Library Worklife

Volume 2, No. 6 • June 2005

Spotlight

Meet the Librarian for Libraries - Karen Muller!

An Interview with Karen Muller, MLS

Karen Muller is "Librarian and Knowledge Management Specialist" at the American Library Association. Usually, she introduces herself as "Librarian," delighting that it is the shortest job title at ALA. And it surely beats her prior title, "Executive Director of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) and Executive Director of the Library Administration and Management Association, divisions of the American Library Association." Karen has been at ALA eighteen years, the last four of them in her current position. Here's what she has to say about her current position:

I think I have the best job at ALA, and I use the experience of my years as an ALA member and as an ALA staff member in guiding where I seek out information. I find myself using skills first learned as a library assistant in a rare book room and skills learned just yesterday. And I really enjoy being able to dabble in all aspects of running a library-collection development, cataloging, budgeting, and reference.

The American Library Association Library has been part of ALA for 80 years and has always served a tripartite purpose: 1) to support the ALA staff by providing the information needed to carry out the work of the Association; 2) to provide information to members and others who contact ALA with questions about librarians, librarianship, and ALA programs; and 3) to be a repository for the documents of ALA's history. "Knowledge management" was added to these functions five years ago, in recognition of the fact that much of the information needed both to support the work of the Association and to respond to the information needs of library workers in the field were in a growing variety of forms. There is also an amazing wealth of implicit knowledge resident among ALA staff, which needs to be leveraged to enable staff to continue to do their good work. How we manage that knowledge as we go forward will have a lot of bearing on how well the Association is able to work on behalf of its members.

The ALA Library is a small, special library with a focus almost exclusively on materials on library and information science and association management. There are about 10,000 monographic volumes, 300 currently received periodicals, and a small microfilm collection. We are primarily a reference library, which means that we try to collect the key library publications that will enable us to answer questions, rather than practical, how-to books-unless they help us do what we do better, of course! We collect statistical reports, but increasingly bookmark these on our own browsers or catalog the sites for our online catalog. We have several small special collections-award-winning children's books (non-circulating), John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award winners (circulating via ILL), and books distributed as part of the ALA Organizational Member benefit through Oprah's Book Club (circulating only to staff).

There are just three staff members: me, the Librarian, and two support staff members, Valerie Hawkins and Sharon Brown. Valerie is a reference wizard and is the usual "voice of ALA" for many of our callers. Sharon keeps our collections in order-checking in periodicals, doing our inter-library loan, and ordering and processing new books.

In 2004, the Library responded to almost 7,500 inquiries, including over 1,000 from staff in nearly all units of the Association. Compared to five years ago, this is a 50% drop in overall inquires, but a 500% increase in inquiries requiring more than an hour to research and a 140% increase in inquiries requiring more than 30-60 minutes to research. Our reference pattern is consistent with what others report: just like the general public, the ALA staff try a Google search first . and then come to us when they are unsuccessful. And yes, we find what other librarians on staff cannot!

We have also encouraged the shift in our reference questions from many quickly answered questions to fewer, but in-depth questions by preparing the ALA Library Fact Sheets (www.ala.org/library/factsheets.html ), the FAQ found on the ALA website (look for the FAQ in the footer of most pages at www.ala.org ), and the A-Z site map (look for it in the red bar across the top of pages at www.ala.org ). The ALA Library Fact Sheets began as print documents that could quickly be mailed or faxed to those who wrote or called the Library, starting in the early 1990s. These evolved into the current web pages as the ALA web presence evolved. We write several new ones each year and try to review all of them every year. We've just updated the Fact Sheet on ISBNs and ISSNs to include information on ISBN-13, and we're working on a fact sheet that provides initial guidance for setting up a library, a question we get from administrative assistants in corporations, from Peace Corps Volunteers, from parents in school without a learning resource center, etc.

Our questions fall into several large categories. There are the questions from our colleagues on staff, which are as varied as ALA's activities. There are the questions from publishers and authors, which are most frequently some variation on "how do I sell my book to libraries?" There are questions from parents and others, usually "How do I find good reading?" Those from library workers are usually about ALA and its activities, but sometimes detailed guidance on some aspect of librarianship. As one librarian working in a remote library seeking ways to evaluate her collection prior to an accreditation visit said, "Sometimes you're out all alone and you can't find the threads." We provide the threads, in this case at the end of a telephone line, but often via e-mail.

