Briefly: among other things in my four-year hiatus, I obtained a masters degree in library sciences - something that, I am told by countless faceless others in my field, many of whose work and accomplishments I respect - was useless and pretentious of me because good librarians don't need those extra letters, don't need to know how to catalog, and certainly don't need anyone to tell them how to manage information.
I have moved out of my parents' home. I have interviewed more than a dozen times for the job I think I really want and have failed every time, but I am currently inhabiting a place in the library-verse that suits me perfectly, and am humbly content to wait for the right time to achieve higher. In the meantime, part-times and multiplicities [ideas and oddments of things, hey?] are my modus operandi, and, yes, it is trying but, yes, I am learning every day. Patience used to be my virtue, you know, but I sent her away some time ago... I am trying to entice her back now via mimicry. It's working, a little.
I have become more cynical and judgmental, both of which I regret. I want to lose some of that.
I got married. This was my A-list, top-spot highlight and remains my daily bright spot; in the working, driving, cleaning, shopping, laughing, fighting, and occasionally sleeping, I have a best friend and a Barnabas. He keeps me sane and drives me crazy; he is sweet and thoughtful and maddening. He is younger and wiser than me; sometimes he is so old, and has so very much left to learn.
It is his fault you are reading this; thank-yous and hate mail may be sent to him c/o me.
Today, in the September 2014 edition of Library Journal, I read an article on citations. It's only an opinion piece; anybody can write one. His piece is published, though, which means that a lot more people will read and ingest it than will, say, this blog.
Essentially, the author argues for the death of the traditional citation, suggesting a simple ISBN or hyperlink (functional, of course) as a replacement. This in itself is not startling, nor even important - I can see the eye-rolling and shrugging now: works cited? Bibliographies? Who could care any less?
Bear with me; what is disconcerting is the logic behind this challenge.
Stephens mulls over the necessity of citations, and attempts to elicit ...pity? for students undertaking their graduate studies:
shouldn’t we be teaching soon-to-be librarians how to cite properly so they in turn can deliver the gospel to their young charges in the university? And grading them down for every missed period or italicized article title? I’d argue that instead of citation fixation we promote reflection and consideration of the ideas presented in our courses. To synthesize is a sometimes overused verb in higher education, but it works in this instance. Students encountering new ideas and voices of any discipline are better served by someone who can nudge them toward critical examination and combining ideas into cohesive structures that help them understand the world. From that understanding should come new ideas, not a perfectly cited reference. (32)I'm sorry; I don't understand. How does properly crediting the source material for our new ideas detract even the slightest bit from our understanding and innovation? Why can't we promote (demand?) proper technique along with "reflection and consideration of the ideas"? The two are not mutually exclusive, folks.
Stephens makes another emotionally-driven plea with the diamond-in-the-rough card:
what are we missing when the focus lands on correct citation style and not the content students are creating? It might be hidden diamonds in the rough, ideas that, with thoughtful critique and revision, could truly shine. See the citation project for some recent research concerning student writing skills... (32)His assertion is empty. Maybe what we are missing "when the focus lands on...citation" is a decent writing style. Is content. Is substance. If all a professor can see is the negative, perhaps the student hasn't given anything positive. Maybe, of course, the student simply does not understand how to cite, and that is okay! There are tutors, webpages, grammar books - help is never far from our twitching fingertips, if we can overcome our shame in asking for it.
As a Millennial, I am sick to the teeth of being branded as lazy, entitled, unreliable, slipshod. I am tired of taking punches for the slackers of my generation - many of whom are all of those discouraging adjectives.
I work hard.
I apply myself.
I take responsibility for my work and my mistakes. I pay attention to details.
I want to excel in my field and I want my accomplishments to be my own, honestly come by, hard-won and respectable. I want to take advantage of my upbringing and circumstances, to do my heritage proud, and to live out an American dream.
These are qualities which will serve me well in the future; of this I have no doubt. I am not worried about whether or not I will achieve; I am only curious as to when.
Do you know why?
Because I had teachers and exercises and assignments that enabled me to learn, and to do so fully. I know how to cite, but when I made mistakes on papers, I was docked for them, and I acknowledged that I should have proofed my paper more carefully. People didn't make allowances for me. I never - ever - whined and complained that the technical aspects of the paper had prevented me from doing a good job on the content.
When you undertake to write, you do so lock, stock, and barrel. Deliver the whole package, or don't bother sending it.
I guarantee students worth their snot do not sit up at night fretting over citations. If by their fifth, or sixth, or seventh year of higher education, the future librarians and academics of the world have not yet learnt to cite their primary sources, God help us all when they enter academia or public service because they will be just as useless to everyone else as they are to themselves.
Millennials and the generations below us are made much of and given free passes. Too many of us know how to do hardly anything for ourselves; we have been told that we are too smart, too important, and too busy to take time to learn the minutiae of various fundamental processes. We are all equal achievers; none of us does better at anything than our peers. We move as a unit. We have no sense of competition. It is frightening and disheartening.
This seemingly insignificant issue, like so many others, may easily become a landslide into failure; start by eliminating requirements for proper citations, and too soon we will deem proper grammar unnecessary. After that, spelling will become subjective. From there, we have but a short jump to the use of pictures and symbols instead of words, and then where are we?
Maybe that sounds ridiculous. Maybe, though, I'm not totally wrong.
Please don't advocate for any more anarchy in an already crumbling area of human development; don't give us any more leniency than that to which we are already disgustingly accustomed. I say bully for the professors who hold their charges to a higher level of completion and competence, who instill the importance of doing something well and all the way, of adhering to a rubric and of meeting parameters.
As students in higher education, we should no longer expect to operate on a kindergarten level; our ramblings and creatively written pieces must achieve beyond cute, beyond precious, beyond imaginative and inspired. They must be scholarly, well-researched and able to be proven so, and above all enduring.
The standard is the standard, and it exists for a reason: meet it and achieve; don't and fail.
Stephens, Michael. "Citation Fixation." Library Journal 139.15 (2014): 32. Print.
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