Changing Glasses: Does Our World Look Different as a Vendor or a Librarian?

We knew librarians and the vendors work very closely together to ensure that information flows between the publishers and the users. However, we far too often only know about how life operations on our side of the relationship. We look back on our careers, we can draw distinct lessons from the different jobs we have had over the years. Each job and position provides a unique set of expectations and perspectives that should make a singular imprint on our occupational psyche. From each job, great or small, we should be able to cull a lesson that will help us develop our work ethos. Through our diversity of work experience, we gain a better understanding of the work life and the different expectations and demands that are placed on people within organizations and companies. Over the years, I have had a great opportunity during my career to work at different types of libraries and for a company that services libraries. As a young professional, I worked in archival and technical services/systems positions at three wonderful museum libraries: the Chicago Historical Society; the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), and the National Baseball Library at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. in Cooperstown. In these three positions, I moved progressively from archival work to collection management and systems. In both Pittsburgh and Cooperstown, I implemented Integrated Library Systems (ILS) for both print and archival collections. In1998, I moved from libraries to vendors when I joined Innovative Interfaces as a field-based trainer, a position I held for just over two years. My job entailed traveling for half the month and working in my home office for the other half. This seemed like an interesting way to balance life and work with two small boys at home. My job primarily was to guide new customers through the implementation of the system. In addition, we provided training to established customers who purchased it and answered questions to our helpdesk that were training in nature. Working at a vendor presented many interesting and unique work experiences. First, we work with the systems quite differently — primarily for testing and setup — rather than with real patrons. So we are typically dealing fake holds and hypothetical research topics, not real patrons with deadlines and crises. Second, we develop a basic understanding of how different types of libraries generally operate, picking up standard practices at different library types. Third, we worked with librarians directly — not with the end users. This could be one of the most unique attributes of the vendor work experience. Through my experience gained learning the system as a training consultant, I was able to obtain a position as the assistant dean for library systems at the University of Toledo (Ohio), where I worked for four years. This was my first academic position, but I came in more as a ILS specialist than an academic librarian. Over my four years at Toledo, my position changed to include technical services and collections. This provided me with the experience that allowed me to get the associate director position at the Kresge Business Administration Library in 2005. When the director left the following year, I was able to get the position of director at the library and have held that ever since. In my two years at Innovative Interfaces, I developed a greater perspective of the role of the employee and our relationships with customers and colleagues. And I believe that through this diversity of positions at different libraries and a company, I have been able to become a better-rounded and understanding library director. Over the years, I have used my diverse positions to gain a greater understanding of where I stood in the library and what type of library I wanted to provide. Through working at different types of libraries and at a vendor, I have been able to see my position differently. I am not locked into the culture of a particular type of library, but I see a broader picture that enables me to reach out in ways that others might not see. I have been able to draw upon all of my experience to gain a broader understanding of the critical relationship that the library has with its patrons or customers. And to that end, it has enabled and empowered me to consider three questions in everything that we do for the library: where are we?; where is the customer?; and where do we meet? It is through these questions that we challenge the standards of librarianship that see us marching towards a possible obsolesce. It is through these questions that we grow our libraries. And it is through these questions that we appreciate and understand that the view of the world gained through working at different types of organizations and companies can produce the 360 degree outlook that we are all clamoring for.