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Aaron Swartz Was Right – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Aaron Swartz Was Right – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

February 25, 2013

Aaron Swartz Was Right

Aaron Swartz Was Right 1

Katherine Streeter for The Chronicle Review

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By Peter Ludlow

The suicide of the Internet wunderkind Aaron Swartz has given rise to a great deal of discussion, much of it centered on whether the penalty sought against him by the prosecutor was proportional to his “crime.”

The consensus so far has been that Swartz did something wrong by accessing and releasing millions of academic papers from the JSTOR archive. But perhaps it is time to ask whether Swartz did in fact act wrongly. We might entertain the possibility that Swartz’s act of civil disobedience was an attempt to help rectify a harm that began long ago. Perhaps he was not only justified in his actions but morally impelled to act as he did. Moreover, we too might be morally impelled to take action.

To put it bluntly, the current state of academic publishing is the result of a series of strong-arm tactics enabling publishers to pry copyrights from authors, and then charge exorbitant fees to university libraries for access to that work. The publishers have inverted their role as disseminators of knowledge and become bottlers of knowledge, releasing it exclusively to the highest bidders. Swartz simply decided it was time to take action.

He laid the philosophical groundwork back in 2008, in an essay entitled “Guerilla Open Access Manifesto.”

Read more…

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Library Careers: Information Organization and Retrieval, Customer Service and More

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Library Careers: Information Organization and Retrieval, Customer Service and More.

by Miranda J. McDermott, Grand Concourse February 14, 2013

Like most people, I never thought I would be a librarian while I was growing up. I tossed around a few ideas periodically: horse trainer, accountant, or psychologist, but I ultimately switched to library science while I was in graduate school. Why? I like working with people, but I do not necessarily want to be a clinical psychologist. I love working in a large urban public library system, providing services to those who need it most. I love working with kids, doing story times, and working at a research library on Sunday. I enjoy blogging and the excellent literary programs that NYPL staff and visiting presenters produce. I have been a librarian since 2003, and I have met a few people who are in library school or who have library degrees and were searching for jobs. This is a blog post for them. Read article….

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Academic Librarian Mentoring Project : An ACRL-NY Initiative

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The page showcases stories and articles written by participants in the Mentoring Program.

The Mentoring Experience by Kayla Shifrin

I’m halfway through the ACRL-NY Mentoring Program and so far I’ve found it very valuable, but not entirely for the reasons I expected. Recently I shadowed my mentor – Monica Berger of CUNY’S New York City College of Technology (City Tech) – as she staffed the reference desk on a busy Saturday afternoon. In the brief lulls between student questions, we spoke a great deal about the topics I expected to cover: the next career steps, what professional organizations to join, what to expect from an academic library career. But Monica also advised me on some more intangible subjects that were especially interesting because they weren’t part of my library school education.

Library school is all about discussing hypothetical situations that are frequently heightened or extreme. A knowledgeable scholar asks you a difficult reference question; you have to catalog a rare book that doesn’t appear in any standard bibliography; there’s a hurricane and you have to rescue the collection with the help of two interns and a bucket. Talking through these scenarios is excellent practice for real librarianship. But what’s left out are the average ‘daily grind’ sorts of experiences, and how real academic libraries may differ from the imaginary – and sometimes idealized – academic libraries used as classroom examples. Read more…

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Managing Your Career in a Negative Environment – Library Worklife:

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This article is from the February 2013 issue.

By Mandy R. Simon

Many of the colleagues I’ve spoken to lately have alluded to having a similar problem in their work environments, regardless of organizational size or type: rampant negativity from co-workers. Workplace negativity is insidious and can feel downright inescapable. As the old-timey educational movie reels explain about tooth decay and drug addiction, negativity can seep into an organization unannounced and threaten to discourage even the most motivated and enthusiastic leaders. How does one manage their career in such a climate? Here are some tips I’ve found useful for staying buoyant in a pessimistic sea.

Maintain organizational awareness and self-awareness.
Buy into the vision and mission of your organization. Then ask yourself, where do you fit? Take a self-inventory of what is within and outside of your control. Where can you positively contribute and what skills do you have that can positively influence others (who may also be feeling the ill-effects of a negative environment)? Focus on the things you can change and improve. Go where you can do your best work. Pay attention to your co-workers. Encourage those who are working towards their own goals. Praise them on projects they initiate and effort they’re putting forth. They may not be getting recognition for their efforts, either. If you see someone doing a good job, acknowledge it. Encouragement isn’t reserved for managers and supervisors.

Find a friend.
Find a supportive friend with whom you can commiserate and allow yourself a certain amount of time to complain. Then, stop. Each of you is responsible to pull the other out of the negativity drain. Make a commitment to acknowledge when enough-is-enough and the conversation needs to turn around. Periodically remind each other about the organization’s mission. Get to know each other’s career aspirations so you can remain on the lookout for opportunities as they arise and seem to fit each other’s professional goals. Be a cheerleader for this person and vouch for their competencies and successes when you can. Read more…

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Essential Soft Skills | Office Hours

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By on February 20, 2013 3 Comments

Are we preparing graduates for the information workplace? That’s a question I recently considered while reading Paul Fain’s article “Grading Personal Responsibility” in Inside Higher Ed (12/13/12). He describes a new initiative at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, NC, emphasizing as part of the curriculum “soft skills,” including personal responsibility, interdependence, and emotional intelligence.

These are important concepts to consider, and I wonder just how much emphasis is placed on these types of skills as students move through our programs. Are LIS grads as work-ready as they could be? Are there some soft skills particularly necessary in information ­professions?

Consider the following soft skills essential for our libraries and information centers.

Communication

A given, right? It should be a tremendous concern if a student is graduating without experience communicating via the written word, as a participant in a conversation or group meeting, as a presenter in front of groups, and online within various interactive channels. Clear, concise writing no matter what the format—memo, proposal, brief, email, blog post, Facebook posting, Tweet—is paramount. A focus on literacy, in every sense of the word, should be crucial as students move toward their degree.

Initiative

I would also stress the willingness to speak up and be heard. New librarians are often too silent. Of course, they shouldn’t be annoying or act as know-it-alls—those traits are career killers—but they should be willing to submit ideas up the chain, talk to higher-level administrators when they can, and use their communication skills to make themselves heard, recognized, and appreciated. They should join teams, even during probationary periods, and submit ideas for efficiencies and improvements. With money tight and staff limited, any good administrator is going to welcome this type of new librarian.

We don’t have the luxury to have new hires wait for detailed step-by-step assignments or direction. Librarians should take their projects and run with them and have the support of their administration to do so. Is the student who asks multiple questions about every detail of an assignment destined to be the hesitant micromanager hooked on having meetings with little tangible outcomes? Read more…

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