Librarians! What Are We Hiding?
by Roz Warren
I've worked behind the circulation desk of my local public library for 15 years and I love my job. But that job has gone through plenty of changes. When I began, library work was all about the books. These days, while our patrons still check out books, they also come in to use our computers, borrow DVDs and audio books, and learn how to download “content“ onto a staggering variety of electronic devices.
Meanwhile, staffing is being cut, and the public encouraged to use our automatic check out system, and to pay their fines and renew their material online.
So are librarians still relevant? Useful? What does being a 21st century librarian mean, really? Who exactly are we? And how does the world see us? I decided to perform a quick Google search and find out.
I typed in the phrase “Librarians are…“ and here's how Google's auto-fill completed the thought:
Generals in the war on ignorance
Weird.
Annoying
Novel lovers
Hiding something
Obsolete.
Awesome.
Hot.
Great people.
Heroes every day.
Am I a novel lover? Absolutely. Hot? I'd like to think so. A hero every day? Well, I do feel a little heroic whenever I am able to intuit where a book that a patron is desperate to read has been mis-shelved, and deliver it safely into her hands.
Still, sensing that I didn't yet have the complete picture, I decided to fine tune my results by running a few more librarian-related questions through my favorite search engines. (Yes, I've got favorite search engines. How librarial is that?)
Being a librarian is…
Great
Stressful
Hard
Boring.
(I'd say it was all of the above.)
A librarian is…
A trained information specialist.
Coming to dinner.
Stacked.
Librarians should…
Read.
Rule the internet.
Know.
Know how to spell.
How do librarians…
Choose books?
Use math?
Help the community?
Make money?
Librarians can't…
Save the world.
Buy me love.
Help falling in love.
Why Do librarians…
Love their jobs?
Make more money than teachers?
Make less money than garbage collectors?
Librarians Need To…
Know about math.
Know about MOOCs..
Know everything.
Librarians can…
Help struggling readers.
Change the world.
Work from home.
Have tattoos.
Librarians enjoy…
The silence.
Life.
Shampoo.
The ride.
Sadly, when I typed in: “Your librarian…” the only result I got was:
Hates you.
(Which, it turns out, is the name of one disgruntled librarian's website.)
And finally?
Librarians never…
Die. They just check out.
So what can we conclude? We librarians are awesome. We can help struggling readers. We can have tattoos. We can't help falling in love. But we can (still) help change the world.
Is any of this accurate? Who knows? If you want to talk about it, you'll find me behind the circulation desk at the Bala Cynwyd Library.
Unless I'm at the tattoo parlor.
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Author's Note
First published by www.newsworks.org
Other stories by Roz Warren
- Congratulations On Your New Diagnosis! (Greeting Cards for People With Mental Problems)
- You're Gay? I'm Not Surprised. But Thanks For Telling Me!
- Would You Ask A Librarian For A Lap Dance?
- ORSON SCOTT CART, MEET LOUISA MAY ALCART: TOP TWENTY NICKNAMES LIBRARIANS HAVE GIVEN TO BOOK CARTS
- You Have Something I Don't Have
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This is delightful, witty and provocative. Great mix of technology and form an essay of tweet-sized bytes. For the record, I love libraries and librarians. Especially the cool ones,the tattooed ones,the ones with favorite search engines.*
At a time when libraries and librarians are most essential, businessmen truly believe they area vestige of the past. Businessmen are, of course full of shit.
Fresh. Good piece. I like it.
Nice design and concept for a piece that reads like a rope that leads from one location to another -- a linear series. The word "librarial" is hot in itself. *
In Boston there is law library open to the public that was haunted, so to speak, by a Holocaust survivor who wrote briefs in beautiful longhand. He was formally associated with a firm but was averse to meeting people, and so could always be found back in the stacks. The librarians let the guy more or less live there.
Growing up, there was a Carnegie library within walking distance from my home. It became a refuge for me. And the librarian seemed to know this and gently guided my reading, though it wasn't in her job description. This piece is so thoughtful and necessary. A cool structure too.
This is delightful, as has been said. Libraries were my home growing up and I have made my living with libraries for over twenty years. Long live librarians. They are hot. *
I practically live in mine. It's my office, anyway. The librarians are wonderful. I laugh a lot reading the stuff on Fictionaut, and they never shush me--altho at times it's been close. *
*, Roz. This is so well done. I don't see libraries as becoming buggy whips yet. Here, we can go online, get a thumbnail review, check availability, reserve books and have a 48 hour window to pick up our selections. They appear to be adjusting to the times.
I especially the listing that begins about half way. *
Thanks everyone, for all of the positive feedback. It means a lot to me.