[Publib] as a profession......loyalty?

[Conrad Rader]

The big push to act like book stores is perhaps the greatest example of the
corporate mindset.  I never liked the philosophy that we have to act like
something else to get people in.  Are we then guilty of false marketing when
we try and do library things in the bookstore setting?

I came to public librarianship in particular because I bumped into a career
that fitted my skills and temperament,  lucky me, and when I discovered the
principles of librarianship, well, that was just icing on the cake. I ended
up an administrator because I saw that as being the only way to effect REAL
change, by becoming someone responsible for making things better.  As a line
librarian, I suffered my share of 'no one listens to me', except from my own
supervisor, a wonderful woman who challenged me to stretch for my limits,
and for the team I worked with in business reference, who I still remember
with longing as the best team I ever worked with.  I saw things that wanted
changing, but contented myself with change on the things that I could
affect, my duties, my demeanor.  That kind of drive only takes you so far,
though, as the daily grind etches it away.

In my current position, I have had to deal with downsizing, budget cuts,
curtailing services and explaining what that meant to staff and patrons.
I've WISHED for martinis but never actually had them.  I built my team the
hard way, by sitting them down for meeting every month and listening, and
incorporation their input into my planning. M!'s last line hit me the
hardest.  I have problems too, and I think the solutions are going to hurt a
lot more that people are prepared to accept, and not only in libraries.  I
know what I want my library to be; a place where the conversation starts,
where erroneous assumptions are corrected and where the people can meet to
talk. People should remember that booksellers and coffee shops were once the
seat of enlightenment and change, and somehow I do not see revolution on the
agendas of Big Box Book Sellers and Coffee R' Us.  Social change begins when
two people meet and agree that something is not right.  I want to be the
person giving them a space to begin.

Conrad Rader
Adult Services Librarian
Niles District Library


M! wrote

The 'corporate mindset' seems to be creeping in everywhere.

Many of us came to librarianship assuming this was a place where it
wouldn't happen, where caring and altruism would always prevail. Sure, we
are all about questioning and the late Sam Rothstein (LIS prof at UBC)
might have been right in saying librarians are 'querulous loners' (I sure
am), but even so, morale seems to be very bad in most public libraries
these days. I hear it everywhere.

Administrators who entered the biz for the same reasons we did get swept
up into a world of politics, schmoozing and martini sipping and seem much
more content to call in a consultant with a briefcase to to conduct 'team
building exercises' than to actually walk downstairs and talk with staff.
In the last two places I worked - central libraries in medium-size cities
- I never even met the three directors, neither did most of my ref
colleagues...and these directors had offices in the same facility. In
fact, two directors got up on _staff appreciation_ days and waxed
rhapsodic about their dreams of all self-service libraries. Librarians are
regarded by many in the executive suite as nothing more than an overpriced
nuisance.

We've got problems and I have no idea how we solve them. We know the
patrons - and a world so in need of repair - still need us. It hurts.

-M!