We librarians are easily exasperated by our patrons. There are entire online communities devoted to anti-patron sentiments, such as The Society for Librarians who Say MotherF***er and Library Workers Against Stupid Patrons. I’ll admit I read these blogs daily, and have on occasion contributed to them. While some patrons really are horrible and toxic, most are simply people who are not familiar with the library, through no fault of their own. I think that many librarians have lost the ability to empathize with the people we serve.

We get a lot of inane questions like, “Where is the bathroom?” and “Where are your DVDs?” The answers seem so obvious to us. Everything is exactly where it has always been, not to mention that there are squillions of helpful signs to point the disoriented patron in the right direction. Do we think patrons are numbskulls? Many times, yes. In my opinion, this is partly due to the fact that we don’t view them as individuals, we see them as branches of the same entity. Surely if we tell one patron where the New Fiction Section is in the morning, we shouldn’t have to tell another patron the same thing in the afternoon. Didn’t they get the memo?

I think we lose empathy for our patrons because we forget what it is like to be one of them. I don’t know many librarians who visit other libraries as a patron. To see how they do things at that library, sure. But to check out a novel? Use the internet? Sit around and read? Of course not. We can do that at work.

Recently I was forced to be a library patron. It was Tax Day, and I had yet to make photocopies of my W-2s to send in with my forms. Unfortunately, it was also my day off from work, and it didn’t make sense to make the 20-mile round trip commute to use the copying machine when there was another library (that likely had its own copier) less than two miles away. So what did I do? I went to my neighborhood library for the very first time.

I walked through the doors and scanned the area hoping the photocopier would be obvious, but after a few seconds I gave up and went up to the information desk. When it was my turn, I politely asked if the library had a copier. The staff person just pointed wordlessly over my right shoulder. Oh. It was right behind me.

But it was not the same kind of photocopier that I was used to! It was completely different! The staff person had to leave her desk and (patiently, to her credit) show me where to insert my coins and where the copies would come out.

Thoroughly embarrassed, I quickly made the necessary copies and left. Spending forty hours a week in one library did not mean that I could find my way around any library. Who knew? Taken from my home turf, I was just like the people who make me want to tear my hair out on a daily basis.

To serve the community well, library employees need to be library patrons too. The extra time and effort will be worth the understanding we will gain. Maybe then there will be less fodder for angry, patron-dissing blogs.

Posted by: Eva Mays

Library patrons are a very diverse bunch. Stand any two next to each other, and nine times out of ten the only thing they will have in common is that they both patronize the library. The characteristic that varies the most is age—most libraries profess to serve infants, senior citizens, and every age group in between. In my time as a librarian, however, I have noticed that “Generation Y”, or people between the ages of 18 and 30, make up a very small amount of the people I serve every day.

It’s not that twenty-somethings aren’t using the library. In fact, some research suggests that they are more likely than the older generations to use library services to find solutions for problems they encounter in life. What concerns me is that, while they may drop by for help finding a job or to pick up tax forms, they aren’t using the library for its most basic service: access to free books.

As an eighties-baby myself, I see this in my personal life as well as my professional life. None of my friends get their reading material from the library. My own sisters, avid readers all, buy their books at chain stores and politely refuse when I offer to teach them to use Inter Library Loan! Not only that, but I am convinced that twenty-somethings who read for recreation are in the minority. This is probably because those who are in college view reading as a chore (I know I did), and those who are just entering the work force are too busy submitting resumes and worrying about paying off student loans to spend time on any luxuries, least of all cozying up with the latest NY Times Bestseller.

I like to argue that checking out books from the library not only saves the environment, but it also saves the library user a good chunk of change. I try to keep track of how much I read with GoodReads.com, and recently I thought it would be a fun experiment to add up all the books I had read in the last year and calculate the amount of many it would have cost me if I had bought them at Barnes & Noble instead of checking them out from the library. I would have spent about $1,300 on my reading habit last year alone. Yikes.

My husband thinks this a terrible argument; because as a librarian, I a) am required to read more than the average person, and b) as I work in a library, I have easy access to library services like interlibrary loan and am free of hassles like late fines. I simply have easier access and more incentive to read for fun than the average person my age. While I’ll admit he is right on that point, I won’t back down from my stance that my peers are simply not reading for fun, and when they do they are purchasing books with money that could be better spent elsewhere (i.e. those pesky student loans).

I think it is important for libraries to market more to the twenty-something crowd. Libraries tend to pay a lot of attention to the extremes—early literacy and services to senior citizens. All age groups both need and deserve a daily dose of free reading, and we need to find ways to convince Generation Y to take advantage of what their public library offers!  

