Library Revolution

OK, OK, OK.

In my post yesterday about “Going Green,” I made a passing reference to knitting:

“My son now has several new knit caps that he can refuse to wear this winter.”

Since then, I have had three emails asking about the caps I made for him. So to satisfy the emailers and anyone else out there who is curious, here are a couple of pictures of two of the hats I knit for Robert while I was home sick last week:

Of course, Robert’s best friend, Bobo, has to have a matching version of every hat… that’s what friendship between a boy and his bear is all about.

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Someone asked me the other day if I ever get tired of being nice all the time. I had to laugh. Is that what people really think of me? If only they knew.

How many people came out of the closet today as The Annoyed Librarian? I lost count at about 12. And we are really no closer to discovering who the man/woman/group behind the AL really is. It could even be me…

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My sister is a wonderful person. She’s also a complete packrat. You know, the kind of person who never seems to throw anything away… everything is kept “just in case,” “for the future,” or “because of sentimental value.” And I mean everything. She’s gotten better in the past few years, but I remember a time when entire rooms of her house seemed to be filled with random objects that hadn’t been used in years. Thank God she decided to overhaul things a bit before her house became a fire hazard!

My father in law is the same way. You should see his garage. And I’ll always remember the time we tried to help him clear out by having a garage sale. He was loathe to part with any of it, and kept smuggling items back into the garage. Then, when people tried to buy things, he wouldn’t budge on the price – I think he just wanted to keep everything.

I know a lot of librarians like this, too. Not necessarily when it comes to their homes or personal possessions, but in terms of their library collections. I don’t think there is a librarian in the world that doesn’t wish he or she had more space for materials, and in many ways I sympathize. But I often get a chance to see the contents of their collections and I frequently ask myself “Why are they keeping this?????”

Sure, they have collection development policies in place that in theory should be the driving force behind the decision to keep or to toss. But it all ultimately comes down to the librarian’s decision. And it can be really hard to give things up.

But is there really much value, at least in a public library setting, to keeping travel guides to Indonesia from 2000, or even 1990? (Believe me, I have seen this recently! Um, hi. Did you miss this?) And when you finally decide to get rid of your stamp collecting price guide from 1986, do you really need to advertise it on every library Listserv around? Well, I guess so, because these “gifts” always seem to be snapped up by another librarian as soon as they are posted.

I’m not talking about keeping things for historical value. As a former historian, I definitely understand the value of retaining cultural artifacts for future studies. But here I’m talking about a regular old public library collection. What, exactly, and I supposed to do with the 1997 New York City With Kids travel guide I found at my local library? Is any of that stuff even still there?? And prescription drug guides from 1997 are simply irresponsible.

Come on, folks. It’s time to let go. I know you spent a lot of money on some of those books. I k now you may not be able to afford to replace everything. I know you are busy. I know that you can’t keep up with everything. But I don’t want to hear you complaining about “no shelf space” if you have a collection full of old junk. Throw it out.

Then there are those of us who want to react in the opposite way. I’d just as soon throw out almost everything that’s even the least bit outdated. And maybe that’s not the solution, either. But there must be a balance between keeping it all and pitching it all. In theory, that’s what we are trained to do – make intelligent decisions about the collections we cultivate and the information we make available.

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Two links came my way from a local library ListServ yesterday (see, sometimes ListServs are useful!):

NYT: A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

BBC: Librarians “Suffer Most Stress”

It’s so funny. I hear both of these feelings expressed by librarians on a daily basis. It’s either, “OMG, we’re so cool and nobody seems to appreciate that” or “Most people just don’t see the pressure we’re under.” Or sometimes, I hear a combination of them both.

In the end, I have a hard time really taking either position too seriously. For one, if you find yourself in a position of explaining to people why you’re so cool, then you’re not. And are we just trading one stereotype for another, as Meredith Farkas suggests?
For the other, come on. As vital as we like to think libraries are, in the end, it’s not a life or death situation you find yourself in. It’s a library, not an operating room. So relax.

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And now to make some people mad.

I’m getting a little tired of hearing librarians complain about the profession having a bad image and librarians not being taken seriously as professionals. How often do I hear folks complaining about the “bad rap” we get - being perceived and portrayed as dowdy old ladies.  I overheard several such comments today at the conference I’m attending.

