Yesterday, there was an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled In the Age of Google, Librarians Get Shelved (now behind a paywall for some – fyi!). You should all go read the article. Then come back, and let’s discuss.
Ok … first off, the article is completely wrong about libraries and librarians. It’s based on no library I’ve ever been to.
But here’s the rub. The article is written by someone who works in libraries. You can even Google the author and find out where he works, if you’re so inclined.
And that’s why I’m suggesting that you read the article (and why I’m linking to it): You, my dear, awesome reader, have people working in your library that believe this stuff.
No, not most of your staff. But perhaps a couple. You might even have a board member or library leader who believes this. You certainly have someone in your community that believes it.
Your job is to come up with short, factual answers to each of the author’s challenges.
Why? Because at some point, you will be asked why you exist in the Age of Google … and you need to have solid, understandable answers.
Image from the unquiet librarian
I was rather surprised/shocked by that article, not just by the content but by the author as well. Odd. His thoughts certainly do not reflect our reality here in the Pacific Northwest. Ironic that his article is in the Wall Street Journal, which wouldn’t allow me to read it with the link unless I subscribed, so I had to use the public library to read it.
For those (like me) who are stuck on the other side of the paywall it appeared in Monday’s paper (1/11) on page A 13.
Yes, I help patrons print and do fairly ‘easy’ things on the computer, but that’s my job. The information I’m providing might not be the answers to in depth research questions of yesteryear but to the patron I’m working with it’s the most important information. When I give information to a patron and then they come back and want to learn how to find it themselves in our databases, I’ve done my job. When a patron who used to ask the same questions frequently about how to download an ebook stops asking because they don’t need my help anymore, I’ve done my job. But most importantly because even if you can find the answer online, it helps to have someone to talk to face to face to get that information, because a simple search can return way too many results. So maybe that person who questions the necessity of the library doesn’t need our help, but for every one of those, there are at least 2 people who do need our help.
David, I know of libraries like that and I know of librarians who still think reference skills alone are what librarians offer their communities. Fortunately, many of them are changing. But you and your library are ahead of most others, my friend.
The “library associate” part sounds very familiar.