human problems no matter what type of organizational setting I might work in. However, I also learned about the similarities and differences between those various information settings, as well as some of the different roles therein. Armed with this knowledge, I will be able to gain a holistic understanding not only of the institution and environment in which I’m working but also of the clientele, which together will allow me to better serve both the organizational mission and the needs of those who come seeking help.

References

Affelt, A. (2011). Best practices for aligning the mission and marketing the services of the corporate library. In S. E. Kelsey & M. J. Porter (Eds.), Best practices for corporate libraries (pp. 153–166). ABC-CLIO. https://publisher-abc-clio-com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/9781598847383/168

Barr, D. (2005). Zoo and aquarium libraries: An overview and update. Science & Technology Libraries, 25(3), 71–87. https://doi.org/10.1300/J122v25n03_05

Crawford Barniskis, S. (2016). Deconstructing the mission: A critical content analysis of public library mission statements. Library Quarterly, 86(2), 135–152. https://doi.org/10.1086/685403

Crumpton, B.E., & Porter-Fyke, E. (2016). The special library: Applicability and usefulness of the MLIS in non-traditional library settings. The Bottom Line, 29(3), 151–165. https://doi.org/10.1108/BL-04-2016-0017

Davis, R., & Saunders, L. (2020). Essential skills for corporate and special librarians. Journal of Library Administration, 60(7), 762–783. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2020.1786984

English, Z. (2011). Using screencasting technology to help patrons navigate databases. Florida Libraries, 54(2), 20–22. https://search-ebscohost-com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lls&AN=525576478&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Million, A. J., & Haggerty, K. (2020). An exploratory study of organizational alignment in U.S. academic libraries. Qualitative & Quantitative Methods in Libraries, 9(2), 191–205. https://search-ebscohost-com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lls&AN=144571653&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Shumaker, D. (2012). The embedded librarian: Innovative strategies for taking knowledge where it’s needed. Information Today, Inc.

Spink, A., & Cole, C. (2006). Human information behavior: Integrating diverse approaches and information use. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57, 25–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20249