Well, cry me a river. Or, as my grandmother would say, “I just want to say this about that.”

If you’re so concerned about the perception the public has of librarians and libraries, then stop proving it true. I you don’t want to be seen as a dowdy old lady, then don’t dress like one. Especially when you are out representing yourself, your organization, and your profession at a professional function.

As I walked around the conference today, I was struck (once again!) by the severity of the fashion violations that were everywhere. I half expected that the convention center was about to be ambushed by the What Not To Wear fashion police. No such luck.

Hey librarians! You are at a professional conference. You are not about to dig around in your garden. You are not on your way to the beach. You are not going on safari, the gym, prospecting for gold, or moving west in a covered wagon. This is not a ski trip, and you are not in your living room.

I’m not saying you have to blow your paycheck on expensive clothes and Armani suits. But a professional function, such as a conference, should mean professional attire. If you are cold, leave the hoodie sweatshirt alone and get a blazer, or even a nice sweater (and I said nice, not some old moth eaten thing my grandmother would be embarrassed to wear). Feet hurt? That doesn’t mean you have to go straight for your ratty old sneakers or comfortable sandals that have seen better days. And for God’s sake - the hotel provides an iron in every room.

Am I just being superficial? No, I don’t think so. You are the face of your organization and of your profession whenever you attend a conference. In this case, the people of San Jose, your colleagues and counterparts from other libraries, as well as your vendor are all looking at you. (Actually, three different people asked me today if I worked for Innovative. I took that as a compliment, as the representatives from that company were all quite put together.)

You are a professional. Take some pride in your profession and represent it and yourself in an appropriate manner. If you don’t then you have no right to complain about librarians having a bad image. The next time I see something like the ubiquitous March of the Librarians, don’t make me cringe.

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It happened again last week.

I was chatting with a librarian friend of mine about general library stuff. I happened to mention a statistic I had read in a recent article – one I got through my aggregator, of course. In response, my friend groaned and rolled her eyes.

The stat itself wasn’t the problem… it made the point we were discussing more convincing and validated our shared opinion. But the fact that I had come across it online through a feed like that was what elicited her apparent disapproval. Well, maybe “disapproval” is the wrong word.

“Ugh,” she said, “I don’t know how you have time to do all of that stuff.”

I was confused. “What stuff?”

“Oh, reading all those blogs and online articles and research and stuff,” she replied, “I know I don’t have time. I’m way too busy with my job. I guess they let you have time to read things like that?”

Well, that was the beginning of a much longer conversation that ended up bringing out several points:

1.  It really doesn’t take that much time. I have all of my subscriptions in my aggregator, and I peruse them when I’m on the phone with people, killing a few minutes before a meeting, and (gasp!) at home when I’m not actually “on the clock.” If something looks really interesting and I don’t have time for an in-depth read, I keep it as new and hit it later. And if I don’t have time, I don’t sweat it. Or I just dump some of the more expendable stuff. And I don’t sweat that, either.
2. We need to keep informed. Sometimes librarians get so busy “doing our jobs” that we forget the responsibility we have to our profession. And a big part of being good professionals is keeping current and well informed, even if it takes you away from day-to-day tasks now and then, and even if it means you have to devote some of your personal time to doing so.
3. We need to rethink our priorities. I think this is true for most of us in life, not just librarians. But when you find that you are missing out on something important in your profession because you “don’t have time,” I think some of the things that are eating up your time need to be reevaluated. If I could have a nickel every time a librarian who “doesn’t have time” explains in the next breath the weird, complicated procedure they use for this-or-that function in their library… Are those strange work-arounds and time consuming procedures so important and necessary? How can you streamline your job so that you can accommodate your professional responsibility to keep current?
4. Employers and supervisors need to support professional development. For real. I think that most of our supervisors talk a good game about how we all need to engage in “professional development” and keep abreast of Libraryworld happenings and trends. So they need to stick to that. If you are a supervisor, what are you doing to encourage your staff to keep themselves informed? If you’re a “supervisee,” what are you doing to keep your boss honest about this one? And how can we be supportive of our colleagues in this endeavor?

Do you know any librarians who think that “keeping up with professional literature” means circling some reviews in Library Journal every now and then? Are you that librarian? Do you ever feel in over your head when it comes to “keeping up” with what’s going on in Libraryworld? Are you ever too busy “doing your job” to cultivate your professional knowledge?

