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Okay, time for a way to answer the traditional problem of the friend/relative/stranger who looks at you and says, "Oh, so you read books all day?" or the politician who wants to know what you do that can't be done by a few volunteers manning circulation (clerks/pages) and buying whatever the heck they want.

Obviously individuals will be able to add something about their specific job, but a framework elevator speech is still a useful (and sometimes necessary) starting point.

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Added public-libraries tag because that's where it's most likely to come up. "librarianship" and "elevator-pitch" are probably relevant but non-existent, and I'm still a little reputation shy of being able to create them. (I've asked another "elevator-pitch" question here as well.) Tagging assistance would be welcomed. – M. Alan Thomas II May 31 '12 at 22:01
Suggested adding the 'profession' tag. It is waiting for peer review. – Peter Murray May 31 '12 at 22:40
@Peter: Approved; thanks for the suggestion. – M. Alan Thomas II Jun 1 '12 at 2:39
I like to add in something about improving our patrons' lives. – user130 Jun 1 '12 at 3:11
IMO, [profession] is a bad tag. It doesn't really add anything and can be applied to pretty much every question since this is a site for Library and Info Science professionals. It might be worthwhile to think "would this tag actually be useful for categorization?" before creating a new one. – MDMarra Jun 1 '12 at 22:35
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7 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

"Librarianship is about connecting users to information and exercising stewardship over information resources for the long term." This is generally true, I think, as a single sentence about the profession, bit it misses an education and literacy outreach component.

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is this a quote from somewhere or just elevator-pitch-ready? – andrea Jun 1 '12 at 2:36
@andrea Otis something I came up with, although it has been undoubtedly influenced by similar statements from others. – Peter Murray Jun 1 '12 at 2:53
I'm going to check this off as the accepted answer, since it doesn't look like we're going to get a better one, but I did up-vote answers by Joe and Tim Ireland below that I think have something to contribute. – M. Alan Thomas II Jun 2 '12 at 22:47
up vote 3 down vote

Librarians help people find information.

And then if there's any interest in that statement, then I'd state that there's lots of different types of librarians and of course information comes in all kinds of ways, but that in a nutshell we're all more or less trying to help people find what they want to know about.

Pretty darn basic but that's what elevator pitches are about. A lot depends on delivery I think. ;) ..For the politician, I'd show cold hard numbers of patron usage, including programmng numbers etc and for the disbelieving friend who thinks we just read all day, I'd tell them some short vignettes from my work days.

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up vote 3 down vote

"Librarian" carries baggage, so I'm not going to try to change someone's perception in 30 seconds. They know we are somehow tied to books & library buildings. We are smart people who know how to answer tough questions. When I talk about what I do, I try to talk at the task level. Let them use whatever big picture they have already developed.

My elevator pitch goes something like, "I meet with people a lot; I consult on under-the-hood projects like digitizing books and building websites. I also teach and lecture on a variety of topics about digital projects. My main responsibility is improving our methods for storing digital files; it gets tricky when you get into the terabytes."

Then the conversation generally gets around to iTunes and software for managing pictures; of which I really have no expertise, but I toss out some fancy terms sometimes and offer general guidelines that you could just as easily find on Lifehacker.

Anyway--I really think focusing on your tasks will give a clearer picture than trying to sum it all up in one sentence about information and knowledge and access.

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up vote 3 down vote

Collect, organize and distribute information.

(that's about as short as I can get it, while hitting 90% of what most of us do)

update just a bit longer, but to get in the 'curate' role:

Collect, organize, protect, improve and distribute information.

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2  
And 'curate' -- some notion of the caretaker role. – Peter Murray Jun 2 '12 at 18:57
@Peter : I agree, but we likely need a different word -- otherwise, you'll have to spend the next few minutes explaining what 'curate' means. Checking a synonym ring (which gave me religious people for 'curate'), there's two basic concepts -- protection vs. adding value. – Joe Jun 3 '12 at 16:24
up vote 1 down vote

I tell people that I have not had two days the same since I started. I assist people not only in finding information, but how to efficiently find information to best suit their needs. -I teach Grads, undergrads and faculty how to search and retrieve (circulating) books and articles from anywhere in the world! I teach people how to determine "movers and shakers" (which items and people are the most influential) in whatever field they are researching. I also oversee the purchase of specific items for specific disciplines.

Unfortunately, I have not read nearly as many books as backs of books!

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I like the "no two days the same" bit; it emphasizes a diversity in our profession that can't really be covered in the time available. – M. Alan Thomas II Jun 2 '12 at 22:31
up vote 1 down vote

In the public library, its not only about finding the information they want. My job is about connecting people with what they are looking for - whether its information, escape or relaxation, through reading, watching a DVD or listening to a CD. Its my job to ensure they can do this as easily as possible and not only connecting them once, but as many times as possible to what they seek. And its also my job to ensure that they can still do, even when I am not there to assist.

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up vote 0 down vote

Librarians are about helping users find the right books and information. This usually means teaching them how to ask the right questions. A patron comes in and says "I want to learn about cats." The librarian asks questions to find out the real is a book on how mammals are born. This is why librarians can't be replaced by the internet. Librarians teach and guide.

(I tried to show how librarians aren't administrators without saying it because I want the listener to arrive at that rather than hear it. I also focused on the most obvious example. Librarians do so much more but one can only cover so much in an elevator pitch.)

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