Describe and compare different organizational settings in which information professionals practice.

Introduction

Information professionals can be found in a variety of different work environments. The field of library and information science (LIS) often brings to mind the public library, but many LIS professionals can also be found in places like archives and academic libraries. While these environments all have the goal of meeting the information needs of their clientele, the ways in which this is achieved can vary greatly. The services these environments offer, the clientele they serve, and their funding sources highlight the differences between them.

The cost of operating an information environment like a library, archive, or museum has “risen substantially” over the past decade, and those rising costs are “rarely matched with new budget allocations” (Joffrion, 2022, p. 133). In the United States specifically, a lack of consistent public funding has made information environments rely on “less secure sources of funding, such as grant agencies, private donors, endowments, trusts, and foundations” (p. 135).

Public Libraries

Public libraries serve the widest clientele, since they are for everyone in the community. Anyone should be able to walk into a public library, feel welcome, and receive information services. Modern-day public libraries offer more than just access to books, computers, and printers. For example, the Worcester Public Library in Worcester, MA offers museum passes, notary services, 3D printing, VHS digitization, and sewing machines as some of their services (Worcester Public Library, n.d.).

Public libraries are generally funded by the locations in which they serve, although they are typically underfunded. Many public libraries rely on grants to supplement their funding. In December 2024, the Public Library Association (part of the American Library Association) provided funding for digital literacy workshops to over 130 public libraries in 42 states, with those funds coming from “a generous $2.7 million contribution from AT&T” (American Library Association, 2024).

Academic Libraries

Academic libraries serve higher education institutions, typically offering curriculum support and support for student and faculty research (San Jose State University School of Information, n.d.). These libraries provide services specialized for students and faculty. San Jose State University’s MLK Library offers writing help, virtual reality technologies, a recording studio, and a materials library (San Jose State University, n.d.).

Funding for academic libraries varies greatly based on the institution, including whether the institution is public or private, and how large the institution’s endowment is. Academic libraries also allocate funds very differently from non-academic libraries. A 2023 survey by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) of its members found that university libraries spent 46% of their expenditures on library materials and 42% on salaries; in contrast, ARL’s six non-university research libraries spent 70% on salaries and 12% on library materials (Mian & Gross, 2024).

Evidence

Artifact 1

Assignment: Getty Villa Strategic Plan
Course: INFO 204, Information Professions
Description: For this assignment, my group had to select an information organization and develop a strategic plan for that organization. We had to prepare a report on the organization’s historical background, conduct an environmental scan including a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, and prepare goals, strategies, and an assessment plan.

Our group chose the Getty Villa Museum in Los Angeles to focus on. This assignment demonstrates my ability to research an information organization and assess it in relation to other organizations. I mainly contributed to the research and writing of the environmental scan and SWOT analysis, looking at the demographics of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood where the museum is located, and comparing it to other museums in the United States. The Getty Villa serves mainly one type of clientele, wealthy locals to the Palisades, and is funded mostly by its endowment, contrasting most museums which cannot compete with the billions in the Getty trust. This assignment demonstrates my understanding of museums as information organizations.

Artifact 2

Assignment: Preservation Needs Assessment for Religious Archives
Course: INFO 259, Preservation Management
Description: This group assignment required us to analyze a specific type of archive (in our case, religious archives), as well as compare a specific archive to other archives. We focused on the Southern Baptist Depository and Archive at California Baptist University (CBU). My main role in this assignment was researching similar archives for comparison. I looked for religious archives that were also housed at private, religious universities so I could compare mission statements, policies, and other aspects of the archives. I found that Baylor University had a similar size but was much older than CBU with an endowment 17 times larger.

This assignment demonstrates my understanding of archives as an organizational setting. I learned how different religious archives operate based on their funding and other institutional resources. The difference in endowments between CBU and Baylor had a clear impact on what their religious archives were capable of providing. The Southern Baptist Depository at CBU has only eight collections (some rather large), while the Black Gospel Archive at Baylor has over 10,000 items in just its digital collection. This disparity really highlighted for me the ways in which archives with similar goals are forced to operate based on their circumstances.

Artifact 3

Assignment: The Digital Curation Career
Course: INFO 204, Information Professions
Description: For this assignment, I was asked to write a 2-3 page professional development essay about an LIS role of my choosing. The essay needed to include a description of the role, its job requirements, how I plan to meet those requirements through coursework or other means, and an overview of future opportunities in that role.

In the assignment, I researched and analyzed the digital curation career. Digital curation is a field related to archives, focusing on digitized and born-digital materials and their unique needs. Digital curators could have job titles like records manager, data analyst, or librarian, showing how broad and currently nebulous the field is. The essay demonstrates my understanding of a fairly new career that can exist in a variety of information organizational settings and the types of skills important the field, like metadata and programming languages.

Conclusion

LIS is a broad field with a lot of interesting opportunities, and I am glad that I have been able to explore so many different facets of it. I have taken a lot of unique coursework that has exposed me to areas like data science, information science instruction, and music librarianship. I came into the program knowing I want to pursue a career as an archivist, and that has not changed. However, I know now that “archivist” can encompass much more than I imagined, and that my skills can be applied to roles that are not necessarily labeled as such.

References

American Library Association. (2024, December 10). PLA provides funding to more than 100 public libraries as part of $2.7 million effort to boost digital literacy. https://www.ala.org/news/2024/12/pla-provides-funding-more-100-public-libraries-part-27-million-effort-boost-digital

Google Arts & Culture. (n.d.). California State Archives. https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/california-state-archives

Hunter, G. S. (2020). Developing and maintaining practical archives: A how-to-do-it manual (3rd ed.). American Library Association.

Internet Archive. (n.d.). Internet Archive general information. https://help.archive.org/help/internet-archive-general-information/

Joffrion, E. (2022). Funding, sustainability, and cross-institutional collaboration. In L. A. Stuart, T. F. R. Clareson, & J. Ray (Eds.), Economic considerations for libraries, archives and museums (pp. 133-143). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003037101

Lesbian Herstory Archives. (n.d.). Donate to the Lesbian Herstory Archives. https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org/donate/

Mian, A., & Gross, H. (2024). ARL statistics 2023. Association of Research Libraries.

National Archives. (n.d.). Tours & group visits. https://visit.archives.gov/visit/tours-group-visits

Ornstein, E., & Reid, P. H. (2022). ‘Talk to them like they’re people’: A cross-cultural comparison of teen-centered approaches in public library services. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 54(3), 451-468. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006211020090

San Jose State University. (n.d.). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. https://library.sjsu.edu

San Jose State University School of Information. (n.d.). Types of academic libraries. https://ischool.sjsu.edu/post/types-academic-libraries

Worcester Public Library. (n.d.). Services. https://www.mywpl.org/?q=services