[Publib] RE: why public librarianship?

[Christopher F. Bowen]

Thanks for asking the question. It was good to take a minute to think
about the work I have been doing for a lot of years. 

It is kind of nice to be able to look back and realize that one's entire
career has been spent helping other people. And that you get to help
mostly with good stuff! So many of the helping professions deal full
time with tragedy - fire, flood, famine, disease. I got to spend the
first half of my career -- from page to library assistant to reference
librarian -- helping people answer questions, find a good book or record
(phonograph, that is), do their homework, etc. In the second half of my
career, as an administrator, I get to facilitate the work of staff that
do these things, plus I have had the chance to lose and help pass
referendums, help design and build library buildings, and fight a nasty
censorship battle and survive with the library's and my personal
principals intact.

Everyone in public service deals with some patrons (and co-workers) who
are eccentric, down-right crazy, or just plain nasty. But we also get to
deal with patrons like the fellow that spent every lunch hour listening
to English from Spanish language records in the music department where I
started as a page. When I came back to that department as the manager
years later, that same fellow was the first patron to congratulate me on
my promotion -- in perfect English. That's what the public library
business is really about.

Christopher Bowen
Library Director
Downers Grove Public Library

-----Original Message-----

Subject: [Publib] Why public librarianship?

I am wondering why members of this listserv chose the field of public
librarianship for their library careers.