NextGen: Speech Wants To Be Free
By Rachel Singer Gordon -- Library Journal, 5/15/2004
There is a difference, for example, between being professionally opinionated (à la Kathleen de la Peña McCook, who gives concrete ways the profession can move forward) and being gratuitously nasty about one's coworkers on a discussion list. There is a difference between thoughtfully challenging our associations' policies (à la Karen Schneider, who keeps the independent Cuban librarian issue alive on her personal blog) and engaging in unsupported "I hate ALA" generalizations.
What you do say can hurt youBe aware that your online conversations are public and that your posts can elicit reactions. One librarian blogged her thoughts about a promising job interview and her internal struggle about whether to accept the low-paying position, logged hits to her site from the potential employer the next day, and never heard from them again. Another posted his feelings—in less-than-flattering terms—about affirmative action, other librarians, and job searching in general on several e-mail lists; his contract was not renewed for the following year, and it took him months to find a new job. Yet another was called into her administrator's office and asked to remove posts about her coworkers from her personal blog. Beyond these specific—and true!—cases, other librarians face future embarrassment when comments typed in the heat of the moment turn up in a potential employer's (coworker's, boyfriend's…) Google search years later.
While most employers are aware of the more conversational atmosphere online, your interactions contribute to your reputation. Consistently counterproductive or hurtful comments, unlike professional discourse, build an off-putting picture.
When faced with the temptation to flame, defame, or otherwise present yourself unprofessionally online, think about the permanence of your Internet expression and take the time to post as you wish others to remember you. Recognize the online environment as a professional environment, and work to interact meaningfully, in the same way you work to present yourself professionally in your workplace, at a conference, or in the library literature.
Interacting effectively in any community, on- or offline, requires an awareness of our actions and an empathy for others. How would your coworkers feel, for example, to come across a web page of your pet nicknames for them that point out their every idiosyncrasy? How would your employer's campaign to attract new blood—your future colleagues—be affected by a blog devoted to denigrating your library's working conditions? If working conditions are truly terrible, take steps to improve the environment. Talk to administrators. Suggest changes. If that doesn't work, move on. Think about what purpose you serve by posting comments in haste or indulging in personal digs, rather than taking the time to think and write seriously about our professional issues and where we are headed.
Solutions and suggestionsNextGens concerned about the impact of their online interactions on their library careers can choose to post more controversial opinions anonymously. You can certainly blog under a pseudonym or establish an anonymous email account, and lists such as the Contrarian Librarian (groups.yahoo.com/group/contrarianlibrarian) and forums like Librarian Avengers (www.librarianavengers.org/phpbb) encourage free discussion of library working conditions—anonymity optional. These venues serve a purpose, providing a home for those toss-off comments you may not wish to come back to haunt you, or for those you wish to hide from your present employer.
The downsides? Choosing the anonymous/pseudonymous route minimizes the networking benefits of online interaction and community and interferes with your efforts to market yourself through all of your online endeavors. Further, deciding when to post anonymously requires you to engage in a sort of self-censorship.
The online environment is a marvelous opportunity to get your thoughts and writing viewed by a larger audience than ever before possible. Be proactive about promoting your points of view, taking the time to ensure that what you say truly reflects your thoughts and your abilities. Realize the difference between contributing to the professional discourse and shouting across it.
Your words have powerPart of free speech has always been the realization that words have consequences. If they are important to us, they can be important—negatively or positively—to our colleagues, coworkers, and supervisors as well. As librarians we must understand that our words have the same power to influence that we ascribe to those of others. If we want to be taken seriously as younger professionals, we need to claim our own power, including the power to wound. Make your own online words purposeful, make them count, and make them serve your personal and professional goals.
| Author Information |
| Rachel Singer Gordon (rachel@lisjobs.com) is webmaster of the library careers site Lisjobs.com and author of The Accidental Systems Librarian (Information Today, 2003) and The Librarian's Guide to Writing for Publication (Scarecrow, 2004). She is the LJ Computer Media columnist |
