Thursday, January 21, 2010

What We've Got Here Is...Communication

I was reading my January Library Journal of an evening, and I became inclined to ruminate a while upon the idea of professionalism.

More importantly, there's an argument going on here, and I want in!

John N. Berry says in his editorial, Don't Muzzle Librarians,

It is utter hypocrisy to label any communication—anonymous, ad hominem, or otherwise—as “unprofessional” in a profession for which the primary core value is freedom of expression.

Really? Any communication? Of any kind? In any context? That's a broad, broad statement.

And you know what that kind of broad statement gives us? License! License, good people, for extremes of behavior!

The following immediately occurred to me:


  • So if I start peppering my interactions with med students at the reference desk with random obscenities, that's professional communication?
  • Or, say, what if I decide to start opining about faculty members' choice of research topics with comments like "You're writing about that? You're a total quack, you know that, right?"
  • I might also just derail every conversation about book purchases by talking incessantly about my own awesomeness and/or how hard my life is: this is totally professional?
  • And what if I make a habit of telling the library's users, and some of my favored colleagues, that others of my colleagues are incompetent layabouts (which is not only irrelevant to most users, it's a dirty lie)? Still good?


My boss is going to love this.

I mean, yeah, I get that in a very important way, it's the work of the profession to respect, preserve, and promote access to all kinds of communication. As Mr. Berry continues,

We are justifiably proud of the record of librarians as fervent and effective defenders of free expression. Librarians have upheld and collected obscenity, anarchy, dissent, and certainly every kind of personal attack. This is not “unprofessional,” it is our professional duty.

True, true. I'm all over the freedom of expression. Love it! Defend it! But is it the work of the profession--and thus, professional behavior--to also engage in all kinds of communication?

Not necessarily, I would argue.

Further, this editorial comes after David Rothman apparently said that the Annoyed Librarian blog was "unpleasant" and "unprofessional."

There's nothing detailed in the piece beyond those two words, so I'm not really sure where the 'muzzling' of the title comes in. Perhaps David Rothman has the awesome power to make other bloggers quail and stop typing merely through disliking them. And, I guess, telling other people that he dislikes them.

Which must still be completely professional to do, since it's communication, but is bad because he used the forbidden word "unprofessional." I guess.

I'm also pretty sure the Annoyed Librarian has said worse about someone at some point. Probably many people at many points. That's kind of the AL's thing, if I remember from when I used to read it.

These points, as well as others, are entertainingly covered in this video response from Mr. Rothman. Others have addressed this issue as well: see Agnostic, Maybe for more good points.

I really just wanted to chime in when I recognized the license for extremes of behavior. (I'm telling you, this 'license' theme is a winner for me. I'll make something of it yet.)

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