How Shall We Take the Lead?
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The December issue of Washingtonian Magazine featured editor's choices of the fifty most intelligent people in the nation's capital. A few days earlier, an article in the Washington Post boasted that Washington, D.C. is home to the most educated population in the United States. So, you can imagine my delight when I discovered that a librarian was included in the Washingtonian article among the likes of Francis Collins, father of the Human Genome Project, and heralded filmmaker Charles Guggenheim. |
This dynamic information professional I am speaking of is Dr. Jolande Goldberg, creator of the K (Law) classification within the Library of Congress classification scheme. A renowned sculptress, Dr. Goldberg trained as a lawyer in Germany and immigrated to the United States after marrying her American scientist-husband. She soon joined the Library of Congress staff as a cataloger, and the rest is library history. I have known Jolande for about 18 years. She is both extraordinary and exemplary of the attributes that information professionals posses.
Let me give you examples of the characteristics that I have in mind. Information professionals appreciate the importance of following rules, and they are, themselves, excellent rule-makers. It is no wonder that our profession has been charged through the centuries with organizing knowledge and describing it in a consistent and logical way. Next, we are tenacioussometimes even obstinate. This enables us to find facts at the end of a jumble of clues. We have high standards for our information. In fact, some claim that our perfectionistic propensities can often come across as overkill to our clienteles.
Just as we appreciate the provability of science and statistics, we are also a creative lot. We enjoy the challenge of diverse responsibilities. While we may want to establish and embrace traditions, we are not likely to sacrifice practicality and better practice in the name of tradition. Finally, while we play an enormous role in the viability of a democratic government and the vitality of a free economy, we are able to laugh at ourselves and not be overly impressed with our achievements. Again, some may say this contributes much to our feelings of being undervalued.
In the months ahead, SLA, your professional association, will ask you to consider many serious issues that will have a direct impact on the association's future direction. You will need to bring many of your positive professional traits to the forefront in order to make the "right decisions." Hopefully some of the negative traits, which I'll save for another column, will not be able to overly influence our thought process. Thank you, Jolande Goldberg, for being such a wonderful example and representing our profession among the "Fifty Best." We aspire to follow your lead.
Roberta I. Shaffer
Executive Director
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