Posted by: Eva Mays

How much is a Master of Library and Information Science worth?

In my opinion, not much more than the vellum the diploma is printed on.

Here’s the thing: When I encounter a problem or challenge in my work life, I don’t close my eyes and try to recall a reading or lecture I imbibed while in graduate school. Instead, I call on my on-the-job experience or consult with co-workers and peers. Library Science is not something that can be taught in a lecture hall; it can only be learned in a library!

This realization makes me a little bit cranky (as it does many other degreed librarians) because no one likes to admit that they wasted tens of thousands of dollars and several years of their life on an education that does not prepare them for the career they chose. An MLIS is useful for exactly one thing: landing a dream job in a well-funded library. The degree is nearly useless when actually doing that job.

Here’s another thing: While so many companies now require advanced degrees of their employees, libraries cannot afford to be so selective. Many will fill a vacant position with an un-degreed librarian as long as the price is right. I think it is because, deep down, library administrators know that an MLIS-less librarian can do the same quality of work as one who spent an extra year or two in the halls of academia, but can be paid a lower salary and given the unflattering title of Library Assistant.

I have met librarians with degrees who look down their noses at those without; as if no matter how many years of experience they may have they will always be thirty-six credits short of being a true librarian. I hold to the belief that anyone who works in a library is a librarian. Enough quibbling over titles like library assistant, library worker, library support staff, library technician, and clerk. There are so many better uses of our time!

I have come to the conclusion that the MLIS degree was created by a group of overworked and underpaid librarians who were sick of being disrespected in the professional world and tired of the public ignoring their efforts to contribute to society. What better way to boost confidence and morale than an impressive-sounding acronym to clip onto the end of one’s name? I wish I could tell all librarians not to be so insecure. We are superheroes, with or without the acronym. It’s the wonderful things that we do that make us librarians, not how much money we forked over for a piece of fancy paper.

Posted by: Eva Mays

I decided to become a Youth Service Librarian because I wanted to share my love of reading with young people. When dreaming of my future career while slogging through my MLIS program, I envisioned myself quietly overseeing dedicated young readers as they pursued knowledge, enlightenment, and entertainment. I am a tad embarrassed about how naïve and old-fashioned I was. Luckily, my misconceptions about the librarian job description did not survive my first week on the job in a real-life public library.

Most of the children I work with come from troubled homes. Their parents are usually unwilling or unable to provide any kind of guidance for their children, so the parental duties are left hanging until a responsible adult decides to take them up. Most public libraries are awash with unsupervised children and teens, and librarians are obligated to assume to role of caretaker and disciplinarian in order to keep the peace. That is just one of the many things they don’t think to tell you in library school.

During the course of my employment at the library, I have had to do some things that my pre-librarian self would never have guessed. I have had to pull brawling kids off each other on more than one occasion. I constantly admonish teenagers for calling each other “ugly”, “ignorant”, or a variety of other names that I don’t recognize but am pretty sure are derogatory. I have tried to explain why violence is wrong and why every person should be treated with respect. I have launched a campaign to reinstate “please” and “thank you” into their vocabularies. I have tried to instill a sense of self-worth in them all. And all the while, I have tried to inspire in them a love of reading. Not an easy task!

Contrary to the two-dimensional librarians of yesteryear, today’s librarians have a responsibility to foster not just the intellectual development of children and teens, but the social and emotional development as well. While most librarians take up this mantle willingly, I think the job would be that much sweeter if we could know for certain that our considerable efforts have the power to turn a life around. Do they listen to us? Do they remember what we say? Does our good opinion factor into their decision-making process? And most of all, will we ever convince them that reading is fun?

There are times when it seems that the kids see me as a piece of furniture, but I have to remind myself that because of my close involvement it is difficult to see clearly. Several times in the past year I have had to take a step back from the situation in order to look at the big picture and make sense of it all. When the times get tough and I begin to forget why I ever chose to become a librarian, I reflect the times when I have succeeded (although they are always fewer than I would prefer). I remember all the times when I have been able to get a reluctant reader to sit down with a book, all the times that a child has asked me “please” when before they would have demanded, and especially all the times I have seen some of the local children “play librarian” when they think I’m not looking.

Someone recently reminded me that small adjustments are the least painful and the most successful. Although this person was not referring to library services, I think all librarians should take this aphorism to heart. It is the little changes I see every day, even the ones so subtle they are barely noticeable, that convince me that librarians have the power to inspire, teach, and lead in many different ways (not just by shelving dusty tomes and memorizing the Dewey Decimal System).

Posted by: Eva Mays