Are The Contestants Ready?

Have you ever watched a hot dog eating contest? I have seen a couple on TV. Competitors line up with plates piled high with hot dogs and buns. There is no mustard or relish on these dogs. They are not meant for enjoyment. The competitors have just a few minutes, or seconds, to eat as many as they can. Most can barely hold them down, and occasionally, one sees one of the eaters grab a bucket.

For many librarians, it is hard work to gain access to one of our classes. Instructors are busy trying to fit in their required plans. They may not see the need to make room in their syllabus for quality library instruction. It often takes a good deal of time to build the relationships with the instructors which allows us to demonstrate how we can help them. As a result, we often feel that we have to cram everything that we want them to know into thirty or so minutes. The result is an information hot dog-eating contest. We stuff them with fact after fact as fast as we can. In the end, few can swallow or hold down all that we have fed them.

In a couple of days, I will be teaching a 30 minute segment on APA style. I know that I cannot cover everything in that short of a time. There is a reason that the APA style manual is so large. What I can do is teach them how to look at citation references and introduce them to a few. I can show them the basic building blocks of a citation which will better help them understand the style manual.

It is important to be realistic with ourselves, our students and our faculty partners. We need to have a clear vision for what we can do and what is beyond the scope of our allotted time or environment. This means working from clear learning objectives. Sometimes we need not ask “What is everything that they will need to finish the race?” It is often better to ask, “What will they need to get to the next leg of the race.” We can always end our session by introducing them to other things that we can teach them. If we are lucky, instead of leaving them feeling overstuffed, we can wet their appetites for further feasts.

Informatiton Literacy in a New Light

Last night, I was reading two books: one on teaching Information Literacy, and “A Splendor of Letters” by Nicholas Basbanes. I felt a warm meeting of the two books. I began to look once again at IL, not as an information scientist, but as a humanist. In this transition, my mind began to shift from cold information to inspiring ideas. I feel that we, as librarians, often approach IL as if we were an animated instruction manual. In doing so, we run the risk of dehumanizing the treasure that we have to offer. We focus on solving information problems and don’t talk as much about enriching minds. The intellectual life, which it is our job to support, is not about data as much as it is about ideas. Ideas inspire, but data usually does not.

I think that it is time that we add a little more humanity in the way that we teach IL. I think that our goal as librarians should be more than instructing. We should play a part in whetting the intellectual appetites of our students. We should seek to inspire. What if, instead of talking about finding articles, we talked about finding ideas? What if, instead of talking about information problems, we talked about answers to life’s questions? We, in our collections, whether traditional or electronic have some of the best minds in the world. Perhaps it is time that we started bragging about them a little.

Telling our Story

Below is a video that I created to promote our library.  I wanted to contrast the accessibility and helpfulness of our librarians with what many of us have come to expect from customer service by other providers.

The Library Evangelist

I’ve given myself a new title at the library: Library Evangelist. I love to tell others about the library. I attend mixers and stop by professors’ offices just to tell them our latest offerings. This requires me to walk a line between enthusiasm and pushiness. Hopefully, I don’t often cross that line. It requires me to get out of the library into the spaces that our patrons inhabit. It also requires me to know the message of the library.


Just like many evangelists, I often can find a way to direct the conversation to what the library can do for them. Is an instructor planning a new class? We can help. Is a student about to study abroad? We can find him or her much of the information that he or she may need to get ready to spend a semester in another country. I am always looking for ways to subtly plug the library.

Sometimes, I don’t know if I am making a convert or preaching to the choir. It seems that it is those who already appreciate the library that most want to hear about it. Still, a person cannot act on what they do not hear, and they cannot hear unless someone tells them.

I am not by nature a pushy person, so my form of evangelism is gentile. I am by nature an introvert, but I am a social one. I do not like confrontation. I simply love the library. My passion simply spills into my conversations with others. Have I told you yet about our new…?

The Joy of Old Books

    On my desk are three old books: Macaulay’s essays, vol. 1 (no date); Lamb’s works Vol. 1, 1857; and Ruskin’s Works (no date).  Each of these was half bound in leather with marbled papers filling in the rest of the binding.  The pages are a little yellowed.  Some of them have water stains, probably decades old.  The proximity to the life of their authors is rather close in all cases.  I have not read them yet, but I find myself looking at them often.

    One of our art history instructors has commented that there is a danger in being exposed to work only digitally: we cease seeing a piece of art as an object and start to see it as data.  I wonder if we may be close to making the same mistake with books.  With these old volumes that I am drawn to, the idea of book-as-an-item is obvious.  They are visual, tactile and olfactory encounters as well as intellectual stimulation.  When I touch them, I am also touching all the readers who came to this book before me.  Their fingerprints may well be on the books still.

    I own an e-book reader and enjoy it.  I enjoy the ability to gain instant access to books that are not available in my local bookstores.  I enjoy the portability of it.  In one small device, I have dozens of books.  I tolerate the cold sterility of it because of its usefulness.  I even try to dress it up on warm leathers.  I have yet to try the old book smelling perfumes.  I can only deceive myself so much.