Why I blog
Sometimes, I really dislike telling people that I’m a librarian. Why, you might ask? After all, librarians don’t appear on most lists of despised professions: used car salesmen, politicians, lawyers, journalists. It’s just that the librarianship is such a stereotyped profession.
Reactions usually vary, I find. The two most common reactions so far: “Oh, you must really like books!” or: “Oh, you don’t look like a librarian!” Both bug me, because they are based on stereotypes of libraries as being mere book repositories, quiet, dusty, and boring, and the librarians that work in them, correspondingly quiet, dusty and boring.
Now, I actually don’t see anything wrong with libraries as book repositories, because let’s face it, we do collect and maintain large numbers of books, and we do do that very well indeed. I love wandering down the stacks, inhaling the scent of hundreds of old books, looking at spines and browsing. I love the atmosphere of libraries – people sitting around reading, thinking, writing – it’s quietly soothing but exciting at the same time, because you never know what masterpiece or work of art is being created by any of those people.
No, what really irks me about the stereotype is the fact that many people now associate information, and finding information, with the Internet, and don’t associate libraries as having any role in the information-seeking process at all. Why go to the library when you can find it all on Google? The number of times I have heard this sentiment – why indeed? The stereotype gets in the way of library folks doing our jobs, too. Historically, traditionally, we might have done things a certain way. But if tradition starts to get in the way of improving services… could we all go out of business by 2020? What are we librarians going to do about this state of affairs?
I actually started off wanting to write about the sorts of issues I’m hoping to reflect on here. Instead, because it’s been one of those weeks, I am in a bit of a mood at the moment and this post is the result. Still, the usual adage about writing as therapy is very true; I feel much better having written this and knowing that I am a part of the blogosphere.
I love the fact that all these issues are being discussed by library folks throughout the librarian/library blogosphere (biblioblogosphere… liblogosphere… whatchamacallit), and that I can engage in these discussions so easily by just participating. Welcome to our new contributors (you know who you are!) - and welcome, if you’ve just happened upon this blog. I’m looking forward to a long and interesting journey with all of you.
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