InsideOCULA

What a thought provoking and refreshing session!
This one hour presentation by Cyndi Smith and Dorothy Gagnon to a balanced audience of Library Technicians, Librarians and Library Administrators on the contributions of Library Technicians in the Information Department highlighted both the historical struggle which library technicians engage in to explain their roles to librarians, and the innovative and collaborative model which effectively provides information literacy to students at Georgian College.
Library Technicians focus on collection development, reference provision, library orientation and the supervision and staffing of other service areas. They share similar but autonomous responsibilities with Librarians in many areas, and are accountable for their decisions to the Operations Manager.
The Georgian model for information literacy is based on the ACRL Standards and reinforces a growing understanding that paraprofessionals can and do occupy the seats of decision makers as well as the service providers. This model reflects the commitment of Library Management to a model whereby a blending and harmonizing of roles creates a freedom for all staff to move forward in their fields and encourages staff to take themselves seriously, and value the contributions they make to their libraries. 
 

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 8:23 am and is filed under InsideOCULA, SUPER-CONFERENCE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.