Systems Librarianship

In one form or another, systems librarians have been around for years, but, for some reason, the position is still not well understood. Both history and current practice indicate wide variation in the field, strong commitments to local arrangements, and a lack of functional standards. Library administrators and managers struggle with the broad requirements of the position, weighing the skill sets of degree holding professionals and non-MLS technologists. Practicing systems librarians grapple with poorly defined job descriptions. Aspiring systems librarians simply don't know where to begin.

In The Systems Librarian: Designing Roles, Defining Skills, author Tom Wilson finally takes the confusion out of this critical specialty. In clear, non-technical language, Wilson is able to answer the burning question: What exactly is a systems librarian?

Of course, this question has more than one right answer. Systems librarians are often designers, planners, implementors, consultants, technology representatives, facilitators, and the list goes on. Wilson provides an assessment of what systems librarianship is and what it can be, outlines in broad strokes the type of training that is needed for people to fill these positions, and illustrates important challenges for libraries (and systems librarians) in computing and networking.

This informative text provides substantive information about the specialty for aspiring systems librarians, administrators and managers who share accountability for library systems, and practicing systems librarians wanting to step back and look at the big picture.