mid-life crisis in the library

The other day I was thinking that a library must be a terrible place to have a mid-life crisis.  In a library, one is constantly surrounded by books he will never have time to read and knowledge he will never be able to make his own.  It is almost enough to drive one mad.  If Faust were alive today in one of our moderately sized libraries, he would have gone mad too long before coming to the place of selling his soul.  Slowly, I am coming to terms with this.  I am becoming much choosier in the books that I read.  I do not join book groups.  Still, every day that I walk through the stacks, I am faced with my own finiteness.  

In The Line of Duty

A couple of years ago, I received a work injury.  I did not fall.  I did not pull my back under a heavy load.  I did not attempt some heroic feat.  I irritated a tendon in my knee from getting too many books off of the bottom shelf.  Most of my injuries have not been impressive.  I have had only two sports injuries: I threw my shoulder boxing in a friend’s front yard, and I broke my toe playing Hacky Sack.  I am pretty hardy, and I am not that old.  Still, some days it seems that every item that I need is on the bottom shelf.  I am not complaining; it is part of the job.  The bottom shelf often has some great treasures.  My job may never be as dangerous or as courageous as the police or other emergency responders; but I am proud to brave the dangers of irritated knees, sore wrists and endless paper cuts for my patrons.

High Praise

The other day, I was introduced by a student as, "the best librarian ever."  I write this not to boast, but to speak of the ways that we touch our students.  I am not sure that I could pinpoint one stupendous thing that could have impressed this student in this way.  I do not recall helping find a very obscure reference or saving the day in any big way.  I do try to listen attentively to my students.  I give them time.  I build relationships with them in a small way.  My goal is that every student that comes to me feels validated and valued.  Perhaps this attention to the person is just as important as any question answered.

Warehouse or Water Cooler

There are two ways of looking at the library.  On is to look at it as essentially a collection of resources.  In this schema, emphasis is put on the technical services of acquiring resources, organizing them and putting them within the reach of the patrons.  In this view, the library is essentially a warehouse and librarians are essentially charged with distribution.

The second way is to see the library as essentially a service industry.  In this way of looking at the library, emphasis is placed on the patrons' experiences.  In this model, the librarian is not essentially a clerk but is a mentor, an sage and a teacher.  In this model, the user plays the central role.  If a patron has a good experience, then the librarian was successful, if the experience was not good, then the librarian failed.

The second model is particularly important for small libraries which may not have ready access to a vast number of resources.  In this case, relationships are all important.  The librarian must seem trustworthy.  He or she must be a friend and guide to the patron.  In this case, even if the requested resources may not be immediately placed in the hands of the patron, the patron leaves with a good feeling about the library and is more willing to wait until his resources arrive.

Relationships must be build as well as collections.  The librarian must be as much a "water cooler" librarian as he or she is a task oriented person.  We must be willing to be interrupted by people and be willing to give them the time to form that bond with us.  This may seem like wasting time, but it is invaluable to the overall success of the library.  A librarian who works on his relationships with his patrons may be described as "the best librarian ever" even if he or she is in a relatively resource-poor library.