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2C Wednesday, October192011 The Statement
statemenTHEJUNKDRAWER
Wensdy Otbe 9,211/ TeSttmet E
random student interview bydylancynti
Magazine Editor:
Carolyn Klarecki
Editor in Chief:
Stephanie Steinberg
Managing Editor:
Nick Spar
Deputy Editors:
Stephen Ostrowski
Devon Thorsby
Elyana Twiggs
Designers:
Maya Friedman
Hermes Risien
Photos:
Allison Kruske
Alden Reiss
Copy Editors:
Hannah Poindexter
The Statement is The Michigan
Daily's news magazine, distributed
every Wednesday during the
academic year
To contact The Statement e-mail
klarecki@michigandaily.com.
Welcome to the Random
Student Interview,
where the reporter
sometimes wants to talk more
than the subject.
I ran into one other person, this
girl, but she seemed to be in a
big hurry and turned me down
for an interview. Do you think I
should take that personally?
For the interview?
Yeah for the interview, but do
you think that's reflective of
like -
I would not take that personally,
no.
No?
No.
So it's not something I have to
think about beyond -
No, not at all.
Thank you. I know over on
State Street they're having the
State Street Fashion Week. Do
you consider clothes a big ele-
ment in your life?
A big element? No. But an ele-
ment, yes, I think so.
Just an element? Like what do
clothes say about a person, are
they a true reflection of self?
I think they can sometimes
reflect how much a person cares
about appearances, which can
reflect self confidence or how
much they care about what
they're doing.
Absolutely. But it's raining now,
and I'm really worried about my
Burburry raw denim pants. So
that's causing me a great deal
of stress right now. I find that I
can't leave the house sometimes
because I'm worried about my
clothes getting dirty. Do you
think that's, like, an issue?
Yes I think that's an issue. Clothes
are meant to be worn so if you're
not wearing them because of
something that kind of defeats the
purpose.
Oh. But - but - OK, I guess I
see where you're coming from
with that. You know what puts
it in perspective for me is, like,
there are people - our genera-
tion basically - mobilized on
Wall Street. How do you feel
in a general way about those
protests?
Wait. Say that again? How did
this? -
It segued. It was sort of a
nuanced segue to one thing that
puts it all in perspective, that
clothes aren't important, is the
reality of thousands of people
protesting. How do you feel
about those protests and what
they say about our generation?
Well I think that, I mean, I sup-
port the fact that people are
protesting as they feel necessary.
There is something going on
beyond the shallow consumer-
ism that's associated with the era
most of us were brought up in. I
don't think that necessarily has
an effect on how people present
themselves to an extent other
than the fact that with the cur-
rent situation a lot of the people
may not be able to afford to pres-
ent themselves how they wish -
Wait how do you mean?
The protests are based on the idea
that people can't get jobs that -
Oh really?
Or we -
I don't know what the protests
are about. Ijust usually, all I
say is that there are protests
happening, and I try to string
it together in a way that sounds
eloquent and hope people fill in
the blanks for me. So it's about
jobs?
It's about the divide, the wealth
divide between what is gener-
ally considered to be people with
Wall Street jobs or other financial
jobs that kind of make money off
of money and people who do not
have such jobs -
But then what about some-
one like me? I would say I
worked like four weeks to get
the money to get these pants
but they're pants that would
indicate wealth, but I'm not
wealthy - so then what am I?
Uh, someone who's good at bud-
geting their money to get what
they want. One of the objections
to the current protest is that peo-
ple think that people aren't prop-
erly managing their money. It's
not necessarily what I think, but
it is one of the main objections.
Let's just shift radically to one
last subject then I'll let you
go: home maintenance. How
much do you care about general
cleanliness of the house?
I care a lot, I guess. I want my -
there's a difference between being
messy and being dirty. I don't like
things to be dirty, but messy isn't
terrible, if that makes sense.
I have a roommate, his name is
Mike, he's sort of like a domes-
tic cat except that he does house
work. He takes great pleasure
doing the dishes. Do you have
somebody like that around the
house?
I live alone, so if I don't do the
dishes the dishes don't get done.
Oh no.
I've had roommates who are that
way, where they do all the clean-
ing because they want to.
Mike's that way. I'm sure he'd
be very happy to clean wher-
ever you live.
Thanks.
So I can certainly offer his ser-
vices.
Thanks, no thanks.
- Jessica is a Rackham
graduate student
Over the past century, the University
Library grew to be one of the largest uni-
versity library systems in the world, but
until the Internet came to prominence over
the past two decades, the general func-
tion of a library remained unchanged from
Gray's humble beginnings in the 1830s.
The Internet, however, has radically
altered the way people interact with infor-
mation and redefined the library's place
in academia and society. Thirty years ago,
if a student needed to know the capital of
Mozambique, she would have to go to the
library and ask a reference librarian for
assistance to find out that the capital is
Maputo.
Now, all a student needs to do is run a
Google search on her iPhone and within
30 seconds - and without leaving her bed-
room - she could find out that Maputo has
a population of 1.07 million and that the
average temperature in July is 64 degrees
Fahrenheit.
So while the instantaneous nature of the
Internet has made The United States Postal
Service insignificant (When was the last
time you sent a letter?) and has fostered a
24-hour demand for news and information,
it'd be easy to assume that libraries, at the
University and elsewhere, would also be
victims of the Internet's accessibility and
travel down the same path as Borders Inc.,
CDs and handwritten thank you notes.
But that's not the case.
