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Silence and science |
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Library journalsNorwegian librarians are served by three national journals: Bok og bibliotek [Book and Library], Bibliotekforum [Library Forum] and Bibliotekaren [The Librarian]. These are practice oriented rather than academic publications. They include news and reports from the field, but no peer-reviewed articles. They are eagerly read by the Norwegian library community, which is small enough - around five thousand persons - for everybody to taken a direct interest in everbody else. Bok og bibliotek is published by the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority, Bibliotekforum by the Norwegian Library Association and Bibliotekaren by Bibliotekarforbundet [choose English], which is the main library trade union. In connection with IFLA 2005, the latter two have published bilingual issues, which are available at the conference site. Library researchAcademic library research represents a new development in Norway. A substantial investment in research only took place in the mid-1990`s. At that time, three things happened:
The journal of library research was edited at the new and innovative Institute for Documentation Science and Library Studies in Tromsø. It was published for eight years (1994-2001), but finally had to close for lack of funding. The journal accepted contributions in English as well as in the three Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish) - see Table 1.
The journal published many research reports and had a clear academic purpose. But it was not a fully academic journal based on peer review and strict quality control. This was hardly possible within the Norwegian library community. Our academic library community is still small. The total number of full-time library teachers in the country is about forty - too few to sustain a full scale research journal on their own. It functioned, however, as a useful training ground for writers that wanted to develop their skills as scholarly writers. We still miss it. Researchers and practionersThe social professions - like teaching, nursing and librarianship - have, I would argue, a slightly ambivalent attitude to research. They want, on the one hand, the respect and remuneration that go with academic status. Research projects and scholarly publications, master degrees and doctoral theses, conferences and councils are much in demand as signs and symbols of social status. But these institutional markers belong to the academic surface. The core of the academic world is the struggle for new insight and knowledge. In the applied disciplines - like librarianship - the knowledge sought must also be relevant and applicable inside the field of practice. Research offers insight and knowledge - but it also demands development and change. The most common problem in the social world is inertia: the continuation of old practices when they are no longer appropriate to new conditions. Social research is - as Habermas says - emancipatory. Science disenchants: it removes the ideological veil that surrounds all establishments (Weber). It treats the doxa of the professional field - the axioms, the values and all the standard truths - as themes for study (Bourdieu). Science is not politically correct. I am not arguing for a positivistic, value-free social science. I have never seen such an animal and I doubt its very existence. Committed social research - with a strong value orientation- is one of the legitimate approaches to scholarly work. But to be a scholar means to be commited to deep critical questioning as well. We may dislike what we find, but we are still obliged to share and discuss our findings. Library researchers have a duty to the scientific institution as such. Science is not dis-interested, but knowledge-interested. Following Bourdieu we can understand librarianship as a social field constituted by actors pursuing interests. In Norway, research is a new component in the library field. Important library actors have supported the entry of research and scholars. But they also need to learn what research implies for the patterns and habits of the field. Once researchers are invited into a new social field, like librarianship, they will demand to be taken seriously. If they are accepted, that will change some of the rules of the game. In many ways scientists work like quality inspectors. We will ask difficult questions (that is part of our job). We will scrutinize arguments. We will encourage more systematic data collection and less dependence on ad hoc-ery and anecdotal information. Quality control is not great fun - but it does raise professional standards over time. I am aware that librarians also need encouragement and support. I believe library academics can offer such support without compromising any academic standard. The digital environment has an intense need for professionals that can organize information objects, develop user-oriented interfaces, guide user interaction and promote dissemination, learning and reuse of texts in a wide sense. The central library subjects represent deep, difficult and unique professional competencies that are becoming more rather than less important than before. A NEW JOURNAL? The Norwegian library world has started to accommodate the new digital environment. In my opinion we move rather too slowly and diffidently. I believe we have the potential to move faster, with a clearer sense of direction and with a greater will to change. I started this reflection with our publications, and come back to this point in conclusion. In terms of population Norway is a small country. We have all of 4,5 million inhabitants. In the United States, we would be the size of Maryland. In China, the size of lush, subtropical Hainan. The Norwegian library world is a small social field: it includes a few thousand people, or about one thousandth of the Norwegian population. The field is too small to sustain a full-scale scientific peer-reviewed journal. Why? Let us calculate: A small, peer-reviewed journal is typically published four times