St. Louis was a sweltering place for a preconference, but I suppose no more sweltering than Chicago was for ALA. My trip to St. Louis went oddly well – unlike my trip last year to Virginia for Rare Book School, which was a nightmare of science fiction proportions and culminated in my lost luggage being delivered nicely, and grossly, wet.

The theme of this year’s RBMS preconference was education – both education for librarians and librarians as educators. The real focus, though, was on the former, as many plenary talks and papers and informal chat during the breaks seemed to veer in that direction.

How did library school prepare us? Was it sufficient? Will any number of degrees prepare us for the real work of working as a librarian in a special collections library? Is the LIS curriculum essentially flawed?

As you all know I was probably the number one whip wielder when I was doing my LIS degree. I lamented all of the things that many LIS students lament: the lack of rigor in the program, the dominance of the public and children’s libraries mentality, the ice cream socials. I flogged the ice cream social until it was a vanilla mess.

But at this conference I was feeling ready to defend myself against what I thought would be a loud proclamation that the new crop of special collections librarians are under-educated and, at root, unqualified to take the place of the retiring curators and directors. I even pointed out to a presenter that special collections librarians are in the minority in LIS programs (thus changing the curriculum for, say, two people would be absurd) and that we can learn a lot from talking to public and academic librarians about things like outreach, BI, and reference (where special collections are sorely behind).

To my surprise the proclamation wasn’t finger-pointing at all. The dominant idea in the end seemed to be, “What can we do to better prepare new special collections librarians?” There was a feeling that RBMS and its members were taking on the responsibility themselves to supplement what young librarians learn in LIS programs with mentoring, additional education opportunities (like Rare Book School), and internships.

And as I listened and talked with older special collections librarians, it dawned on me that I’m a professional now, and that I can help with advice and with lending a curious ear to LIS students interested in this field.

Does that mean I’m raring to contact SLIS and put my name in as a resource for students like that? I’m not sure. What do you guys think? Some of you had mentors, I know, but maybe not all. Is it our responsibility to somehow make things better for students who come after us?

Enjoy ALA, or not going to conferences at all!

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