The creed of a librarian

A re-appraisal of Foskett’s 1962 paper, considering how much of it is relevant to contemporary librarianship. Foskett’s contention was that librarianship lacked the underlying historical and philosophical underpinning central to a professional outlook; the most sustained attempt was Ranganathan’s work, with its encapsulation into five Laws. Foskett emphasized professional education as a means to achieve what should be the goal of libraries - to bring readers and information together through a knowledge of both, and through organization, specifically indexing and classification. Despite some stylistic datedness, his arguments still have validity today, although he did not emphasize enough the practical form our profession’s philosophy needs to take. Reflection on the ‘Why?’ of librarianship matters because it informs practice, helping us develop in both overall professional approach and in specific areas of daily work. Without reflection we become stuck in our ways, unable effectively to reason with our detractors and opponents. As the concept of the library becomes more abstract, it is essential that we can argue cogently against views that libraries are no longer important. Of all Ranganathan’s Laws, ‘Save the time of the reader’ may be the key message today.

[1]  Jennifer Cargill.  Integrating public and technical services staffs to implement the new mission of libraries , 1989 .

[2]  P McCrory,et al.  Shelf life , 1996, British Dental Journal.

[3]  Philip Calvert,et al.  Marketing Concepts for Libraries and Information Services , 2002 .

[4]  Diana Sachs.  Ask a Librarian , 2005 .

[5]  Susan K. Martin.  Visions: The accidental profession: , 1995 .

[6]  Brian Edwards.  Libraries and Learning Resource Centres , 2001 .

[7]  Michael O. Engle.  Librarianship as Calling: The Philosophy of College Librarianship. , 1986 .

[8]  Dan Remenyi,et al.  As the first 50 years of computing draw to an end …: what kind of society do we want? , 2002, J. Inf. Technol..

[9]  Louise Makin.  'Out of the blue': achievements of the Big Blue Project , 2002 .

[10]  Robert D. Putnam,et al.  Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community , 2000, CSCW '00.

[11]  Patricia Glass Schuman.  Social Responsibility: An Agenda for the Future. , 1976 .

[12]  S. Macstravic.  Marketing myopia. , 1998, The Healthcare Forum journal.

[13]  Edward L. Glaeser,et al.  Information Technology and the Future of Cities , 1996 .

[14]  Joseph Z. Nitecki.  Conceptual Aspects of Bibliothecal Communication; Philosophical Legacy of the Twentieth Century American Librarianship , 1998 .

[15]  R. G. Berry.  A debtor to his profession. , 1988 .

[16]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Internet paradox. A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? , 1998, The American psychologist.

[17]  P. Miller.  The Accidental Profession , 2005 .

[18]  D. J. Foskett.  The creed of a librarian : no politics, no religion, no morals , 1962 .

[19]  Paul Sturges.  Remember the human: the first rule of netiquette, librarians and the Internet , 2002, Online Inf. Rev..

[20]  Barbara Allan,et al.  Marketing Concepts for Libraries and Information Services (2nd ed.) , 2003, Program.

[21]  Michael McFaul,et al.  Recruit, Retain and Lead: The Public Library Workforce Study , 2002, J. Documentation.

[22]  Peter Brophy.  The library in the twenty-first century : new services for the information age , 2001 .

[23]  Stephen Pinfield,et al.  The changing role of subject librarians in academic libraries , 2001, J. Libr. Inf. Sci..