While it's possible to go through four
years at the University without ever check-
ing out a book, libraries are hardly irrele-
vant. They are evolving, and in some cases
even thriving, in the face of technological
change.
The University Library has taken steps
to move more of its resources online, has
partnered with Google to digitize its col-
lection of books and continues to increase
the number of online databases available to
students and faculty.
Similarly, the School of Information is
training the next generation of informa-
tion professionals with the skills to manage
and preserve information in the age of the
Internet - whether they call themselves
librarians or not, according to School of
Information Dean Jeffrey MacKie-Mason.
"The word 'librarian' is attached to a
building, but the building is neither here
nor there. It's the information services you
provide with the content wherever it might
be," MacKie-Mason said. "And a lot of peo-
ple who specialize in library and informa-
tion services work in organizations that
don't look anything like libraries and aren't
libraries."
The University's Board of Regents char-
tered the School of Information in 1996, but
the school has been educating librarians in
one form or another since it was inaugu-
rated as the Department of Library Science
in 1926.
Thirty-four students were in the first
class to earn degrees from the Depart-
ment of Library Sciences in 1927, and the
next year the department became the third
institution in the country to be accredited
by the American Library Association - an
accreditation it hasn't lost since.
And while the program, its name, the
degrees it offers and the technology it
teaches has changed over the years, the
School of Information's goal has remained
the same, MacKie-Mason said.
"Our mission is to bring together peo-
ple, information and technology in more
valuable ways," MacKie-Mason said. "We
have a very strong commitment to social
improvement and social engagement. That,
in part, has been the mission of library pro-
fessionals for more than 100 years."
Today, the School of Information ranks
number five in U.S. News and World
Report's list of the best graduate library
and information studies programs. Three
hundred and sixty students are currently
enrolled in the Masters of Information Sci-
ence program, the most of any program in
the School of Information.
Every MIS student is required to com-
plete a set of core courses, and each student
chooses at least one specialization of per-
sonal interest. The specializations range
from Library and Information Science,
which trains students to work in tradi-
tional librarian roles, to Human Computer
Interaction, where students learn to design
and navigate computer databases.
Each specialization may be different,
but all students graduate with an ALA-
accredited degree - a necessity for work-
ing in most libraries, accordingto School of
Information Prof. Karen Markey, the LIS
faculty coordinator.
"(Though) the students receive an
accredited library degree, they can spe-
cialize in any number of areas that aren't
strictly, and narrowly, defined within
library information studies," Markey said.
Because of the variety of specializations,
many students ultimately find themselves
working outside the traditional library
framework, Markey said.
Ben Bunnell was one of those students.
Bunnell, who graduated from the Uni-
versity with an MIS degree in 2008, now
works for Google as part of Google Books
Search, which digitizes the collections
of various libraries around the world -
including the University Library.
He acts as a liaison between Google
and the libraries, ensuring the books are
scanned properly without damage and
that the scanned files are then given to the
libraries and uploaded on Google Books.
At the University, Bunnell studied elec-
tronic search and retrieval, making Google
- the world's largest search engine - an
appealing place to work, he said. But now,
in his role with Google Books, Bunnell said
he often acts as a "voice" for the librarians
when talking with his Google coworkers.
"Havinga library degree, havingworked
at the graduate library at Michigan and
knowing a lot of librarians, it's been very
easy for me to develop relationships with
the libraries with whom we work," Bun-
nell said. "I feel like I speak the language
of librarians. I feel like I understand, gen-
erally, their concerns and what they value."
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Still, there are students interested in
working in traditional libraries. About 26
percent of 2009 MIS graduates took jobs
in some type of library after finishing their
degree, according to data from the School
of Information Career Services office.
Dean of Libraries Paul Courant said that
while there still is a need for librarians,
especially when students and research-
ers need help finding more nuanced and
detailed information than what is readily
available on Wikipedia or Google.
"Knowing how to find things in an envi-
ronment where there's a lot of information,
but it's confusing, is an extremely valuable
skill," Courant said. "Helping people to
make judgments about the quality of the
information, which is something that used
to be easier when there was not as much
stuff published, is also an extremely valu-
able skill. Someone's got to do that, or else
we'll just have total chaos."
MIS student Ryan Clement said the
School of Information offers courses that
teach students the technical skills they'll
need to be successful.
"Talking to friends who are in other
programs around the country, they'll be
learning things about technology that
pretty much everyone in the LIS program
at Michigan already knows," Clement said.
"There's that focus and that acknowledge-
ment (of technology)."
Clement, who wants to work in an aca-
demic library once he graduates, said mov-
ing forward, libraries will need to continue
to make information more accessible for
researchers.
"Librarians ... (need) to be able to create
things that make it easier, more useful and
more fun for people to get to the content,"
he said.
Similarly, MIS student Ilana Barnes,
who currently works at the Kresge Busi-
ness Administration Library, said the
classes she has taken on database creation
and other online tools allow her to better
serve library patrons.
Barnes said a large part of her job is help-
ing researchers determine what informa-
tion they can find for free through Google,
and what they'll need library resources to
find.
"I see my purpose as knowing how
far certain resources go and knowing
what people will need going into further
research," Barnes said.
As libraries, as institutions and physical
spaces, continue to evolve, the job of the
librarian will continue to remain the same
at heart.
And though Asa Gray couldn't have
imagined what the University Library, or
any library for that matter, has developed
into, the job of a librarian hasn't changed
- as they still remain guides to knowledge.