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Archive for May, 2011

Librarian as translator

Published May 27, 2011 conferences Leave a Comment
Tags: associative thinking, cla2011, librarians

Building on my previous post, I found another analogy that I had scribbled in my notes (from way back in February 2007). Scrawled across the top of my piece of graph paper was “Librarian as translator.” I kind of like that. Think about translators for a minute: What skills do language translators need to do their jobs? Translators need skills like:

Ability to use translation strategies: translators need to be able to rephrase idioms and other figures of speech and still capture the spirit of the original communication.
Cultural awareness: translators need to be aware of the cultures on both sides of the translation.
Knowledge of terminology in specialized fields: translators have to know the jargon (or at least know how to negotiate it).
Ability to use the tools and rules of translation: translators have to know which tool (e.g. dictionary, software, etc.) to use and how to apply proper grammatical structure.
Ability to deliver on time: translators need to understand the urgency of the work (and need to deliver competently).

As I scan the bullets above I like what I see. I like the idea of librarians as translators in the Information Age. This is just a short post – you could definitely push this analogy a bit further.

If you’re interested, I paraphrased the above list from here.

Librarians are like detectives…

Published May 27, 2011 conferences Leave a Comment
Tags: associative thinking, cla2011, conference presentation, generative analogies, librarians

This past week I’ve been preparing my presentation for the Canadian Library Association conference in Halifax. My topic is “Librarians are like detectives and other generative metaphors to rejuvenate the profession.” I’ll admit my title is a bit of a mouthful, but the idea is pretty simple: generative analogies – and other types of associative thinking – provide new insight, new possibilities, and new pathways.

My contention is that we need to be more expansive when we start trying to define exactly what we (librarians) do and what we bring to the table (wherever that table happens to be). I feel like we tend to be quite self-limiting as a profession – and yet if the CLA keynote by Frank McKenna is to be believed, we have a lot to offer the knowledge economy.

Generative analogies are not about wordsmithing a definition of librarianship; they’re about striking a bold and broad vision of the profession. In my session, I plan to challenge the participants to push their associative thinking. For example, how are librarians like dentists? What might we learn from dentists? I’m curious to see what the group comes up with.