I have some questions for the library professionals out there:
1. Why did you decide to make a career for yourself in libraries? What is it about libraries that made you not just want to patronize them but work with them and be involved in their continuing development? It’s obvious from reading professional library journals, librarian blogs, and the comments on this blog that you all have a great love of libraries. Where does that come from?
2. Do the people who use your libraries share your love of libraries? Are they enthusiastic about the continuing use and development of libraries? Are your patrons as geeky about libraries as you are?
3. If your patrons aren’t as geeky about libraries, why aren’t they? What could we do to get our patrons as enthused about libraries as we are? How can we get library users to care as much about libraries as library professionals do?
4. Or is that even important? Do we care if library patrons are as passionate about libraries? Is it enough that they use libraries, without being geeky and enthusiastic about them?
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1. Why did you decide to make a career for yourself in libraries? What is it about libraries that made you not just want to patronize them but work with them and be involved in their continuing development? It’s obvious from reading professional library journals, librarian blogs, and the comments on this blog that you all have a great love of libraries. Where does that come from?
The start of my career in libraries was a fluke. I was applying for any and all web jobs I could right out of college and was called in for an interview at Jenkins Law Library. I started as the web assistant and moved my way up to web manager. It wasn’t until after this move that I realized I wanted to be a permanent fixture in libraries. Why? I don’t know what one thing did it – I just love the atmosphere, the community (online and in person), the idea of helping people find information, and training them to find it. My love comes from the community – it wasn’t until I started frequenting conferences and participating in the online community that I truly fell in love with libraries. It’s the people that made all of the difference. They made me want to be more than just another library staff member – they made me want to be a moving force in the library world.
2. Do the people who use your libraries share your love of libraries? Are they enthusiastic about the continuing use and development of libraries? Are your patrons as geeky about libraries as you are?
I don’t know how to answer this. You all know I work in a law library with a very different crowd of people than you see in public or academic libraries. I think they love our library – I know that when I’m out in the community I always hear good things about Jenkins and its staff – but do they feel that way about all libraries – who knows. I can say that for the most part it’s a pretty safe bet that none of our patrons are as geeky about library as I am :)
3. If your patrons aren’t as geeky about libraries, why aren’t they? What could we do to get our patrons as enthused about libraries as we are? How can we get library users to care as much about libraries as library professionals do?
Why not? Because they’re lawyers and I’m a library geek – it’s that simple. They chose to be geeky about the law (if you’d call that geeky).
4. Or is that even important? Do we care if library patrons are as passionate about libraries? Is it enough that they use libraries, without being geeky and enthusiastic about them?
As for getting patrons to be as geeky as us – I don’t think it’s possible or that important. We chose this profession – we love this profession – if our patrons are as enthused as us they should be working beside us. I do think it’s important for our patrons to be enthused about the library and for that enthusiasm to be spread – I just don’t think it has to be quite the level of enthusiasm that I have.
I think lawyers are definitely geeky.
Thanks for responding, Nicole.
1. Why did you decide to make a career for yourself in libraries? What is it about libraries that made you not just want to patronize them but work with them and be involved in their continuing development? I’ve been a librarian for nearly 30 years, and I suppose I became a librarian because I liked many people who were librarians, several of them were close friends and important resources throughout my previous graduate work. That I didn’t learn to use a library until I was nearly done with my first Master’s degree, provoked me: something was wrong with both the library’s approach to engaging people in higher education and profs were lax in integrating the library into the disciplinary discourse.
2. Do the people who use your libraries share your love of libraries? Are they enthusiastic about the continuing use and development of libraries? Are your patrons as geeky about libraries as you are? Some are, but admittedly most are not. For the vast majority Google is the sole solution. Despite that, annual surveys of students on our campus continue to show high regard for the library facility and staff. This does extend to our online subscription resources, although not as readily to the print collections. The minority who are interested often wonder why we’re not moving faster to implement tools like user reviews/comments, spell checkers (e.g., did you mean…), tag clouds, topic maps, visual interfaces, blogs–yet our use of virtual reference was so low that after four years the services is on hiatus until we can consider a new approach.
3. If your patrons aren’t as geeky about libraries, why aren’t they? What could we do to get our patrons as enthused about libraries as we are? How can we get library users to care as much about libraries as library professionals do? Libraries are like museums to most of our students–information isn’t as immediate as the Web (for the most part) and it’s just not fun. I took a group of students to the British Museum a few years ago and after 20 minutes they said they’d seen everything of value and wanted to go. Library users seem to want small discrete chunks of information/data to fit a particular need and want it now, but our packaging (largely books, whether in print or online) doesn’t fit. Online are relatively more discrete (article level rather than full journal) and thanks to openurl link resolvers more or less easy to use. But they aren’t often interested in the underlying processes and systems required to make it work for them.
