"Book Exchanging Fair" in the Public Library of China

As some of you may have known, I used to work in the Public Library of China for almost 5 years before I came to the US this June. For your information, PLC is the leading public library in Beijing, China.

It's both very interesting and boring to work as a librarian in China, Chinese public libraries and this specific library. And I certainly hope to share with you many professional experiences I gained from China in this blog or through other channels in the future. In short, working in China as a librarian is just like living in China, for most of the time, you feel many negative feelings, and sometimes, there are good ones.

Most of the Chinese public libraries (basically, Chinese academic libraries are more internationalized and active) are really traditional and without passion and innovation, but sometimes there are some interesting services.

Last week, just after I arrived at Syracuse, I attended the "Academic Librarians 2012 Conference" held in Syracuse University. I listened to the keynotes given by Prof. Dave Lankes and Mr. Roy Tennent,  both of which are very inspiring and passionate, even though actually I have listened to some of Prof. Lankes' lectures before.

As I mentioned earlier, Prof. Lankes is one of the reasons I chose Syracuse University (btw, during ALA Annual, many guys I met expressed the same feeling, Prof. Lankes' great, as a result, Syracuse is an awesome choice for library students). In the "New Librarianship" paradigm he proposed, one of the major points is that library should switch from the "lending model" to the "sharing model". This point actually reminds me of a service the Public Library of China developed last year, which is called the "Book Exchanging Fair".

Book Exchanging Fair was first held in the library in Apr. 23rd, 2011 to celebrate the World Book Day  (btw, it's weird that there is the entry of "World Book Day" in Wikipedia, however, it was not linked to "April 23rd" page.), which is officially called International Book and Copyright Day, but sometimes is referred as World Book Day. The reason why people chose this date is because it is William Shakespeare's birthday and death date as well as Miguel Cervantes' death date. BTW, the reason I am so familiar with all the story is that it is also my birthday.

The point of Book Exchanging Fair is that people donate books they don't want to possess any more to the library; and in April. 23rd, those people who gave books come to the library to pick up books they are interested which were given by other patrons. And they can only choose as many books as the number of books they donated. There were also some local publishers coming in, donating some of their new titles. And for the books left after the fair, the library in turn donated them to the local libraries run by NGOs.

(Pic from:  http://data.chinaxwcb.com/epaper2012/epaper/d5279/d1b/201204/20956.html )

Based on the "sharing model", it's certainly one of the most interesting event in Chinese public libraries. And it's also well-attended. Actually, earlier this years, it was so well-attended that many patrons had to wait for hours before they could enter the hall. But there are certainly many many problems in this event. The biggest problem for me is that, how to integrate this ad hoc service to more general libraries services to add more value to the library patrons. It's good that library can facilitate sharing between patrons, but it's still not cool if sharing only happens once a year in the library. Another problem is that, it's still book-based.  Books are not cool any more, just as indicated by the latest news that Library-a-go-go program lost to eBooks. But eBooks in China is another serious problem to talk about.

Some pre-thinking on MLIS 2: The dilemma of working experience

As you may know, I used to work as a cataloging librarian in one of the biggest public libraries in Beijing, China for 5 years before I came here. But sometimes I wonder, this experience may not be exactly the same with those in the US.

I started my career as a cataloger with a Bachelor's degree in History. In China, most of the librarians do not hold an MLIS degree. (Academic libraries tend of hire people holding a degree above Master; while most of the public libraries only require a Bachlor's degree. But MLIS or related degrees are not priorities in most of these libraries. ) I used to think American librarians are highly professional (as the exact opposition with Chinese counterparts), maybe most of them hold at least an MLIS degree. Later, after I read Ken Heycock's The Portable MLIS, I found maybe I was wrong, that there are actually many librarians in the US without an MLIS or parallel degree. But even so, it's obvious that the library environment in the US is still much more professional than in China, even though the reasons of this phenomenon always baffle me since then.

I am and will be grateful to my first career. Because if I wasn't enrolled by the Public Library of China, I may never learn how to transfer my energy and enthusiasm into something constructive, rather than destructive, like what I did as an undergraduate. And I may never get to understand this profession which suits me so well and I fell love so deeply.

However, on the other hand, it may not be the best idea to start a career in a totally unprofessional environment, even though, it's not bragging, I think I did a decent job in China. However, after I was enrolled as a MLIS student, I also realized that I need to cope with many old habits formed in the environment of Chinese library environment.

