I would like to write about both our science and our profession. Many feel that our occupation needs to be one or the other; a science or a profession. Yet I think we are both. We used to be far more of a profession, but this weeks reading, “Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future," proves how much scientific methods have been incorporated into our work.
I can't tell you how much I appreciated seeing a scientific analysis that clearly stated how library patrons don't like the hierarchical organization that our profession has relied on since it began. Of course, organization is necessary to some extent, but users are not librarians, and they increasingly favor access methods that they define, and that adapt to them.
Users want information as easily as possible. It is not our place to define acceptable information-seeking behavior. It is our job to supplement and assist.
Every time a librarian buries access to a material in a menu (with no search access or other means of access) they are severely limiting the material's exposure. They are doing their library and patrons a disservice.
I feel that it is my job to tear down hierarchical organization systems. I feel very strongly on this matter. It just may be what I was put on this earth to do.
Look out Dewey Decimal, I'm gunning for you!
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