Self-Examination: The Present and Future of Librarianship

by John M. Budd

What makes us librarians? What is it we do that is indispensable? John Budd joins an august group of library-science luminaries, such as Pierce Butler, Jesse Shera, and Michael Gorman, whose works and example invite professional and critical self-examination. Here, Budd challenges us to confront the uneasy truth of whether libraries still represent people's will and intellect, or the cabalistic enclaves of an old guard? Through intellectually rich and engaging entrees into ethics, democracy, social responsibility, governance, and globalization, he makes the case that librarians who fail to grasp the importance of their heritage will never truly respond to societal change or the needs of the individual user.

Genres: Nonfiction, Library Science

282 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2007

Reviews

[Angel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to like this book, but it turns out to be mostly a heavy theoretical treatise. The first chapter is a historical overview of libraries from the dawn of time to the 20th century. It is pretty dry reading. The other chapters are not that much better. Maybe for me, in large measure, the book did not work because much of what is in the book I have read in various forms in other sources, especially during library school. Instead of providing a true self-reflection of the profession (what I expected), the book got bogged down with a lot of theory, old history, and philosophizing. I was interested in the ethics chapter, but I think there are better places to read in order to consider the ethics of our profession. As a practicing librarian, this is one book about the profession to skip, unless you happen to like dense reading.

[Kussette · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Watch yo'self!" - be more aware of the elements in your life, what you are surrounded of and people you are associated with - is a way for you to understand yourself more, thus learning more to listen, observe and act accordingly,

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published a book review of this in Library and Information Science Research

[Romany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is almost 10 years old, but just as relevant today. In it, you can see the beginnings of more recent books on critical librarianship. You can also see arguments similar to those concerning "truth" that have been happening on the ALA information literacy listserves since the election of Trump. Yes, it's a polemic against some older form of librarianship (with not a great deal of empirical evidence to back up many of the points) but as a philosophical treatise for a new librarianship it is worth reading and digesting. It moves deeply into the concepts behind the rhetoric of librarianship (e.g. What do we really mean when we talk about an information society? What are the unspoken values inherent in the ALA Library Bill of Rights?) and makes a strong argument for questioning our own values (individually, and as a profession).