Patron Saint of Librarians

Who is the patron saint of librarians? Well, that is a bit of a trick question. There are at least two. St Lawrence is one and St Jerome is another. St. Lawrence is known for refusing to turn over the money of the church. He was roasted alive on a metal grid. A man with a good sense of humor, he is reported to have said, “Turn me over; I am done on this side.” He is also the patron saint of archivists.

Jerome was a scholar who translated the Bible into Latin and wrote many other books. He is said to be one of the most learned of the Western church fathers. He was also reported to have had a personal collection of books that he took with him when he became a monk. One of the legends of him was that he took a thorn out of a lions paw. Because of this, he is often depicted in his study with a lion at his feet. He is also the saint of scholars. Today is Jerome’s saint day.

So how do you choose which saint to be your patron librarian saint? Here are some suggestions. If you are in technical services, acquisitions or if you are outspoken advocate of patron privacy, I would suggest St Lawrence. Lawrence may also be a good choice for library managers. If you are an academic librarian, lean towards the scholarly side or a writer, I would choose St Jerome. Jerome is also more closely associated with books. Otherwise, choose the one that suits you the best.

We Are Breaking Out

Last weekend, I saw a local production of Macbeth. I enjoyed the interpretation as in the early 20th century South. Afterwards, I went up to congratulate the actors. Imagine my surprise in finding that one of the witches was one of my local public librarians. I had not recognized her because of the distance and the makeup. When I thanked her for her performance, she remembered me (which I hope was good).

That got me thinking of all the ways that librarians are breaking out of the library. Like the thespian librarian, we have our hands in all types of things. I paint, write and play a couple of instruments. One of my colleagues is an artist, another is an active gamer. In library school there was some talk of the belly dancing librarians who have a web presence. Librarians are also activists. Some are involved in counterculture movements. Even in the media, TNT’s campy adventure series takes The Librarian all over the world. Imagine that, a librarian as an action hero. Solitary wallflowers no more.

I would love to know what some other librarians do to break out of the library.

Living Sanely With Technology

Three social networking sites, two email accounts, cell phone, twelve podcast subscriptions, list serves, YouTube, hulu, this blog, blogs I follow…. Much of our lives are immersed with technology. In addition, many of us face the challenges in the field to keep up with the latest web 2.0 applications. There are days when I spend all day at work on the computer only to come home and log on again. If we are not careful, we can get lost in it all.

Technology offers us some wonderful opportunities. It is easier to connect with friends. We can video chat with professional contacts. We can connect to patrons across the city, state our country. Journals and newswires come straight to our monitors. I can even access digital reproductions of ancient manuscripts that a few years ago could only be seen by a few major scholars.

Then there is the dark side of technology. I heard on NPR yesterday about a young lady who could not stop texting and driving even though she had already been in two accidents. In one of the accidents, she was seriously injured. One of our instructors the other day said that he is finding that many of his younger students no longer are able to express ideas verbally. The dark side of technology is that it can diminish our humanness. It can give the appearance of life without the substance.

So how do we keep from going too far? One way comes from the world of spirituality. It is called unplugging. Unplugging is setting aside technology free time. This could be a couple of hour a week, one weekend morning a week, or whatever best suits your lifestyle. Use this time to read, create something or just relax. The idea is that, by stepping away from technology for a while, we can connect better to our inner self and rediscover our sense of being human.

It is important to keep in mind that technology was created for us, and not we for technology. Life is measured in moments, not bytes.

Encountering Change

For the past few years, “change” has been the buzzword in librarianship. I often hear the platitude, “change is inevitable.” My response to that is yes, and no. To an extent, change is inevitable, but not every change is. We as a community have the ability to shape changes.

I remember in undergrad, in my political science class, we talked about three basic approaches to change. The first one is the radical approach, which sees change as a good word and tradition as a negative. Adherents to this approach may see the ideal future as something from Star Trek or the Jetsons. The other extreme is the reactionary approach which sees Tradition as the ultimate good and sees any change as a threat. They may look back nostalgically on a past time. They may see the ideal past as an episode of Little House on the Prairie, or some other period drama. The final approach is the balanced approach which embraces and celebrates tradition while also reaching out to positive changes. This is where we need to be.

Not all tradition is good tradition, and not all change is good change. There are some changes which will help us to grow and become more efficient. There are also changes which can be a mere distraction and a waste of resources. Navigating the future will take an insightful analysis of possible changes on a case-by-case basis. The future is not something that happens to us, it is something that we create.

Do We Like Our Patrons

I recently asked an instructor at our school to test drive a simple quiz that I created while playing around with PowerPoint. She found it quite fun and easy until she got to the following question: “When a librarian is working on something at the desk, it is impolite to interrupt him or her – true or false.” She was stumped. “I guess it depends on what they are working on,” she answered. When I told her that she should never be worried about interrupting a librarian for help, she was surprised.

My own experience as a patron or visitor to libraries is that librarians can often seem distant. They may not make much eye contact. They may seem reluctant to speak to a patron. They may not smile. They may not look up from the computer when a visitor approaches. All of these things give the impression to a patron that you we would rather not be with them. I know that I have been guilty of these things myself.

Recently, I read The Reference Encounter: Interpersonal Communication in the Academic Library by Marie L. Radford. Radford made an interesting observation that patrons often judge the success of an interaction on interpersonal aspects as much or more as on the successful transmission of information. Perhaps, we enter the field of librarianship more for the love of books or organization that we do the love of helping others. We are often characterizes as serious and quiet, despite the growing trend among librarians to move away from that stereotype.

There is a great deal of writing out there about how to do outreach. Perhaps the best outreach is to reach out first to the person across the counter from us. Are we genuinely happy to see them? Do they in turn seem happy to see us? If we value our patrons, and show them with our demeanor that we value them, then they will better value us.