A portrait of contemporary librarianship told in a warm and highly engaging fashion is one way to describe this book. By any measure, I would have to say I loved this book; thanks Marilyn Johnson (I hope she goes on a book tour!). I would recommend it to any librarians out there. In fact, I’d even suggest it is a good book for librarians to give to their non-librarian friends since it explains the challenges and variety of the profession as it is now practiced. There have also been a number of reviews and comments on the book around the Web and these seem to focus mainly on Johnson’s discussion of the intersection between librarians and technology. It amuses me in some ways to see how the mainstream media is just catching up and noticing what librarians have accomplished in the past ten years. When I got to the end of the book, I wanted there to be more chapters; maybe exploring librarianship in outside the United States to a greater degree? I’d also like an index, but to be fair, many non-fiction books lack an index so I can hardly make that into a critique. I’m aiming to keep this review under a thousand words and discuss those aspects of the book which have been somewhat neglected in reviews I’ve seen elsewhere.
The chapter on archivists – “What’s Worth Saving?” – is particularly interesting for how it weaves together personal stories and the principles of archival work. Johnson attended a workshop on literary archives and leads the reader through the difficulties of working with this type of material. Johnson also grapples with the philosophy question posed by archival work; what to say and how? She does this, in part, by telling the story of a large archive of materials relating to the sport of boxing and how they came to find a safe home in an archive. Johnson also probes the question of individual digital archives – how can individual people save parts of the Web or even their own production safely so that it can be accessed in the future? I view this as an opportunity for archivists to provide advice to individuals.
As a long time fan of New York City, I was delighted to see an entire chapter (“Gotham City”) dedicated to discussing the city’s libraries. New York has the world’s largest dog library (the American Kennel Club Library) but also one of the world’s most famous and important public library systems, the New York Public Library (NYPL). I learned a lot here about the politics and problems that have been swirling around this institution lately, including the apparent shift away from research collections and librarians (e.g. no more Persian language cataloguers/librarians) toward what I might call a conventional public library model with circulating collections, Internet access terminals and the like. All those services and programs are immensely valuable and I do not mean to disparage them in any way, but I struggle to see why NYPL appears to have moved away from the collections and resources that made it unique and famous around the world. On the other hand, Johnson introduces us to Joshua Greenberg, the mastermind behind much of NYPL’s digital projects (note to self: explore the riches of NYPL.org more deeply!) which shows a vision of the institution’s future.
This review would be remiss if I didn’t discuss the chapters on blogging and Second Life which have attracted so much interest elsewhere. In reading the chapter on library bloggers (“The Blog People”), many of the writers discussed were familiar to me but I still learned something here. Sometimes, one forgets that there is something of a cleavage between the hyper-connected blogging section of librarianship and those that do not engage in such practices. That said, I think Johnson rightly points out that library bloggers interest in pursuing innovation and experimentation is preferable to simply complaining about social media and related technologies as the Annoyed Librarian does. The chapter on Second Life (“Wizards of Odd”) was a revelation in some ways. I knew that librarians use Second Life (I’ve used it a couple of times myself), but I didn’t know about the extent of librarian participation. There are whole libraries, collections and even historical towns curated and managed in Second Life by librarians. Simulated reality tools like Second Life still strike me as a bit experimental and ahead of the curve for widespread usage but this approach may ultimately prove to be very important.
If you’re looking for a book to show people what librarians actually do and the challenges they face today, this is the book to look at. For me, it was also inspiring to see the range of librarian work and activity. It is the kind of book that leaves you wanting more and I hope that Johnson considers a second, expanded edition at some point down the road. Over the coming weeks, I will be returning to the book to learn more about the profession. I’ve studied the field and worked in it for several years already and I’m always pleasantly surprised with how much there is to learn.
Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book.
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