Comments on: Reflections on Service

By: laptop aanbiedingen

laptop aanbiedingen — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:58:01 +0000

I am sorry for commenting on an older post but I felt the urge to share my experience(as a student) with librarians and their service.

As a student I always appreciated librarians and saw them as a source of knowledge. Questions about my research were always welcome and i recieved great help and guidance in my search for the right information. Unlike some of my fellow students and even teacher! Librarians were “used” to supervise students, administrate and use the copy machine. I always felt bad for them. They must have had another idea when they applied for the job.

As you said: There is a thin line between facilitating access to and use of library resources and becoming someones assistent.

By: Assisting research v. Research Assistants | michael steeleworthy | mlis

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:41:23 +0000

[...] desk is red-lining because mountains of assignments are due.Â Last May, a small discussion began on research services at the reference desk and if that line exists on the ACRLog.Â Most commenters agreed that faculty generally don’t abuse the research [...]

By: Suze

Suze — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:09:05 +0000

Great post, Maura. This is something that has been on my mind for some time. I have been asked to do research for students and faculty but I’ve usually managed to wrangle out of it. Some situations, though, do call for you to do instead of teach. As K.G. said, that’s service too.

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 23:51:05 +0000

I’m with Barbara et al. I’m in this game because it’s a helping profession. Sometimes helping is teaching. Sometimes helping is doing. Marvin Scilken once said to me, “The bottom line is public service.” I have taken that to heart as part and parcel of my calling. We know when a student is leaning too hard and how to step away and let them pedal.

By: Leo

Leo — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:41:57 +0000

I’ve had a couple of students try to treat me as their research assistant and, frankly, to a certain extent I’ll play along.

By: Candice

Candice — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:30:05 +0000

Take heart- in my 13+ years of librarianship, I can count on one hand the number of faculty who have tried to treat me as an assistant vs. a valued expert. It’s much more likely for the students to think I’m here to do things for them.

By: Maura Smale

Maura Smale — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:08:48 +0000

Yes, I’ve been lucky too and haven’t had any line crossing. Hope it’s not (almost-)beginners luck.

By: suzanne

suzanne — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 13:00:22 +0000

I agree with Barbara….its the client/patron/customer, not thr profession. Does the faculty member treat you as a trusted resource or as a servant? Do they treat other helping professions with authoritarian disdain or with kindness and respect? Mechanic, housekeeper, groundskeeper, doctor, librarian…all helping professions.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sat, 29 May 2010 19:17:36 +0000

I am reminded of those Very Tough Dominican Nuns who taught me grammar, math, and how to understand that evolution and the Book of Genesis could both be equally true. Their lives were about service, but they were nobody’s servant. In fact, they were brides of Christ, which meant they were connected, big time. But then, he went around washing people’s feet just to mess with hierarchy.

Is a lawyer who untangles contract law for a client a glorified legal assistant? Of course, we don’t bill by the hour, but I don’t see really what’s wrong with doing what we’re good at when a scholar is stumped.

The only time I’ve run into a situation where someone crossed the line – and luckily, it’s very rare – is when a faculty member (a newbie from the Outside, someone who used to have a secretary and wasn’t accustomed to doing his own work) asked a librarian to do something he could do himself. She told him it wasn’t her job.