Pinterest for Special Collections

I'm doing my Master's at the moment and one of our assignments this week has been to blog about two social media tools that we'd like to use in our Library. Here are my thoughts on Pinterest:

I have, for a while, been interested in the potential of Pinterest as a social networking tool for academic libraries. A fairly new platform (it was started as an invitation-only site in 2010), CNN reported last year that it was the third most visited site in the US. Briefly, Pinterest is an online board onto which users can “pin” interesting images and/or links.

There are various ways that academic libraries can use this tool. It has visual appeal and lends itself to activities such as advertising new books by pinning images of book covers, as well as announcing events in the Library by pinning images of posters.

The potential use of Pinterest that most interests me though, is that of creating a historical image collection. Many academic libraries these days have digital repositories where they curate and collate their digital Special Collections. Pinterest allows one to create an online collection of historical images outside of this repository. The benefit of this would be that information such as this is pushed out to Library patrons, where they are and using the tools with which they are familiar.  

See, for example, what Southwestern University in Texas is doing with their Pinterest Board to promote Special Collections.

You need to dress professionally

I attended a presentation recently where the audience - predominantly academic librarians - was told the following:

"You need to dress professionally. Just because the students are in jeans and trainers doesn't mean that you should be."

I'm not sure why, but this opinion irks me. And yes, I think it is an opinion, rather than a fact. Dressing "professionally" does not make me a better librarian. Conversely, wearing jeans doesn't make me a bad one either.

I posed the question of professional dress on Facebook and got some interesting responses. Some are adamant that the way we dress affects the way people treat us. I think there is a fundamental flaw here: we accept that people should judge each other by appearances. I think we shouldn't.

One responder said: "Your argument is flawed. It is not the other person's responsibility to get to know you first and then judge you for who you are. The fact is you are already saying who you are by dressing sloppily. Dress for the occasion/situation and you will be judged by who you are. If you want to be taken seriously then dress seriously!"

Here is where the disconnect happens: casual attire = sloppy = inefficient/bad at your job; professional attire = neat = good at your job. I don't think this is necessarily so. Is casual attire always sloppy? What exactly is "casual" attire?

To me, the most interesting response was the following: "Define 'professional'. It is not a universal definition, it is very contextual. Also, quite outdated. The 'professional' attire is clothing that you *need* to perform your specific profession. Uniform / lab coat / safety goggles whatever."

I hadn't thought of it like this. What do I need to wear to be able to carry out my job as an academic librarian? Certainly not safety goggles. Heels? Would a tailored suit help me to do my job better?

What do you think?

Librarians are partners in research. Discuss.

There's a lot of talk these days that academic librarians should be partners in the research process with academics and students. How this is carried out differs from institution to institution, but it can include things like helping with reference management and citation, finding appropriate journals in which to publish and assisting with the writing and/or formatting process. My question during a presentation this morning was: are academics and students on board with this? Do they accept this new role of librarians? Do they see them as more than just people behind a desk who can help them find a particular reference? The answer from the podium was that it differs from department to department. Some are more accepting than others. I'm not sure. What do you think?