Staying out of the way
Thu 10 Jan 2008, 5:43 pm
It seems that a lot of librarians and library-lovers have a story about a librarian who made a big impression on them when they were of an impressionable age. Someone kind and gentle, or flinty and smart who made them feel accepted or intellectually stimulated. Someone who made them see the potential in the library and in themselves.
The theorist has her story of the librarians who waived her fines. thatguychuck is not a librarian, but that seven year old kid might tell a story about him some day, too.
I have no such story, no such figure in my life, though I do remember my mom explaining that I needn’t be too choosy at the library: check ‘em all out and see what sticks. But for me, it has always been the institution of the library, the collections, the freedom to browse and borrow and let my mind wander. I don’t think I knew a librarian, or had really even talked to a librarian, until I started working in a library.
For all our talk and worry about being helpful, inspiring, patron-centered librarians, we should also remember that one of the most important things we can do is make sure we don’t screw up the freedom of the reader to just be alone with a lot of interesting books.
- License:
- File under: Librarians and the profession
- Comments? 6
Ditto. And Amen.
Comment by Iris — January 10, 2008 @ 9:35 pm
I’m right there with you, pal. Well said.
Comment by joshua m. neff — January 11, 2008 @ 8:29 am
Right on! (I had to say it–all the other affirmations were already taken!)
Comment by Laura — January 11, 2008 @ 12:49 pm
Hm. There were a couple of librarians who made a big impression on me as a kid, but if I think about it, it was mostly by letting me be – they let me hang out alone without a parent when they weren’t really supposed to; they let me reshelve my own books when I wasn’t really supposed to; they let me check out adult books before I was really allowed to …
Comment by Marianne — January 14, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
[...] I have been fond of libraries for about as long as I can remember. I have always had very positive associations with libraries as fun places to explore. It is very easy for me to remember going to the library with my parents as a child, and it’s a habit I have kept up and now share with my own children. I have written a little about this, recently in the post Staying of of the wayand about about two years ago in Four more for the road. So working in a librry seemed like a reasonable thing to do in a way that, say, being a fireman or a forest ranger never did. [...]
Pingback by See Also… » Why am I a librarian? — February 6, 2008 @ 11:00 pm
[...] and all that, and to some degree those are all good things. But my connection to libraries (and Steve Lawson has written before about this same thing) was not about the librarians: it was about the books. I never talked to Hazel Westgate directly, [...]
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