Activity : Forum on Strategies in Effective Searching of Information
Lecturer : Dr. Angelina P. Resurreccion
Organizer/Venue : Ortigas Center Library Consortium, 16 July 2008, JRU Mandaluyong City
BIZAARE LOVE TRIANGLE / Frente!
Every time I think of you…
I get a shot right through into a bolt of blue
Its no problem of mine but its a problem I find…
There is a more interesting line from this song that is more apt to describe what I felt during the forum. So in the guise of common courtesy and as an act of understanding human frailty, I settled for the lines above. Even up to this day of writing, 23 days after the forum, the feeling of frustration feels afresh.
What happened was not a problem of mine but it was a problem I found together with my LIS260 Class. (Wink! wink!)
Out I went, filled with anticipation on what new things to learn and who to meet. Any forum is a perfect opportunity to be updated and reminded of the basic tenets of librarianship. In her talk, only one concept stuck with me — webliography or web harvesting. The rest, blown by the wind during that stormy day. Worse, my learning spirit was drenched in water. I tried to focus on the concepts she’s presenting, tried to keep up to jot down notes, tried to muster enthusiasm but all along a gut feel of intolerance was nagging me, prompting me to be more of a cynic rather than an empty cup willing to be filled to the brim by concepts [she's supposed to expound on further].
I would have kept my optimism intact thinking that she’s gearing up for the actual talk, that the vagueness in her preliminary discussion was only a part of “introductory anxiety”. I must admit, all speakers undergo that stage. I waited for her conviction to pull her through…waited…and…waited some more…until…”Okay, that ends my talk.” Alright, it was like a class report beset by failure to properly prepare and failure to establish authority. Or was it an insult to librarians? When it comes to quality information, librarians are trained to be highly discriminative of what is trash from treasure. Lecturers should never underestimate their audience. That’s a lesson worth P200.00 from each participant. More so, it is a lesson for the organizers to be more conscious on their target audience as well to be more parallel with the latest trends. Despite the fact that what was presented is far off with what is already being discussed in our class, I was able to appreciate the open access journals she has presented. These, I will definitely put to use.
As my ending note, one way of proving to the society how useful our profession is, is through showing that our skills are not constrained within the library. We may be able to expand our horizons by honing our ability to communicate our worth. Librarians who are invited as lecturers in forums, seminars, conferences etc. should realize the weight of their responsibility. It is not enough to have a colorful presentation, the impact of the time you are given to discuss depends on how vividly you can present the idea and how the audience is convinced of the significance and timeliness of your topic.
(Disclaimer : Opinions written herein are solely of the author’s. It is not intended to offend nor defame anyone. On the contrary, it aims to solicit open-mindedness.)
