WELCOME 
BACK ISSUES
By Carol Schuetz, Carol_Carson@baylor.edu
This past weekend, I heard a surprising comment about librarians. On Sunday evening, I listen to a radio show called "Cyberline". The discussion was on the Internet and information access. One of the participants ends the discussion with the statement that librarians are considered to be cool again. Did you hear that? - we're cool again. My next thought was,"When did we ever stop being cool?" Stop for a moment and look back on our history. At the Great Library in Alexandria, who knew where all the scrolls were kept? Librarians. When the Dewey and LC call numbers came out, librarians could tell people how it worked. Card catalog - been there, done that. In fact, if they made a T-shirt for it, librarians would have one. So when the Internet and information in all its electronic forms came about, is it any surprise that librarians should lead the way in educating others on its use. The point I'm trying to make is this: no matter what innovations have come out, no matter how our profession has evolved, we have been able to instruct patrons in the use of whatever materials are available. This means paper, microform, audio/visual, and now electronic forms. We continually strive to provide quality instruction to our students. This is accomplished by being aware of changes in our profession, by attending workshops, and, perhaps most importantly, by sharing ideas with each other. Quality instruction is not a one-man job. It is by working together that we achieve something of which we all can be proud. When we share ideas, experience our own successes and then pass our ideas on to others, we keep instruction moving on into the future. When the librarians of the future look back on us, will we be someone to be proud of or will we be a mere blip on the timeline of librarianship? Quality instruction for the future requires idea sharers and risk takers. Have the faith to step out and try something new this year. Take someone else's idea, change it a little and make it work. Then, pass it on to someone. Let's all work to make a difference for the future. And remember, we are cool!
LIRT News, March 2001. Volume 23, number 3.
To report problems, please contact the LIRT News Production
editor at jronan@ufl.edu