What was a “cybrarian” in 2001?
“So many librarians are steeped in technology that you learn to become a cybrarian. I am a referencce librarian and an instructional librarian. As I’m asked questions–whether I answer them by researching the Web, or talk to you via e-mail–I think of a library now as a place without walls.” –Kay Cutler, University of Virginia Library
I saw this awesome quote in a “Cybrarian” job write-up from 2001 that my librarian colleague Angie Miraflor sent me. It is a pamphlet on Cybrarians, and is part of the Emerging Occupation Brief from Chronicle Guidance Publications. The whole thing is highly amusing. The fact that they isolated Cybrarian as a separate job is awesome. The technologies from 2001 that they chose to highlight as critical to the profession are hilarious: email, CD-ROMs, capital-I “Internet,” and capital-W “Web.”
But for all that, the quote is still a good one…and applies to each and every one of us today. We are all cybrarians. We all work with the technology every day and we all are expected to be as expertly comfortable with the web as we are with our physical collections. Are you comfortable with both? If not, think about some professional development activities that can help you gain that elusive sense of ease. If you need some suggestions, I’m happy to help. Good luck, ye Cybrarians of the world!
February 17th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Regarding the capital W in ‘Web,’ that’s dictated in the AP Stylebook as recently as the 2007 edition. Now I’m off to buy the 2009 edition for my library…
February 25th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I’m too conservative, I guess, to like the idea of exchanging an old word (”librarian”) for a new one. However, I do very much like the phrase “library without walls,” perhaps because it’s in the wall-less library where my work resides. But I also like the way the phrase validates all that’s written now but not on the shelf!
February 28th, 2010 at 11:56 am
I never heard the term cybrarian before reading an email exchange with Marilyn Johnson posted on The New Yorker’s website ( http://bit.ly/cPg75l ). Now I see that it’s been used since 2001. I left a previous career in information technology in the late 1990s hoping to one day be a librarian sorting through the mass of information on the Web. Happily, I am now, and proud to be calling myself a digital librarian.
February 28th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Oops, sorry. I think the mention of cybrarian must have been in an online audio interview I heard on the NPR site. (I haven’t read the book yet.)
March 6th, 2010 at 4:56 am
[...] but I think she strikes a good balance between concrete practical tips and tricks, and reflective analysis of wider issues related to librarianship and [...]
March 12th, 2010 at 9:40 am
In 1991 ¹, cybrarian was a blend or portmanteau of “cyberpunk” and “librarian”*. Cyberpunk wasn’t as played-out then; the conference session I coined it for was in a pretty small room, but we had most everyone who was developing software or hosting sites for WAIS/Gopher/WWW/FTP/Archie . We’d probably need a bigger room now.
There was more emphasis on the tech services/systems side of things, but there was also a sense that with network access policies loosening, and with the new generation of graphical user interfaces, information was about to start sneaking out after curfew, and we were totally going to stick it to Team Flying Car.
(WAIS was Brewster Kahle/ Thinking Machines Corporation implementation of Z39.50 1988)
By 2001³ , The cyberpunk connotations had faded , as the technology got more stable, and as the reference aspect came to dominate, probably for the better. But, like the unofficial tech services motto says “PE1599.F83 – If I wanted to help you I’d be out front”.
I have a copy of the Johnson book, but I haven’t had time to get to it yet (I’m currently a Doctoral Student in the School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill. I’m saving it for avoidance behavior time
Simon
¹ “1991 Updated BOF Schedule for San Francisco USENIX Conference in comp.org.usenix (Usenet newsgroup) 31 Dec. Cybrarians: WAIS/Archvists.” ² In ⁴
² “Cybrarians: WAIS/Archivists Simon Spero ” See: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.org.usenix/msg/49057943438c1c8f?pli=1
³ “2001 F. POPCORN & A. HANFT Dict. Future 300 Cybrarians will have to learn new techniques for mapping and monitoring the unruly Internet”. In ⁴
⁴ Cybrarian. (2006). Oxford English Dictionary Online. Available at: http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/20002634
* [The OED entomology is slightly buggy in this regard. Sorry. Had to. ]