What are you going to do about it??

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Michael Casey at Library Crunch posted the other day on a topic that is near and dear to my heart… or should I say one that completely irritates me and is 100% guaranteed to send me into an instant, prolonged rant. He very diplomatically phrases it as “Passive Aggressive Behavior.” I wouldn’t put it so nicely… Both as a library patron and a professional librarian, I’ve encountered such behavior many times. And it doesn’t sit well with me at all.

Take the time that a librarian I know was told by her supervisor that she wouldn’t need to ask so many questions if she were more resourceful. The poor woman was new in her library, and had some questions about how things were done there… so she asked. I’ll bet she never made that mistake again. Meanwhile, whenever I deal with the staff at that particular library, it’s always obvious that internal communications are non-existent. I wonder why???

It’s even worse when the nastiness is directed at patrons. Like the time that my husband sent our local library an email asking if they were going to order a particular book. In response, he got a very terse email informing him that they couldn’t take the time to answer such a question for him unless he provided his library barcode as part of the email. What??? I’m sure it took them longer to write that nasty little response than it would have taken to just tell him yes or no. And what were they planning on doing with his barcode, anyway… especially since it takes no longer to look up a patron by name than by barcode. Now he doesn’t want to ask them for information ever again. Way to go alienating a good patron, library!

Rude. Arrogant. Condescending. Not to mention counterproductive.

What about treating one another with some respect? Would it be so terrible to be nice to our coworkers? Would it be the end of the world to show our patrons some respect? My Mom would never let me get away with treating people so poorly!

Oh, I know full well that most librarians are friendly and helpful, both to one another and to their patrons. But there is enough of a segment of radical rule-following enforcers out there (see this post form yesterday!) for us to take a good hard look at how we phrase our responses and conduct our interactions.

It’s often said that our best, cheapest, and most effective marketing tool is customer service. Don’t let passive aggressive nastiness undermine that!

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Lifehacker posted in interesting question about the things we do each day… and the things we shouldn’t do (originally posted at Productivity501). The suggestion is that we can be more productive in our daily lives if we cut out some of the things we don’t need to be doing… or that we can do more efficiently by another means.

 In light of all of the “I have no time to do that” comments I hear from library staff when I suggest trying new things, this might be worth some serious thought. What are you doing that you don’t need to?

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To follow up on that last, sort of negative post, I really do want to highlight some of the wonderful, helpful things I hear around library reference desks as well. And I must stress that this is the most common kind of comment I hear… it’s just easier to pick on the bad stuff because it sticks out in my mind after hearing it. So here are a few of the really great comments I’ve heard lately:

•  Let me show you how to find that and put a hold on it.

• Did you know you can pay that fine with your credit card? You can use this computer over here…

• It’s ok if you use your cell phone as long as you keep it down a little.

• Did you know we’re having a great program on that same subject next week?

• (to a little boy) Hi there! You look like you need a book about dinosaurs!

• I don’t know much about that subject, but I have a friend at another library who knows all the best resources. Do you have a minute? I can call her and get her recommendations.

 Sorry I have fewer on this post… It’s usually more fun and cathartic to write down the baddies.

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I spend a lot of time just sort of “hanging out” in libraries, hovering around the public services while I wait for meetings, training sessions, or people I am meeting with. As a result, I overhear a lot of librarian/patron interactions. While most of them are terrific and make me proud to be a librarian, sometimes I have to just cringe at what I hear going on while I eavesdrop, unnoticed. I even started keeping a little list of some especially…. um… interesting comments I’ve heard. Here are just a few recent quotes, copied off of that list. (I won’t post the names of the staff members or the libraries of course!)

• I can’t find it – you must have the call number copied down wrong. Go back to the computer and copy it down right so I can find it for you.

• I’m sorry, but I can’t get you that New York Times article because we only keep back issues for a week.

• You know what it’s about, but not the title? Well, if you find out what the title is, then I can see if I can get it for you.

• Did you place the hold yourself? Well, next time just ask us to do it for you.

• No, I have no idea if that DVD is currently checked in. (turns and walks away)

• No, we don’t have any weekend programs for that age range. If you work, you could take a day off to bring [your child].

• The person who does that is off today. Come back in tomorrow.

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