Tomorrow is Library Camp of the West. I am really excited for this event. When I first heard about, I was just glad to have a day to spend with some of the people I’ve met online like Steve Lawson and Joe Kraus (both of whom are organizers). But it’s turned into quite a “who’s who” of Colorado library people, and several really cool people are coming from out of state as well.

It’s a bit sad, because at MPOW, no one is going. Well, not entirely true– but no one beyond a couple of fellow library school students and one employee who is about to start library school in another semester.

So, while many of the “bigwigs” of Colorado are coming to this dynamic event, my colleagues don’t take something seriously that is called an “unconference”.

Most of it is because of the pressures of tenure. Our tenure-seeking young librarians are so tightly wound and under such pressure (we have one of the most difficult tenure systems) that they rarely look beyond anything directly related to the quest for tenure. But also, they are frequently counseled to not even consider anything less than national-level participation. The result is that there is little imagination, little innovation, and little of the enthusiasm I see all over the biblioblogosphere or at conference. These poor folks have the fun sucked right out of them. I’ve talked with many of them– we enjoy a beer now and then, and many of them have great enthusiasm for the profession, but they must keep the blinders on.

I just think there’s got to be a better way. For a long time, I thought tenure was a bad idea for librarians across the board. Now, I’m a bit more open-minded on the subject, but I still think there’s got to be a system of tenure that is tailored to our profession, rather than trying to compete or considering ourselves the same as the other faculty. As Steven Bell has written, they don’t consider librarians their peers– and honestly, I think that’s fair. We don’t have PhDs and much of our research is not particularly original. Why continue a system that pressures librarians away from the passions that make the most of what we are as a profession to compete on a playing field that we will never be equally respected on?

Anyway, just some random thoughts I had….

Today I was made chair of the Communications and Outreach committee. We have some fun stuff in the works– I’d rather wait to share it right now, but for now I’m going to enjoy the company of my peers and philosophize and where libraries can and should go. Hopefully, I bring some of that back for my less fortunate colleagues.

Next weekend I leave for Internet Librarian! WooHoo!