Katharine Schopflin offers a thorough look at media librarianship past, present, and future (let’s not only hope but work for it). The article was published in the Library + Information Update from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. This is a must read for anyone interested in news and media librarianship.

Here are two passages from Katharine’s excellent and also well-documented article.

In her keynote speech at the last AUKML conference, News International’s Judith Dunn remarked that “ournalists are prepared to wade through pages of drivel rather than ask for help.” Many have found that the best way to convince a journalist that they are not as accomplished in online searching as they think is to show them the advanced search screen of their favourite search engine, indicate that others exist, and demonstrate the sharp recall and precision which can be achieved from searching databases using nested boolean combinations.

This can also be the way to let end-users know what they are failing to find from their search.

From the conclusion:

It is without doubt an interesting time for media librarians. However, despite the challenges the profession faces in convincing broadcasters and publishers that their skills are vital to the authority, depth, and quality of their output, repeated predictions of the death of the media library have been exaggerated. Media channels use many interactive and portable formats few of us have yet dealt with professionally. That they will need both to be populated with well-researched material and made accessible in the long term indicates media librarians’ importance. What is clear is that no one in the sector can afford to be complacent – and here, more than anywhere, training, networking, and continuing professional development are essential.

Source: Library + Information Update

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