#libday4: Day in the Life… Project

January 25, 2010 – 8:34 pm | by lindybr1

#libday4 has been a very popular tag in the library world today.

Eh?

#libday 4 = A Day in the Life of a Librarian, Round 4.

Ah ha!

I remember when Bobbi Newman first wrote about her day in the life of a librarian, just over a year and a half ago. It has grown exponentially since then. All it took was one blog post about her day… then it quickly grew into a wiki where others shared their stories… and today I noticed a Day-in-the-Life netvibes page filled with all sorts of social-sharing goodness from twitter, delicious, flickr, friendfeed, etc.

I recommend all MLIS/MLS programs incorporate it into their introduction to the information professions classes. Information/Library science students can learn about real people straight from their own writings rather than from static handouts filled with random charts or book chapters dryly explaining librarian-related tasks.

[Think of this vs. this].

I wanted to write more about how grateful I am to everyone who shared information about their day, allowing others to take a peek into their daily professional lives. I had many thoughts in my head about why this project was a brilliant idea, but I can’t say it any better than Erin Dorney (see blog: Library Scenester).

I especially like her idea of some sort of day-in-the-life spinoff of library school students sharing what they’re learning. Just as professional librarians have a lot to share about the practical things that happen daily, MLIS students have a lot to share from what they are learning in the classroom. I’m not saying this because I am one, but MLIS students are great resources of information about new trends, theories, and so on (for a great example, follow the #lis768 tweets from Michael Stephens’s students at Dominican U).

So as a side note for all graduate and doctorate students – I call on you to share what your day is like in the life of being a librarian/information professional-to-be, what-have-you. A few folks have posted already:

Rachel Slough, MLS Candidate, Indiana University SLIS: Lib and Learn
Karen Cawley, MLS Candidate, Syracuse University—School Media: karenthelibrarian
Alison Miller, Doctorate of Professional Studies in Information Management, Syracuse University School of Information Studies: infolibnow.net
Laura Williams, Graduate Trainee, Oxford University Library Service: Theatre Grad Blog
Sarah Hogg, Graduate Trainee, Oxford University: Library Trainee in Oxford

Tags: information professionals, librariandayinthelife, librarians, library, MLIS, mls

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Erin

Hi Lindy - I missed this somehow, but I walked to say thanks for the shout out on my Library Day in the Life post a few weeks back. I think it's pretty awesome that students are participating, and hope to see even more for the next round. I'm a big fan of your blog and work :) Best! -Erin

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