. AM Amik Amili I"= 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." .., . ENTER THE MICHIGAN DAILY'S HOME BREW COMPETITION- IT'S YOUR LAST CHANCE! BRING YOUR BOTTLES TO 420 MAYNARD TODAY TO ENTER. ou Beer Here 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.