The Librarian Parlor (aka LibParlor or #libparlor) is a space for conversing, sharing expertise, and asking questions about the process of developing, pursuing, and publishing library research. LibParlor grew from conversations between new academic librarians at ACRL 2017 and the Critical Librarianship Unconference. We discovered that we shared a desire to contribute research to the field, but were unsure of how to start or where to look for advice.
Met @haileyfargo the other day & we discussed trying to form a space for inexp researchers to connect w/ exp researchers #libqual?
— Chelsea Heinbach (@chelseaheinbach) March 24, 2017
In a crowd of experienced librarian researchers with extensive CV’s and inspirational presentations, figuring out how to contribute as a new professional can be daunting. The overlapping issues we struggle with at our institutions made clear that many others likely face similar challenges. We wanted a place to turn for advice, perspective, and resources. While we found important work being done adjacent to what we were looking for, nothing was quite what we had envisioned. So we created it.
LibParlor is a space for sharing resources and experiences. Perhaps more importantly, LibParlor is a space that is meant to foster a community of practice. This may include finding mentors or mentees, identifying research partners, or whatever else the community decides to be.
As four white women, we recognize that the editorial team can only offer a limited viewpoint on these issues and we are working proactively to engage a diverse set of perspectives. We aim to provide space for those with different work experience such as non-tenure track librarians, technical services librarians, and library workers without the librarian title, as well as those with different lived experiences, such as people with disabilities, librarians of color, non-binary, and LGBTQ+ folks.
We highly encourage you to send comments and suggestions to our email (libparlor /at/ gmail.com). This blog will evolve with ideas and contributions of readers and writers. While the editors will kick things off with our experiences, we need you to help keep this conversation going. We hope you’ll review our “How to Contribute” page and consider writing something, or take to Twitter to ask and answer questions about research with the hashtag #libparlor.
We look forward to getting to know you!
The Librarian Parlor team
- Hailley Fargo | Student Engagement Librarian | Penn State University
- Katlyn Griffin | Information Literacy Librarian | Southeast Missouri State University
- Chelsea Heinbach | Reference and Instruction Librarian | University of California, Santa Barbara
- Charissa Powell | Undergraduate Experience Librarian | Kansas State University
Acknowledgements
Many other conversations, resources, and communities served as a source of inspiration for LibParlor and included dh + lib, Hack Library School, the recently launched LIS Scholarship Archive, the online community developed for a cohort in the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship, the recent Scholarship of Teaching and learning discussions hosted by the ACRL Student Learning & Information Literacy Committee, and the May 17th, 2017 #libleadgender Twitter chat. Thank you all and many others for the important work you do. We also want to thank those who offered invaluable feedback as we were developing LibParlor including Alex Carroll, Kyra Folk-Farber, Rachel Gammons, Shari Laster, Thomas Padilla, and Kevin Seeber.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Hello, i’m pleased to be in #libparlor to share resources and expertise with professional colleagues. Life long learning is my philosophy!