Backhanded compliments

Today's fit of rage was brought to you by this little bit of fluff: In Praise of Librarians, I suppose the piece was intended to laud librarians and draw attention to the important role they play in higher education. Somehow, the author manages to both do this and also reinforce stupid old stereotypes about librarians and libraries, thereby bringing us collectively one step closer to extinction through irrelevance. By focusing on how librarians are 'bookish,' fondly reminiscing about closed stacks and grumbling about cellphone-toting students, he manages to freeze the formulation of a library in time, approximately 100 years ago. I'm pretty new to this profession, but even I know that being a librarian in many contexts is about serving your public (whoever they are.) It's helpful to know a lot of stuff, to read a lot, to 'be bookish,' but more important traits of good librarians include the ability to listen to what the patron is asking for and to respectfully teach patrons how to find what they're looking for. Basically, it's about connecting people with information. And lately, more and more of that information is available electronically. I for one am grateful that those hideous green Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature volumes have been displaced by searchable indexes.

Don't get me wrong--It's hard for me not to roll my eyes when students only want articles they can access online in full text, because god-forbid they should have to find a bound volume of a journal on a shelf in the stacks (I also want to tell them to cram that damn cell phone up their ass--I really don't care how DRUNK they got last night omigawd.) However, massive searching power is at one's fingertips, literally, through a keyboard. Certainly, this brings to mind issues of the digital divide and whether libraries can afford access to electronic resources. But that's for another post. The point here I'm trying to make is that the more people characterize libraries as mere book repositories, the more they limit the public conception of who and how libraries can serve.

So please, if anyone else decides to write in praise of librarians, drop the bit about the books, okay? People read things other than books. Information is contained in things other than books. Literacy isn't limited to the ability to read books. Not all of us have buns and scowls. Some of us are pierced, tattooed, and ready to yell 'shut up, yo!' if you get too loud. And some of us actually prefer public libraries to academic ones. But most of us are waiting behind reference desks ready to help you find what you need, because we love to do that. You just have to ask. At least the author got that right.