March 20, 2002
Here's an email sent to James Lileks, a columnist/blogger/all around pop culture maven, in response to this column:
We librarians are a fussy bunch. . .
. . .and if you doubt this, just check out the debate over a student opinion column at the Daily Bruin at UCLA.
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/db/printer.asp?ID=18860
and responses at:
http://www.lisnews.com/article.php3?sid=20020308125444
if you're interested.
I wanted to read the response "from the librarian side", but that site is experiencing too much traffic at the moment. Probably thanks to you!
Anyway, while I sympathize with your problems at the library (believe me, even librarians have run-ins with obstinate and uncooperative library staff; there's no cabal working here), those of us who do consider ourselves worthy public servants get very sensitive when we're painted with too broad a brush. After all, we generally choose this profession to HELP PEOPLE, not because we think it's fun to shush people or play book Nazi. Needless to say, there are too many stereotypes to overcome in a single email. Check out
http://www.librarian.net
to get another side of the image.
Anyway: First of all, I wonder if the person you dealt with was actually a "librarian." I know it might seem picayune, but not everyone who works in a library has this title. Not to overstate the case (which of course means I'm about to do just that) but you wouldn't walk into a doctor's office and immediately assume that the person who confirms your appointment is a doctor. All kinds of various employees work in libraries. Only those who have a Masters Degree in Library Science, or some semantic variation thereof, are "librarians." Like I said, it might sound picky, but to those of us who have toiled, or are toiling (like me) in a graduate-level library school, it's an important distinction.
Next: I didn't quite grasp the address problem. Probably doesn't matter. When people move, they generally set up phone, cable, electric, gas -- stuff they'll need to survive. Nobody probably thinks of library privileges. On the other hand, it was a driver's license. Can't really fault the "librarian" if your current license doesn't reflect your current address.
Further: I'm not Dr. Laura. Really, I'm not. But if you can't tell a child at the library to choose two books, when she wants four, what do you do at the grocery store when she wants skittles and m&ms and gumballs and ice cream? Books are no doubt healthier, but that's not the point. Every now and then, we've gotta make a choice, whether it's how many books we can check out, how much house we can afford, or how many CDs we can buy.
I hope I've never treated any user in my library like you were treated the other day. Unfortunately, I'm sure some of my users feel differently. (Fortunately, I've never had any columnists/bloggers come in. That I know of.) There are actually people who think that working in a library means you get to read books all day. I wish. Given the resources we're allotted, and the constraints and challenges of providing as much as we can to the public, I'm somewhat surprised that we do as good a job as we do. With exceptions, of course.
Eric
eric 9:34 PM
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