There is an interesting article in today’s NY Times by Patricia Cohen, “In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth.” Starting with the idea that over the generations there has been the idea that a “traditional liberal arts education is, by definition, not intended to prepare students for a specific vocation. Rather, the critical thinking, civic and historical knowledge and ethical reasoning that the humanities develop have a different purpose: They are prerequisites for personal growth and participation in a free democracy, regardless of career choice,” Cohen then focuses on the notion that many are now arguing that the current economic situation challenges such a belief. Cohen points to recent surveys, news about the cancellation of faculty searches in areas like religion and philosophy, and the need for the humanities “to justify their existence to administrators, policy makers, students and parents. Technology executives, researchers and business leaders argue that producing enough trained engineers and scientists is essential to America’s economic vitality, national defense and health care. Some of the staunchest humanities advocates, however, admit that they have failed to make their case effectively.” She cites individuals who are trying to emphasize the practical value of the humanities.
Schools like ours, with strong interests in information technology and a focus on professions such as librarianship and archives, may be in a good position to demonstrate this link between the humanities and needed vocations such as represented by the information professions. The majority of archives students continue to arrive with a background in the humanities, and it is a necessary background for understanding the history and evolution of archives and recordkeeping systems. We need to consider how to capitalize on this relationship, partly as a demonstration of why humanities backgrounds are still vitally important in our present era of technocratic and other priorities.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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"Schools like ours, with strong interests in information technology and a focus on professions such as librarianship and archives, may be in a good position to demonstrate this link between the humanities and needed vocations such as represented by the information professions. The majority of archives students continue to arrive with a background in the humanities, and it is a necessary background for understanding the history and evolution of archives and recordkeeping systems.
What about the majority of students in library and information science, where do they fit in? e.g. rare books, special collections in libraries.
Museums have libraries. no?
The Chronicle Review - Brainstorm - Lives of the Mind
Feb. 25, 2009
Stan Katz
Let's Not Cry for the Humanities -- Yet
http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/katz/lets-not-cry-for-the-humanities-yet
"It did little for my digestion this morning when I opened The New York Times to Patricia Cohen’s article entitled “In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth.” The context for the article is all too clear, since as Cohen notes, “previous economic downturns have often led to decreased enrollment in the disciplines loosely grouped under the term ‘humanities.’” She follows up by citing the decrease in jobs available in literature due to university hiring freezes and other budget cutbacks, but of course that decrease is pretty general across the liberal arts. And it will get worse...."
..."The question is how the pain will be shared — or, perhaps, if it will be shared? The large universities have announced the cancellation or deferral of large building projects, but in fact the bulk of those projects are in the sciences and technology. Salary freezes are presumably across the board, though selective hiring freezes will be differentially allocated. What reason is there to fear that cuts will disproportionately affect the humanities? My own deepest concern, one not addressed in the Times article, is that library budgets will be disproportionately affected. Libraries, after all, are the laboratories of the humanities, but I am not aware that libraries have been targeted thus far. It may be that we will find that selective restrictions on faculty hiring are prejudicial to the humanities, and, if so, we should monitor the situation. But I am more concerned that such cuts will produce much larger numbers of contingent faculty. We may also find that campus humanities centers, university presses, and other humanities-critical campus institutions are under special financial pressure. We need to be watchful, and we need data...."
..."If we in the humanities, and our colleagues in the other liberal arts, buy into the argument that our task is to produce job-ready workers the day after graduation, there is no way we can compete with the advocates of vocational undergraduate education. The liberal education sky is not (yet) falling, but liberal educators need to make clear to the public that the sky could fall if we neglect the traditional mainstream goals of undergraduate education. Let’s not whine about the humanities. Let’s watch, think and act."
..."Stan Katz teaches public and international affairs and directs the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at the Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is a past president of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society for Legal History...."
Many other LIS students also bring a humanities background, but I chose to focus on one aspect of this population where 1) I am more knowledgeable and 2) there is a more obvious conenction. Rare books, special collections, and museum programs are often more closely connected to the archives tracks, and I had no intention to cut them off. And, sure, some museums have libraries as well, but, again, that was not my focus here. The implied criticism of the breadth of my perspective is a little misguided, I think.
..."Rare books, special collections, and museum programs are often more closely connected to the archives tracks, and I had no intention to cut them off. And, sure, some museums have libraries as well, but, again, that was not my focus here. The implied criticism of the breadth of my perspective is a little misguided, I think."
As an ALA accredited library & information science dept., using the word "library" should not be an afterthought so often.
Also, you seem to have a reversed perspective by using the term archives in front of "library" always just because that is your area of specialization and your perspective of archivists as perhaps seeming a more scholarly area of specialization than libraries. Nothing could be more absurd.
Most museums have libraries, and some are even a library AND a museum. They also have institutional archives. They work together.
Here is something wonderful to listen to:
Virtual lectures:
Curator Roger Wieck explores the images and iconography in the Prayer Book of Claude de France, discussing selected illustrations in depth.
http://themorgan.org/collections/multimedia/claude/default.asp
These are manuscripts, and bindings of rare books, special collections that are not archives.
Stan Katz could bring himself to say "library" without any hesitation, in fact he described libraries as the laboratories of the humanities.
Some balance would be welcomed, even occasionally.
Here's that link again it seems to have been cut off:
http://themorgan.org/collections/
multimedia/claude/default.asp
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