The one that impressed me most after I arrive at the US is that, I really need to be more social and extrovert. I was an extremely introverted person in the university. And in China, librarians are sometimes seen by the public as a collection of nerds: quiet, "out of society", bibliophilic weirdos with glasses and low-income. (There are many things to talk about in the public's stereotype of librarian in China, which can be comparable with those stereotype in the US on some aspects, while be totally different on others. ) And actually it's kind of a fact that in some libraries, the working environment is really quiet (like the library I used to work). And there are little communication between different librarians (especially catalogers!). This results deep gaps between different person, which makes it really hard to aggregate professional community. Working in such an environment to some extents just maintain (if not strengthen) my unwillingness to communicate with others formed in the university. 


This is totally different with the culture in the US. After attending "Academic Librarians 2012" conference, I found that the US librarianship is partly based on sociality. I definitely want to change, but the question is how. I need to learn about how to be sociable. I am still learning about all the codes used in the US, and communication skills are certainly in the center.


Yet another challenge for me is how to become a creator from a translator and "introducer", which I used to be in China. I translated some articles or even reports into China, and wrote a professional blog in Chinese to introduce the latest trends and news in the US library land. Part of the reasons is that I believe in sharism; on the other hand, it also helps me to grasp the latest trend happened not only in the US, but also around the world. (I still don't have a clear distinction between US librarianship and global librarianship, which I think is an interesting topic to explore.) However, on the other hand, I am clearly aware that, the point to be a librarian is not only to follow the trend, but also to create them. Following trend just need reading ability at most, however, it need much more for a librarian to do great things based on what's happening around.


You can say, communication and professional skills (of which, communication is one) are the two things I am thinking about most as an MLIS student. 


(to be continued.)

Some pre-thinking on MLIS 1

By as late as this July, I will be an MLIS student in the US.  Although there are many stories I would like to share with those who are interested, maybe it's a good starting point to talk about some of my thoughts about the goals of MLIS degree when I made the decision regarding which iSchool to choose. 

Basically, my final choice will be made between Syracuse University and Kent State University. They are on the list because they are among the three iSchools who are willing to give me a summer admission (I need it for personal reasons).

The Information School at Syracuse is ranked much higher than KSU's, however, I think this fact doesn't mean that the iSchool at Syracuse is definitely better. During my application, one saying I have heard a lot is that, every school that is accredited by ALA is a good one. However, for me, I think ranking is still an important factor to consider.

Another advantage of Syracuse is, you can say, Professor R.D. Lankes. I love his "new librarianship" paradigm, which I think is the inevitably future direction of librarianship, and I really want to be part of it. I have also subscribed some blogs maintained by MLIS students in Syracuse, their active engagement in the virtual community and local community (fg, the recent free little library they set up in Syracuse) impresses me a lot.

Although the Information School at KSU is not as well-ranked as the one in Syracuse, and may not have such a great library innovator as Prof. Lankes, however, as a public university, the expense in KSU is much lower than in Syracuse (although the expense of Syracuse University is much lower than many other private universities). And I will be much nearer to my girlfriend who is working at Oxford, Ohio.

What a great dilemma!

But one last thing to consider for me is this: which direction to take after I graduate after two years. For someone like me who really sucks at making choices and has many interests, it's a even more difficult question.

Say if I choose KSU, because their metadata direction is so strong, it's very likely that I will choose metadata as my future direction. For this career path, I am still not very confident that I can be a good metadata librarian (even though I have been a cataloger for almost five years), even though I think it's a good idea to take this direction, because it seems that metadata is one of the most promising directions in the library world, and not to mention the fact that Prof. Marcia Zeng is one of the most charismatic characters in the Chinese library community.

In short, I believe if I choose Syracuse, there will be a broader set of possibilities to choose. But on the other hand, I am not sure, whether it's a good thing or not just to postpone the decision that I have to make, which makes the life  maybe too "comfortable".

And then, I cannot stopping thinking about the goals of MLIS. If I am right to assume that the most significant goal of MLIS degree is to prepare up potential professional librarians, then maybe choosing Syracuse is a better idea, because I can be exposed to a more comprehensive future possibilities and courses. I hope I am right this time.

P.S. I hope I am not as a "people who are unable to decide" as Ted Mosby, but maybe I am. Sigh.

P.S.P.S. This passage was published in another place about half a year ago. And today, when I decided to move my blog to Blogspot, I decided that I should publish this passage as the starting one. Because when I will definitely be an MLIS student  in Syracuse University, the time point when I wrote this blog post is an interesting spot to start thinking about the degree.