Losing the Stars and Mentors
“I’ve been wandering sideways
I’ve stared straight into the sun
Still I don’t know why you’re dying
Long before your time has come
Your time has come”
–Audioslave, Your Time Has Come
This post came to me in a rush while walking the dogs this evening and I’ve taken care of hours of online chores before coming back to write it, perhaps because of how worked up I am from the conference and a bunch of other things. I was hoping to calm down before blogging, but I think I’m just going to blog while in this state because I’m not sure when I’ll next have the chance. It’s natural that I’m going to ramble a bit. I need to take a break from blogging, but my mind is churning. The conference always inspires me and makes my mind whirl for days.
There was much chatter among news librarians about the state of the economy and how it’s effecting the news industry. While we were conferencing, we got word that one newspaper chain is eliminating lots of jobs and another paper cut its staff significantly. At least one woman talked about how she knows she’s going to get laid off within the next few months. There were a few job seekers there from recent layoffs. One thing that stuck out in my mind is that no one was in the News Division suite trying to recruit anyone for a job. This year’s conference might be the first year I’ve been around that I didn’t overhear someone doing that. During my first conference, I remember being asked to apply for several jobs by people working the room. (I didn’t because I was starting a new one the following week.) How times have changed …
Not only is news librarianship in a state of concern because of the number of jobs that are being cut, but we’re soon going to face a slightly different challenge as many of the experienced news library leaders continue to leave the profession by taking buyouts, early retirements, or giving up on the profession.
What’s going to happen to who’s leading the profession then? Several news organizations have recently opted to hire people with no or little news library experience into leadership roles instead of choosing strong candidates with lots of news library experience. Some people speculate financial pressure played a role in those decisions. (I mean no one offense here. It’s a small profession. Some of you are probably thinking of specific examples. I have no insider information here. I also believe the right librarians are flexible enough to fill leadership shoes just fine without what many think is adequate experience.)
One of the things I noticed when I began meeting news librarians at these conferences 9 SLAs ago—that would be Philadelphia for those of you who prefer the city name over the year (it’s almost like Confederate battle names vs. Union battle names in the US Civil War)—is that the News Division has a proud tradition of strong leaders and amazing librarians whom most people in the profession put on pedastals. Many of these folks have made real careers of news librarianship with professional service measured in decades. It seems like lately many of those people have been climbing down as they leave news librarianship (not that we revere them any less) and not many people have been climbing up there. Maybe what we’re seeing is partly the graying of the profession and the beginning of the rumored librarian shortage. (I’ve blogged about that in this space before, but I’m too tired to find it now.) I believe strongly that the shrinking number of news library positions plays a role here, too, as does the decreasing number of news librarians involved in SLA’s News Division. As the profession shrinks, there’s a smaller pool from which to fish for role models. If news librarians don’t participate in the leading (Not only am I biased here, but I don’t know of another international news librarian organization anywhere in the world that matches the scale and scope of the SLA News Division. Please correct me if I am wrong.) society for the profession, how should we react to that? How we will learn about any of the terrific news librarians in Vermont, for example, unless they join our ranks and become active in them? Who will we look to when we need a current role model? Who will edit the next bible on news librarianship? Who will write the articles to fit into that book? To whom will we turn when we want to assemble a panel on management?
We need to do something, but I’m not sure what yet. Help? Ideas?
I sound a lot more pessimistic than I feel. Right now it’s a puzzle, like those in the Mystery Hunt. I have some of the clues and answers, but I can’t tell what I’m missing or what I need to do with the pieces. Right now, I don’t know how to become one of the great leaders it seems we’ll desperately need in news librarianship in 10-15 years because I probably won’t be able to get a news library job. (No, I’m not planning to switch professions again at the moment. I’m quite happy, thank you, and not presently on the job market. That’s part of the problem of not knowing how to get back into it. Hire Chris, Kathryn, or my penpal instead.)
I think part of what has me thinking along these lines, too, is that I learned someone whom many people remember for her role as a mentor and active association member passed away about eighteen months ago or so: Gerry. Somehow, I missed the news at the time. She was one of the people I connected with before moving to Massachusetts because a coworker in the Mad City knew her. She was kind and helpful to me. There’s now a movement to create an annual conference session in her honor. I believe she was relatively young, too. Her death reminds me that our mentors must die, like all of us do. Life is precious, short, fragile, etc. And sadly, it won’t be long before the present group of news stars begin dimming. Who will relight the stars when they burn out?
Let’s do what we can to change that, eh?
(I have a feeling I’m going to reread this later and chastize myself for blogging while I’m sick and exhausted.)
Addendum 6/27: I feel flattered that one of my role models took the time to email me some thoughts after reading my words.
Hire my penpal or Chris or any of the other wonderful news librarians looking for work. We repurpose nicely.
