Opinions of a Wolf

The first plenary is given by the MLA president, the second by someone who is not necessarily a librarian but has something interesting to say that will aid us in our profession.  The third plenary, however, is given by a librarian.  Mark E. Funk’s presentation was entitled, “Our Words, Our Story: A Textual Analysis of Articles Published in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association/Journal of the Medical Library Association from 1961 to 2010.”  Here are my notes.

• An analysis of the words revealed four key areas that librarians talk about: environment, management, technology, and research.
• Although we talk more about building than people, that gap is narrowing.
• We are basically almost not talking about books, but we are increasingly talking about journals.
• Reference is steady.  Searching is increasing.
• Information is the #2 word.
• As our information world becomes more complicated, we are talking more and more about teaching.  “I predict teaching will become ever more important.”
• We are now concerned about what we can do to improve health.
• New groups we’ve reached out to include: clinicians, consumers, and patients.
• We use management words to tell our story.
• We are no longer running our libraries like academic environments; we are running them like businesses.
• We are early adopters and write about it.
• Sometimes new technology becomes so embedded in our lives that we don’t mention it anymore.  For example, you say you talked to someone but don’t mention the telephone.
• Our attention has shifted from automating to digitizing.
• We don’t talk about the internet.  We talk about the web and navigation.
• The word with the sharpest rise and fall is: Gopher
• IMRaDification of our profession.  (IMRaD–Intro, Methodology, Results, Discussion)
• MLA strategic plan encouraged us to do more research, and we responded.
• Hockey Stick terms–little to no use, sharp recent uptake.  May indicate future usage but it could be a drastic rise and fall. Only time will tell.
• EHRs are white hot now. (EHR–Electronic Hospital Record)
• Why do we study history?  It’s very good at explaining change.  Answers the question, how did we get here?
• De-emphasis on physical.  Emphasis on information.  Prefer evidence-based.
• Emphasis on health.  Expanded audience.  Outside the library.   Teaching people.
• Libraries more business-like. Technophiles. More research articles using IMRaD.
• History can hint at the future, but it can’t predict it.
• Our story is being written every day.  We can’t skip chapters to see what happens next.