SAXTON B. LITTLE FREE LIBRARY
319 Route 87 Columbia, CT 06237
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Speaking Volumes

Keeping you up-to-date on what's happening at your library. We invite you to join in the conversation!
MARCH 31, 2010
Who me a Librarian? Why not?
The title of this blog was a campaign used by the Connecticut Library Association several years ago.  It appeared right around the time that I, myself, was undergoing a career change and entering Libraryland.   The last two blogs of my wonderful colleagues have reminded me of this.  So I have decided its only fitting that today’s ramblings continue on this path.
 
Personally, librarianship was the LAST thing I ever thought I’d do.  Sure, I went to the public library as a kid.  I stopped like most, when around age 9 or 10 it became ‘un-cool.’  Not that I stopped reading, but the weekly visits ceased.  In high school, our town’s public library and school library were one and the same.  So, my return to the public library was rather a by product of getting out of study halls. (As an aside: a public apology to my librarian of those by gone days: we had no idea what havoc we were creating for you.)  Of course, I used my college libraries, but I must shamefully admit that in my conception, libraries were places to get a good nap, more than they held use value.
 
Graduate school did start to change that perception, if not about libraries, at least about librarians.  As many of you know, for years before becoming a librarian I held an academic career: teaching, research, and publishing.  Librarians found materials, held materials until one could come get them, and then found more materials.  They were the best research assistants in the world.  Plus, they always seemed as pleased as I was when something was useful and never as upset and disappointed when they had gone through the trouble of getting something that wasn’t.
 
Still, my world was research methods, crime, deviance, social complexities… not libraries.  When for a large number of reasons I started to think I needed a career change, libraries were not front and center.   I started looking at jobs that focused on statistical analysis and research; things I knew.  Things I was good at and things I thought were marketable.  When I considered going back to school, it was going to be for computer programming, my “hobby.”  Though ironically my partner had worked in libraries for over 10 years at that point, libraries were not even on the radar.
 
So how did I get here?
 
Well… it began with a book (sadly not from the library), then more books.  You know the types – the ones that have you list what you like, where your skills are, what kind of work you would be good at, etc. etc.  It pointed to libraries.  Libraries?
 
You mean that’s actually a job?  People pay you to DO that?”  I remember questioning my partner who not infrequently wondered what rock I had been living under to have missed this.  But wanting to make a good choice and being a researcher, I investigated.
 
So, when I entered graduate school (again) for Library Science, it wasn’t because I’d loved libraries all my life or because I recognized the importance of the library’s role in the community.  It was because libraries offered me the chance to do the kinds of work I liked and was good at doing.
 
Over time I learned a lot.  When I started, I had no idea how different types of libraries were, how unique each location was, and I certainly had no clue what or how much was involved in any type of library work.  A giant, complex, almost secret world opened up for me.
 
I don’t know that I have learned to love libraries.  I think most, in fact would say I do not. 

I do love my job, the kind of work I do (both that which I had anticipated and that which came as a surprise) and the people I work with – but love the library? 
 
As a new librarian, I was at a conference and heard noted author Esmeralda Santiago speak.  As part of her address she said that the Public Library saved her life.  It gave her a safe place to be and a direction for her skills to take.  I thought, “wow, if I want to make a difference in the world – that’s the place to be.’  And though all the world thought that given my background I should work in an academic library, I’ve insisted on the public sector.
 
Over time, I’ve not only heard Ms. Santiago’s sentiments repeated by others, but I’ve seen it.  I’ve seen it in small ways with a smile and unspoken company and I’ve seen it in large ways as people found life changing information.  I’ve seen librarians offer assistance from threading a needle to facing down threatening and abusive people.
 
I admire the Public Library.  It is the embodiment of the community.  I may not love libraries, but I respect libraries and all who run and work in them.  I’m proud to be a librarian.
 
Who me a librarian?   You bet.

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