Germanists Discussion Group
ALA Midwinter, San Diego
January 11, 2004
Minutes
1. Report on the German Resources Program meeting at the Goethe-Forum on 16 July 2003 in Munich, prior to the IFLA Preconference. Tom Kilton gave an overview of the GRP Agenda, the reception by KG Saur, the exhibit of medieval manuscripts in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, as well as the dinner held there. Dick Hacken gave a detailed report of the day's work: the history of and vision for the GRP, concurrent sessions by the Resource Sharing and Bibliographic Control Working Groups, and reports on the work of the Collection Development Working Group and future actions to be undertaken by the Digital Library Working Group. There were partner presentations in the area of Middle Eastern Studies and Art History. Finally, there was a discussion of the future of the GRP and possible assistance which could emerge from cooperation under the auspices of the CRL. The day's Agenda, with links to papers given at the IFLA Preconference, may be found at http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/WESS/Munich.htm Detailed information on each of the Working Groups may be found at http://grp.lib.msu.edu/
2. Update on Digizeitschriften by Elmar Mittler, Director of the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen. Digizeitschriften is beginning to function officially in 2004. It should be free for GRP members in 2004, then it will be available for a cost, as details of pricing models are developed. It contains 40 titles now, and should contain 60 titles by December 2004. New subjects and titles will be added in areas such as nature, geology, Slavonic studies, and archaeology, and 120 titles are anticipated overall, pending negotiations with the publishers. Information on the Digizeitschriften project may be found at http://www.digizeitschriften.de
3. Charles Croissant attended IFLA's annual conference, which was held in Berlin August 2-9, 2003. While there, he attended meetings of IFLA's Cataloging Section. The major focus of these meetings was a series of reports on the work of the International Meeting of Experts for an International Cataloging Code (IMEICC). The International Meeting of Experts was held in Frankfurt on July 28-30, 2003; it was chaired by Barbara Tillett of the Library of Congress, hosted by Die Deutsche Bibliothek, and brought together experts on cataloging from more than 20 European countries. The fruit of their deliberations was a Draft Statement of Principles for an international cataloging code, http://www.ddb.de/news/pdf/statement_draft.pdf Further meetings of experts are planned for Buenos Aires in 2004 and Seoul, Korea, in 2006, in the hopes of achieving truly global input into this statement of principles, which is intended as an expansion and update of the famous Paris Principles of 1961.
4. Report on the Frankfurt Book Fair. Gordon Anderson reported that a number of WESS and SEES members staffed the ACRL exhibit, despite the display box being delayed in customs. This year, the country of emphasis was Russia. The booth was expensive and Gordon asked if there should be a WESS presence next year when the Middle East is the focus area.
Discussion: Recruitment to the Profession
Brian Vetruba began the discussion with a powerpoint presentation showing statistics on attrition of librarians with language skills, the lack of catalogers with language expertise, and the types of jobs where language is an asset. If you would like a copy of the powerpoint presentation, please contact Brian Vetruba <bvetruba@wustl.edu> and he will send you the file. The WESS outreach and recruitment website Libraries NEED People with Foreign Language Skills! may be found at http://www.columbia.edu/~klg19/WESS/
An enthusiastic discussion followed, and the following bullets show particular situations at specific institutions (left unspecified for these minutes), as well as systemic problems, and some suggestions for how to recruit librarians with language skills into the profession.
Suggestions for people starting the job search:
Suggest new librarians start with any "job" and build the resume from there. New librarians could start with institutions that have European collections or Centers.
Examine job titles. Sometimes "German" language or subject focus is hidden in positions with titles like "North European," or "Western European," or "Continental European History." Many "Humanities Bibliographer" positions include a language component.
Some institutional barriers or systemic "problems":
Catalogers without German knowledge can not enhance catalog records.
The West European specialist at one institution knows French, but not German.
There may be a perceived lack of respect for foreign language skills at the administrative level.
The hiring of non-MLS candidates might give rise to two "classes" of librarians, but one person indicated that some of the best bibliographers may not have the MLS, and that these skills are best learned on the job.
Certification is a recognized problem, and there were many suggestions in this regard:
Drop the MLS requirement.
Specify that a "library science B.A." (as opposed to the MLS) is satisfactory, and build further from there..
Some tenure-track jobs require a second MA, but a candidate with a Ph.D should be exempt from this requirement.
Hire a PhD in German or Manuscript Studies, for example, and require the MLS within three years.
Grant release time for the new hire to take classes.
Adjust the salary level to cover costs of taking classes.
Other suggestions:
Require everyone to spend time with the Catalog Department in order to reach a common knowledge of the issues and also to get people to work in areas they might otherwise avoid.
Recruit from the pool of "disgruntled" graduate students, or students who do not complete the Ph.D program, but who would otherwise be potentially interested in library positions.