a year. It ought to present about 25 scholarly articles a year. To safeguard quality, its selection rate (accepted/submitted) ought to be less than 50% - which means we would need at least 50 submitted articles a year. The average production rate for substantial academic articles is at best 3 articles per research year (corresponds to about 80 full working days per article). It would take about 17 full research years to generate fifty articles per year. This, I suspect, is substantially more than the total time available for library research in Norway. And we can not expect Norwegian researchers to publish all their articles in "our" journal. International publication in more prestigious journals is also necessary. Nor can we expect submissions from abroad "coming in" to balance submissions from Norway "going out". There are far too many library journals available: good (highly selective), mediocre (somewhat selective) and bad (will take nearly anything ...). Another approach to publication is needed. A NEW PUBLICATION LADDER A couple of weeks ago I suggested a "publication ladder" - from easy to difficult - for librarians who wanted to write about their profession. Here I approach the same issue from the institutional side. How can Norwegian library institutions - in cooperation - create a series of publication channels that will serve the needs of librarians, students and researchers? I am of course aware that this is a field of conflicting - as well as confluent - interests. Everybody wants a lively and interesting library publication scene. At the same time the various library institutions - associations, trade unions, colleges, parastatals (ABM) - like to make their own identity and contribution visible. Publishing is more demanding and more expensive than most readers realize. Editorial freedom is a great ideal and much praised by the library community. But those who pay also want a say. I do not mean censorship of individual contributions, but some influence on the overall shape and direction of the publication. That is life - and better discussed in the open than disguised in the offices. Here, I disregard those interests. They are not forgotten, but bracketed. The negotiation between interests belongs to a later stage. People in the library community find themselves at very different stages with respect to writing. We may distinguish between three main groups: library students, library practitioners and library academics. I include administrators and technical library staff under "practitioners" and doctoral students under the heading "academics". StudentsAll students are required to write reports, essays and exam papers during their formal training. As library education becomes more academic, and also more digital, the demand for written work is increasing. The great majority of our students - more than 95 % - complete their studies with a bachelor degree. At Oslo University College students write a substantial paper (15 ECTS) during their final year. In addition they produce portfolios of work - small essays, book reports, notes, reflections, etc. - in several subjects. At the University of Tromsø the curriculum is more project oriented. Here students complete two major reports during their three year program: one in documentation science and one in librarianship. Only a handful of students take master degrees in library and information studies (Oslo) or documentation science (Tromsø) each year. At the master level, people specialize. Their papers and reports are (of course) generally more advanced in terms of theory, methods or technical skills. Many master students are practitioners that come back for a second degree - and their work often benefits from their personal understanding of real world libraries. PractitionersOperational library staff are seldom required to produce more than the occasional internal memo or budget report. Some practitioners also write news items, conference reports or opinion pieces for local newsletter or one of our three trade journals. Only a small minority - maybe one or two percent - try their hand at more advanced technical or professional writing: technical studies, survey articles, full scale essays, conference posters, conference papers or research articles. One group needs a special comment. I refer to the so-called academic librarians: people with master degrees (or higher) that are employed as senior librarians - mostly by university libraries - in their specific subject. In the past, the status differential between ordinary librarians - with three years of vocational training (or less), and academic librarians - with five or more years of university studies, was jealously guarded. Today the gap is smaller. Higher education is much more widespread, and ordinary library studies have become more academic. But it is still the case that the academic librarians are more likely to become authors of technical or professional articles. In addition to their knowledge of library work they have mastered an academic discipline and written a research oriented thesis. They are normally employed in senior positions that give them more opportunities for writing and for participating in the academic world. AcademicsIn Norway, the transformation of library studies from practice-oriented vocational training to a regular bachelor program with academic aspirations is quite recent. The biggest change took place in the mid-nineties, when the government decided to merge nearly all vocational colleges into larger institutions on a regional basis. Through this process the Library College in Oslo was merged with the School of Journalism to form a new media faculty within Oslo University College. The new regional colleges were expected to strengthen their academic credentials. Existing staff were offered opportunities for further education, to the master or the doctoral level; professorships were introduced, and new teachers were largely recruited from people with a Ph.D.
Recognized journals 2005
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| Tord Høivik - 2005/08/29 |
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