For people such as this librarian, we are the "librarian's library." And it means that we must pay attention to current issues in the field, have a broad understanding of how different types of libraries operate, how library governance varies across the country, where the best resources are located, and so forth. We also need to know what is going on across the whole Association, and we must know who among our colleagues will be the better resource on many issues. For example, we answer the questions from school children investigating a "banned book" for the first time, but the librarian calling ALA for assistance with a challenge is referred to the Office for Intellectual Freedom immediately. Or, sometimes the question is better referred to an ALA or unit committee for an in-depth response or for expert guidance in an emerging area. Our members are an incredible source of information, both for ALA and for us. But being the Librarian at ALA carries some burden, in that an offhand answer can be quoted and captured on the Internet, so we take pains to be sure we can back up our statements with references to published sources or web references.

Some years ago, Joel M. Lee, then Headquarters Librarian, wrote an article on special libraries in not-for-profit organizations. One of the differences he identified between corporate special libraries and non-profit special libraries is a differential in access and the definition of constituency. In an association library, that constituency can be either narrow or broad. At ALA the constituency has always been defined very broadly. Early annual reports from ALA Librarians in the 1930s and 1940s report receiving correspondence from people interested in library issues for their town; the same is true today. Today we still help these inquirers and hope they will become the library advocates we need all across the country to help us spread the word on the value of libraries and the people who work in them. We answer library "how-to" questions from any library worker, member or not, degreed or not. Each has a need to know, and we want to be sure that each library worker has the ability to provide " the highest quality library and information services and public access to information" consistent with the ALA mission.

To contact Karen about the services of the ALA Library, email kmuller@ala.org. For more information about the Library, visit the Web site at www.ala.org/library.

Maurice Freedman and Dorothy Morgan win Dynix-ALA-APA Award for Promoting Salaries and Status for Library Workers

The American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) is pleased to announce Maurice Freedman and Dorothy Morgan are the winners of the first Dynix-ALA-APA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Promoting Salaries and Status for Library Workers. The award is given to an individual, group of individuals, or institution that have made an outstanding contribution to improving the salary and status of library workers in a local, regional, or national setting.

Freedman was chosen for raising awareness of salary inequities within librarianship and Morgan for advocating on behalf of support staff nationwide.

The recipients will receive $2,500 each and be recognized at the ALA-APA Networking Breakfast at the 2005 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, Sunday, June 26, at 7:30 a.m.

Maurice J. "Mitch" Freedman is director of the Westchester Library System (N.Y.) and former ALA President (2001-2002). Dorothy Morgan is a business manager at the Liverpool Public Library (N.Y.) and former president of the ALA Library Support Staff Interest Round Table (LSSIRT, 2000-2001).

Freedman is credited with informing the nation and the world that "library workers cannot live on love alone." He focused his presidential campaign on salary improvement issues, spearheading the Better Salaries Task Force, which created several tools for helping library workers who wanted to address inequities.

Jury Chair Michele Leber credited Freedman with "inspiring a continuing movement to achieve pay equity." Patricia Glass Schuman stated that "Mitch's contributions are more than outstanding - they are unprecedented." Yvonne Farley notes that the campaign was one impetus for the ALA-APA.

Judith Sibio nominated Morgan, calling her "a shining star who champions for the improvement in status of library workers. She is a crusader who has worked tirelessly at local, regional, state, and national levels to focus on issues pertaining to support staff; namely, education, pay equity, certification, and career ladders." Many support staff have received upgrades with her help. Morgan also is passionate about certification for support staff and was one of the developers of the New York State Library Assistant's Association Certificate of Achievement Program, which is being replicated in other states. Morgan has received numerous accolades in recognition of her leadership, writing, and speaking in support of staff on all levels within her state organizations, the American Library Association and the Council on Library Technicians (COLT).

Jury member James Hill, chair of the ALA Library Support Staff Interests Round Table, said, "We had many outstanding applications, and it was a very tough decision but we chose two well-deserving individuals." "I was very impressed with both the number and high quality of the nominations received by the committee," said Shelley Bennett, jury member. "This group of nominees demonstrates how an individual or group with vision and energy can make a real difference in improving the status of all library staff. The individual efforts of award winners Morgan and Freedman to raise awareness of the need to improve the status and pay of all library workers have inspired others to become involved both within and beyond the profession."

"Selecting a winner was both difficult and inspiring, since we received nominations describing people working across the country for pay equity for library workers, from human relations specialists to library directors to library professionals and paraprofessionals to library trustees," said Chair Leber. "Publicizing the successes of these pay equity champions should energize others to increase their efforts to raise the salaries of library workers."

This award is given annually, thanks to a contribution from the Dynix Corporation, a leading provider worldwide of library management systems, serving more than 11,000 public, academic, school, special, and consortium libraries.

The recipient of the award does not have to be an ALA member or a current or past library staff member. The requirement is that the award recipient's achievement(s) has been notable. Officers of the ALA or the ALA-Allied Professional Association are not eligible for the award, nor are members of the ALA-APA Salary Awards Committee, ALA-APA Standing Committee on the Salaries and Status of Library Workers, or employees of the Dynix Corporation.

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