Comments on: On Awards & Recognition

By: Lee

Lee — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:28:14 +0000

I’ve known two Movers and Shakers, and perhaps it was just “coincidence”, but both had egos too large to be tolerable. One of them was brought to my library system with great fanfare only to be fired a few months later (this person subsequently concocted an elaborate coverup story on their blog, no surprise). In both cases, the librarians treated their day job as an afterthought and their colleagues and patrons as unworthy of their attention, between all of the tweeting during meetings, blogging and commenting all throughout the workday but never having time to complete projects, constant absences by traveling to conferences, etc, and generally not putting reasonable effort into their local position but rather spending the majority of their time and attention in building their resume and reputation elsewhere. We were willing to support the recent hire’s extracurriculars (hey, we benefit from their notoriety as well!) but it soon became evident by this person’s actions and dismissive attitude that this person was there only to collect a paycheck from us. We’ve got work to do… no time for divas!

I’m sure that there are librarians who receive national awards who manage to maintain their humility and who are genuinely treasured by their local colleagues, but based on my experiences, I can certainly understand why winning awards comes with a stigma. It’s unfortunate.

By: Biddy Fisher

Biddy Fisher — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:20:02 +0000

Thanks for this Andy – it sums up many of my own thoughts. Having just been honoured by the award of an OBE (Officer of the British Empire) in the Queen’s New Year Honours it was so very pertinent.
I use the term professional generosity to signify our way of helping others and perhaps this should be extended. It takes someone to do the work to put someone’s name forward for most of our professional awards and prizes, or to support their self submitted applications. A good Professional New Year resolution would be to ensure that we do just that. Think of others and put their names forward.
All good wishes for 2012

By: bringyournoise

bringyournoise — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:02:25 +0000

I’ve never really understood professional jealousy. Accolades and recognition given to someone else does not take anything away from one’s own status. It’s not like the scales of justice where the elevation of one side weighs down the other. What matters, maybe, is how a person accepts praise, awards, etc., which is hopefully gratefully, humbly, and with the acknowledgment that there are others doing significant work–better work–who simply never get noticed for one reason or another. Handled in that fashion, I don’t think anyone can complain about it, and if they do, then it’s a reflection on them rather than on anyone else.

By: thewikiman

thewikiman — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:43:49 +0000

Those bits in italics are hilarious…

I find it extraordinary that you crazy North Americans actually SAY this stuff to each other, out loud. The idea of going up to someone and telling them they are unworthy of the award they won (and it’s not like they even applied for it, it was bestowed upon them) – who does that?! In Britain we have a system of unspoken, lingering and barely supressed resentment, which is much more civalised.

Part of this is surely just that the more people know who you are, the more people there are to take issue with you. If 1% of people you are exposed to dislike what you do, then winning an award that adds 1000 people to the total figure means you add 10 more people who don’t like you, and if all 10 of those express their feelings about it then… well, it’s human nature for that to feel like a deluge of criticism. I remember being amazed reading Bobbi’s haters gonna hate post, because I thought of all people who on earth would take issue with her? The good she does the library community is inarguable. But then I thought, well, she probably has three or four thousand people reading every blog post etc – the sheer number of people knowing her views means some people are bound to read them and not like them, or the way they are expressed, or whatever. If you do anything of any significance, it can’t NOT offend some people or it wouldn’t be worth talking about in the first place – it would have to be bland by definition.

The self-promotion thing is really tricky. I don’t think I am a big self-promoter, but I bet a lot of people do think I am. I think I promote the stuff I DO and am involved with, but I see that as different. It’s a fine line clearly. One person I’ve interacted with on Twitter is known as a bit of a self-promoter, all style and little substance, in the field, so I was told – but I’ve seen absolutely zero evidence of this whatsoever in all their tweets. Other people seem very popular but are far too gratuitous in their self-promotion for my taste. I think everyone has different views on the same issue.

I’m sure there is a perception that one has to hang with the right crowd to get a Mover & Shaker award, but ANYONE can be nominated. Someone just has to contact LJ and say: check out what this person is doing. Even if they aren’t doing something at national level, they can still get a nomination, and then if they get featured their work BECOMES national.

As to the larger question you are asking, I’m not sure it’s that lots of librarians believe we should be quiet. I just think that awards tend to happen nationally or internationally, but day-to-day we exist very locally with our colleagues. It’s not always a comfortable mix.

By: Lynne

Lynne — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:31:40 +0000

excellent piece, and reminded me that the only two fellow ‘professionals’ who ever tried to stab me in the back by calling my Senior Management and accusing me of actions which were taken out of context and entirely defensible, even lauded in one case, are also the only two who have ever called me up and asked me to take on some joint committee work in my local area, because I was the only one up to it :S Jealous much? Suffice to say polite and cool is now hoe they are treated :S

By: Thinking « Thoughts from the Window

Thinking « Thoughts from the Window — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:54:27 +0000

[...] read an excellent blog this morning, it is about Awards and Recognition by Andy Woodworth. It started me thinking (yes, I know “That must have hurt” haha). I [...]

By: Jenny R

Jenny R — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:00:17 +0000

I don’t think mediocre is quite the right term either, but yes, definitely unassuming. We’re not really conditioned to toot our own horns and promote ourselves. I also think there is a difference in reception between people who do cool things and receive recognition and people who actively promote a personal brand. I hesitate to suggest this lest I be jumped on by colleagues who actually studied social sciences, but I wonder if some of the distaste for self-promotion stems from the gender breakdown of the profession. I think many librarians have a bit of a doormat-mother complex. We bask in the reflected glow of our libraries but take only blame for their failures, no individual glory in their successes.

By: Coral

Coral — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:30:49 +0000

I think you put your finger on it. There’s a large subset of librarians who believe we are supposed to be quiet and, if not mediocre, then at least unassuming. As far as I can tell, they believe this because society believes this.

And it’s ridiculous. Keep rocking on!

By: Craig Anderson

Craig Anderson — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:59:21 +0000

Hi there!

I refer you to the lovely and talented Amanda Palmer and her thoughts about the “Fraud Police”.