I wanted to blog about why librarians need to write and also why librarians are not writing. Deep down I know why they are not writing but I need to know someone else’s opinion on the topic. I googled why librarians need to write and came back with 312,000,000 hits such as Essential Librarian Skill: Writing, What I Learned About Academic Writing From Librarians, Writing to Enhance Learning: A Key Skill for Special Librarians, How Writing Contributes to a Librarian’s Career, Becoming a Writer-Librarian. I googled “why librarians need to write” and came out with only 8 hits.
An article by Rachel K. dated 23 October 2023, What I Learned About Academic Writing From Librarians (https://flatpage.com/what-i-learned-about-academic-writing-from-librarians/) caught my eye. She wrote about the challenges faced by librarians in academic writing. She went on to say that many academic librarians write and publish and they write on a wide spectrum of topics. She said that librarians have an advantage in writing since they are able to write across disciplinary lines and conventions. She opined that librarians are out of practice with writing, need to be retrained in writing and have limited time to write in their busy work schedule. Another observation she made which I find true is that ”Presenters at library conferences tend to speak spontaneously alongside their slides, rather than reading a paper. This may be an effective way of sharing ideas and connecting with peers, but means that a conference paper doesn’t serve as a stepping stone to an article in the way a paper in another field often does”. What this means is that librarians do not convert their conference papers to journal articles. Is there a need for this?
Powell, Bark and Mika (2002) in their paper Library and information science practitioners and researches published in Library and Information Science Research (Vol. 24, pp. 49-72), noted that librarians need to create new knowledge and contribute to the growth of literature in their profession; improve problem solving and decision making in workplace; be critical consumers of research literature and help equip libraries and librarians for optimal information services to other researchers.
Throughout the years, I have been running a number of writing workshops. I do this because I am a strong advocate of the need for librarians to write. I strongly feel that it is mandatory for librarians to write. This not only will increase the visibility of the profession but it will provide a documentation of what they do and why they do what they do. There is a vast difference between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. The practical knowledge has to be documented. I did make it mandatory, through their KPIs, for my librarians to write articles or conference papers, be it individually or in partnership. It worked. I could see their effort in producing papers and it was an advantage to the institution since almost all of their programmes, projects and activities are documented.
Before beginning any presentation, I will always ask this one question – why are you not writing? Some of the answers I received were too many subject matter and don’t know which to choose, don’t know what to write, busy with multitasking, no time, no topic, don’t know what to start, don’t have idea of what to write, not interested, lazy, don’t have time, hard to find time to write, job scope focusing more on programs and organisation’s objectives, don’t have the knowledge, skills and interest, and focus on doing core business of the organisation. Painful answers but I do understand this very well since that was me at the start of my career.
In their article in the International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research (Vol. 6, Issue 4, pp. 1041-1052) titled Research publish journals factors influencing publication output of librarians in tertiary institutions in Ogun State, Nigeria, Adegbite-badmus and Joda (2018) stated that their respondents gave a number of reasons for not writing. They are busy schedule of work, lack of interest, financial constraints, inadequate literature and inadequate research skills. These are similar to the ones given by my workshop participants and also as mentioned by Rachel K.
From 30 to 31 October 2019, I attended a workshop on Future Roles of Librarian for Special Libraries at PRC. One component of the workshop was The Library Transformation Workshop and the facilitator was Dr Wong Woei Fuh. If my memory serves me well and my notes are correct, he listed the new job functions of the librarian as 1. Information services, research and references, 2. Contents & programmes and Promotion & marketing 3. Integrated library systems, 4. Facility management and operational excellence. He went on to say that a librarian has to be a story teller. He/she needs to tell stories about his/her library through writings, videos, photos, illustrations and even music. I term these as documentation.
On 10 February 2021, I wrote about my writing journey in this blog (https://edzannasir.wordpress.com/2021/02/10/writing-for-librarians-my-writing-journey/). The younger me only wrote letters and reports. Like so many of you, I did not see the need to write and I also did not know what to write about and no one asked me to write. However, when I came back from doing my Masters, I had o write about my study leave for Kekal Abadi in 1994. Then, in 1996, I submitted an assignment I wrote for one of my Masters subject and submitted it to a newly minted journal, Network Information, in Singapore. It passed the peer review process. Again in 1996, I was asked to summarise my Masters dissertation and write an article about it. I did and it passed the peer review process and was published in the Malaysian Journal of Library and Information Science. There were no more writings since I did not see the need for it. In 1999, I joined academia and writing is mandatory. I wrote incessantly for promotion and then for my doctoral thesis. In 2007, I went back to being a librarian and yes, there was very little time to focus on writing especially for scholarly journals. I still write but mostly for conferences and I became very good at making power point presentations. Rachel K. is correct in her observation that librarians do not convert their conference papers into journal articles and I am guilty of that.
So I am going to reproduce what I wrote in my 10 February 2021 blog post,
So to all fellow librarians out there, you are definitely not alone. Take the first step to write. Writing as a librarian is all about sharing your experiences with fellow librarians …. sharing how you plan and execute various activities and programmes. It’s about telling your colleagues your success stories as well as your failures. It’s not about getting paybacks but it’s more about writing for the profession so that we can let the masses know what our profession is all about. To me, the COVID-19 pandemic is a blessing in disguise. Libraries and librarians are at their best with various services, programmes and activities. There is so much subject matter to write about and numerous studies that can be undertaken for both the librarians and the users. So, take the challenge and write. Do write for the profession that has supported you. All the best from me to you.
I also said that I would blog at least twice a month and write for a journal at least once a year. Let me change the latter – to write a conference paper at least once a year. On another note, I managed to submit a short piece in Malay for a book that will be out soon – a first for me for creative writing. I have attended two creative writing courses, one in English and one in Malay but for the life of me, I could not wrap my head around writing creatively. I see rain falling and pen it down as rain falling but creative writers have a way of writing that will give readers a sublime experience. We do have a fair number of librarians who are creative writers and who have published. As for me, no worries. I will keep on trying.
THE OTHER SIDE OF MY LIFE: THEN AND NOW 