“Identify ways in which information professionals can contribute to the cultural, economic, educational, and social well-being of our global communities”
Introduction
Competency O explores the ways information professionals try to use their vast knowledge of searching for and finding information to assist with promoting positive change within their communities. This desire to make a difference in their communities and to enrich the lives or other people is what sets information professionals apart from people in other careers. Information professionals don’t just seek out information for their own personal gain, nor do they obfuscate the information seeking process for others. On the contrary, information professionals attempt to share their knowledge and their search strategies with others in order to de-mystify the information-gathering experience and encourage others to learn.
Comp O is important because it requires information professionals to think about the ways their skills can benefit the communities on both large and small scales. Whether they are helping a child learn more about how dinosaurs became fossils, helping local government learn more about how their town’s culture and socio-economic background has changed over the last 50 years, or making sure the library is open as soon as possible after a crisis or disaster so people can gather together, charge their devices, and even catch up on the latest developments during the disaster. Information professionals have a duty to make sure that they are using their skills to benefit the entire community and not just the library or organization they work for.
During my INFO: 281Crisis/Disaster Health Informatics course we explored how librarians fit into the scheme of things during times of crisis and disaster in their communities. The premise of this course was to examine different ways librarians can assist their communities during times of crisis and/or disaster. Much like what Comp O seeks to accomplish, INFO 281 was an enlightening course that allowed me to learn about other ways that librarians could actively assist their patrons and the community at large.
As for an artifact that I feel best describes my understanding of Comp O I have selected a series of reflection blog posts chronicling some of my thoughts on my weekly readings in our textbook. In particular, I have chosen my first and second reflection posts which both examine how social media has been used during times of crisis/disaster. In my initial reflection blog I reflect on reading chapter 5 in our textbook about the foot and mouth disease epidemic that affected UK several years ago, while my second reflection examines the use of community radio during different natural disasters that routinely plague Indonesia.
After some background information from the text I compare how this crisis in the UK is similar to the most recent (at the time) school shooting in Parkland, FL. Our textbook stressed the importance of knowing the right information at the right time and how having the best information as soon as possible is crucial for people to get the help they need during a disaster. Much like the farmers in the UK needing information about what was causing the foot and mouth disease, during this school shooting it was critical for people in and around the school to know how the crisis was unfolding, how many shooters there were, and what areas to avoid.
While talking about this most recent school shooting I also made some comparisons to a similar situation I was in a few years ago where there was a potential shooter rumored to be on Yale University’s campus, but ultimately it ended up being a false alarm. At that time social media wasn’t something I had even thought of to check to find out what other information might be available and for a while myself and the rest of my coworkers in my store just had to hunker down and wait out the crisis. Luckily for my situation, it ended up just being a false alarm, but it very easily could have been the real thing and if the situation were real it would have been critical to know what areas to avoid and how long we should have stayed hidden.
In the second reflection blog I talk about how the citizens of Indonesia use a public radio system to alert citizens when the active volcano, Merapi, starts to show signs of erupting. In this post I focus on how the volunteer-run radio system is set up and how having citizens maintain these broadcasts empowers them to have an active stake in their community and its well-being. What I loved in particular about the technology they used to keep updated on the volcano’s status was something that is considered pretty “low tech” these days— radio. There are countless apps, devices, and other technologies that can be used for the purposes of sharing and disseminating information and I liked that the citizens near Merapi created their own radio broadcasting service that they populated with volunteers and even created their own outlook points all around the volcano.
I compare this point of using older technology to some of the different points I learned in my INFO 287: Hyperlinked Library course of avoiding “technolust”. As a whole we probably use more sophisticated technologies than are necessary for different situations and its important to keep in mind that just because we can use fancy new technology doesn’t always mean we need to or even should. I also go on to talk about how fascinating it is for people to still build their houses in places where it is well-known to be routinely affected by some kind of natural disaster. I mention some specific areas that are still very popular to live in that are routinely plagued by things like hurricanes and earthquakes, and even mention some areas that are now having issues due to human interference such as fracking in the Midwest.
I chose these two different reflections because I felt that they best discuss the variety of ways people seek out information during times of crisis and emphasize the importance of getting the right information at the right time. Especially now that we are more connected than ever, during times of crisis there is a veritable sea of information that relief agencies and aid workers have to sift through in order to find the right information. By encouraging librarians to be aware of how they can lend a hand during these situations they can make a huge difference in relief efforts in their communities. Even if its just doing something as simple as showing people how to verify that the news they are reading online is coming from a verified source librarians can have a huge positive impact on their communities.
Oftentimes I feel that people focus too much on the “big picture” ideas that can help their communities in times of crisis and that is not always the case. For example, just by having a library open and available to all during and after a crisis so people can feel some sense of normalcy can make a great difference to help people start to take control of their situations. Children especially start to feel more secure when certain routines can be followed, so during a crisis or disaster if the library is open and can have their usual story times for the kids it might give them something familiar to participate in while the adults have time to talk about the situation.
Evidence
Conclusion
Taking INFO 281 opened my eyes to all the various ways that information professionals can assist their community and how their assistance can inspire others to strive to do more. as Comp O states above, its important for librarians and other organizations to find ways they can contribute their skills, services, even space to help advance the cultural, economic, educational, and social well-being of people within not just our immediate communities, but our global communities as well. These contributions don’t even have to be very big contributions, like I mentioned earlier it could even be something as simple as showing someone some tips and tricks to learn how to verify the information they see online before they share it.
Not all of these contributions need to occur during times of crisis or disaster, either. It could be something as simple as the organization or business partnering with similar groups outside of their community or within their community to create some kind of event that brings people to the organization but highlights achievements of specific groups in and around the community. It could come in the form of an event that builds awareness of other issues that are affecting other communities around theirs and how people can start advocating for change within their communities. I know that my INFO 281 course is specifically looking at how information professionals can help during times of crisis but it definitely made me think about libraries as more than just a place where I could find the latest book or use the internet. It made me realize that libraries are much more than that, they are a place for the community to come together both in good times and bad, and to try and figure out different ways of making the community, and the world, a better place.
By using this knowledge I can apply this need for advocacy to other industries as well. For example, my current employer encourages employees to donate their time to whatever causes they feel are important and as an added bonus, our company will donate $25 for every hour that we volunteer our time for these causes. It’s a really beneficial way for employees to feel like they are making a difference for someone else, and as an added bonus the organization we volunteer for can get some added funding that they didn’t have before. Employees can even nominate different organizations and causes that could benefit from us volunteering time and if they are approved we can use them.
Adventures in Library Science 