4. Or is that even important? Do we care if library patrons are as passionate about libraries? Is it enough that they use libraries, without being geeky and enthusiastic about them? I don’t think it’s important for our users to be “passionate about libraries.” There is a fond wish that they were passionate about information (meaning discrimanating, skeptical, careful and critical readers/consumers) and at least respect the role libraries play in society. But they often seem to expect libraries to be there, doing their thing, without any responsibility on their part to assure it for the future. No, I don’t expect users to be “passionate about libraries,” but I do expect my colleagues, whether on my campus or anywhere, to be passionate, perhaps even evangelical, about libraries (the day-to-day as well as the social, educational and historical responsbilities).
Thanks for posting answers to my questions, Keith.
Sorry it took a while to get back to you, Josh, hope you’re still interested in more comments.
1. Why did you decide to make a career for yourself in libraries? What is it about libraries that made you not just want to patronize them but work with them and be involved in their continuing development? It’s obvious from reading professional library journals, librarian blogs, and the comments on this blog that you all have a great love of libraries. Where does that come from?
My reasons for going into librarianship are two-fold. Number one, I’m a pretty serious information geek – I like learning new stuff and I’m one of those people who’s a little bit interested in practically everything. But I became a real information geek because I came of age during the first big internet boom in the mid-90s – the internet amazed me for a number of reasons, but what really floored me was watching how the net changed the way people interact with information. I mean, think about it – people used to drive all over town to find the best deals on some widget, now they just troll the net; Googling has become a verb (much to Google’s dismay); lots of folks get their news from the net now (though I still have a soft spot for NPR, myself); and so on. That’s just amazing, and I think we’re still pretty early on in discovering how the net is changing things.
The second reason why I’m going into libraries as a profession has to do with the fact that I’m kind of a librarian already. Going back as far as grade school, I’ve been the go-to gal for friends and family when they want to know something – as a long time friend of mine told me once a couple of years ago that even back when we were in grade school, “I always came to you first when I had school projects because, even if you didn’t know about the subject, you knew where to find out about it.” So, I’ve been a librarian since I was, like, 7. I just recently decided it was time to turn pro.
2. Do the people who use your libraries share your love of libraries? Are they enthusiastic about the continuing use and development of libraries? Are your patrons as geeky about libraries as you are?
Since I’m not actually working in a library yet, I’m not sure how qualified I am to answer that question, but here’s what I will say based on experience with family and friends: Some library patrons are extremely passionate about libraries, but I’m not sure that all library patrons are. I would also guess that most of the people who aren’t library patrons probably aren’t particularly passionate about libraries.
3. If your patrons aren’t as geeky about libraries, why aren’t they? What could we do to get our patrons as enthused about libraries as we are? How can we get library users to care as much about libraries as library professionals do?
I think part of the reason why the average person isn’t geeky about libraries in the same way we are is because they still have that old-fashioned view of the library as “that dusty old warehouse for books, where the staff get mad if you’re noisy.” Except for the folks who really, really love libraries as quiet places to study (and they’re the ones who are geeky about us already, but I think they’re the minority), I don’t think that’s an atmosphere that really appeals.
I think another part of the reason is because libraries and library systems have become more about the materials and what we as librarians want to do with them (let’s face it, most classification systems and subject heading lists are beasts only a librarian could love). We’ve built these systems up because we think they’re cool, and we think they do a just dandy job of helping us get our work done. But I think the average person these days takes one look at the average library catalog and thinks, “isn’t it just easier to Google what I’m looking for?”
So what do we do to change that? We stop making our systems only about us and our needs and quirks and start making them more about our patrons needs and quirks. That’s the point of the whole Library 2.0 movement, isn’t it? I think we also need to remember that even the patrons who are geeky about libraries, may not be geeky about them in quite the same way we are, and that’s okay. I don’t think we need to have patrons who are as into the search for information as the average librarian is, if they know that the library is the place to go to find stuff out and share information.
4. Or is that even important? Do we care if library patrons are as passionate about libraries? Is it enough that they use libraries, without being geeky and enthusiastic about them?
It is important, because I really think that unless we get people passionate about libraries, they’re eventually going to stop using them. Computer programmer and tech writer Kathy Sierra made the point over a year ago that, when it comes to software, if most of your users are mostly indifferent about your product, your product is in trouble. I kinda think libraries may be caught somewhere in Sierra’s “Zone of Mediocrity” at the moment, and we need to start to change that. The trick will be figuring out how to get more folks to be passionate about libraries without completely alienating all the folks who already are passionate (and who may not want libraries to change to suit the masses).
I’m always interested in more comments, Beth. Thanks for posting!
Everyone has given me a lot to think about. When I’ve gotten my own ideas a bit more sorted out, I’ll do a follow-up post.