There are many unsung heroes of ordinary life—nurses, trash collectors, accountants—whose job it is to take care of things that the rest of us take for granted. So too the librarian, that iconic figure who long presided over a sanctuary of books and guided readers, young and old, to the treasures of a vast print culture. But the profession has undergone a dramatic transformation of late because libraries themselves are not what they used to be. Today they have less to do with books per se than with computers, films, community events and children’s activities. – Christine Rosen’s review of Marilyn Johnson’s “This Book is Overdue
I’ve recently been thinking a lot about the perception of the library-as-warehouse and whether this perception works for us. For most of library history, when information and literacy skills were low, the warehouse metaphaor (i.e. the library as a place with books and other information) worked well for us. But that is a difficult place to remain in. There are at least two ways to respond to the library as warehouse problem; admit it and add some qualifications around the edges (as in “Yes, but we also have special collections, rare books and other items you wouldn’t find on the Net!” This is still very true, by the way) or deny it complete and opt for a different approach (“The Library is a place with professionals that help you with information; finding it, interpreting it and making use of it.”I think the latter approach will become more and more important; shifting the emphasis from the object (book, DVD, etc) to the service provided by the professional.
In reading Christine Rosen’s review of Marilyn Johnson’s latest book, “This Book is Overdue” in the Wall Street Journal, my worries were expressed again. The book gives the impression of being a survey of modern American public libraries (academic, government and other libraries don’t seem to be included). The description of what is happening with one of America’s most famous and important public libraries has me wondering: “One of the more disturbing stories in “This Book Is Overdue!” is Ms. Johnson’s description of the New York Public Library’s decision to upgrade its image from that of a stuffy research library, replete with reference librarians whose knowledge and expertise are of incalculable value to researchers, to a place where parents and toddlers might want to pick up a DVD and a latte.” I was last in a New York Public Library in 2006 and it struck me as having it all; sure you could get a coffee, but there was also many reading rooms and exhibitions. If the above quote is accurate – I have this mental image of experienced librarians being laid off to pay for fancy coffee – then this is a turn for the worse. I think it is more likely that the changes at the NYPL are being exaggerated somewhat but I remain open to persuasion on that front.
There is some evidence to suggest that the librarian emphasis on skills rather than books and other materials is appreciated by others. “Eric Schmidt, the head of Google, recently told the Davos World Economic Forum that he worried about the loss of deep reading skills. “As the world looks to these instantaneous devices,” he said, “you spend less time reading all forms of literature, books, magazines, and so forth.” This is not a revelation for those that track the literature on reading, but it is still reassuring to see it understood elsewhere. The question remains; how can librarians help people develop their deep reading skills? Many academic librarians do this well but what about librarians working in other contexts?
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