Selling a profession

If there's one thing I'm not really good at, it's at selling. Friends and relatives have appoached me in the past to help them sell their wares but I always end up buying from them instead because I really don't have marketing savvy.

But selling ideas is different. This morning I was at Philippine Normal University for a career talk to entice freshies to take up Bachelor of Library and Information Science. The activity was in time for majorship exams which will be held before the end of the semester.

My presentation was entitled Library and Information Professionals:At the Forefront of the Digital World. I thought I was just going to talk to a small group but when I saw the number of chairs at the venue (library lobby), I got nervous. True enough, by the time I started, most of the seats were taken (more than 90 students) but some of them had to leave in the middle of my talk because the had exams. Too bad.

I began the talk with a question on what their idea of a librarian was. From their responses, they had only a vague idea of what we do and that the reason one student was there was because she wanted to know exactly what we do.

Then I asked them if anyone had read the famous and infamous '105 useless librarians' and luckily no one in the audience had read it save for the faculty members present. I used the article as a springboard to sell the course and focused my presentation on the evolving roles of librarians and information professionals in the light of the digital environment with emphasis on the shortage of librarians all over the country. I also saw it as a chance to promote my advocacies: EDO and GILAS; and of course made them aware of blogging librarians and encouraged them to visit these regularly and to leave comments.

It was a brief presentation, really, all of 45 minutes but judging from the feedback I got from the teachers, I have covered the important details. At the end of my talk, I asked the audience if their views of librarians and librarianship has changed. If only for their answers, I felt I have achieved my objective. I just hope it will translate into enrolment.

Librarians should take on the challenge of promoting librarianship more aggressively and with passion. The Philippine Association of Teachers of Library Science are doing their part with campus tours, but I think they need to collaborate with professionals who are in the best position to market the profession. They seriously need to look into bridging the gap between academics and the realities in the field.



As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. (Col 2:6)