This topic came to me recently in a way I hadn’t considered before. We librarians know your secrets. This was one of the things we frequently discussed in the ethics class I took in grad school. But the secrets I’m thinking of go beyond your medical history, your marital status and your legal issues. We librarians know you intimately. We know what you like to read.
A librarian who is good at reader’s advisory builds relationships with the patrons she serves. She learns the patrons most intimate likes and dislikes. She *has* to earn the patron’s trust. It’s like a dance at times. One step forward, two back, one to the left…and then it’s a jump to ri-i-i-i-ght…whoops, sorry, Halloween weekend diversion there. I know there are patrons with whom I’ll never be able to build the trust level needed. It could be that our personalities don’t mesh, and they don’t want me to know their secrets. I’m okay with that. I’ve met many people who, over the years, have told me stories of being ridiculed by a librarian (and for many, anyone who works in a library is a librarian whether the person holds the degree or not) for their reading choices. This is highly frustrating for me because no one should be ridiculed for what they like to read, whether it be romance, literature, narrative non-fiction, science fiction, insert-your-favored-leisure-reading-genre-here. But I can live with it. I have to.
So, my questions to you: when you work with a librarian, do you feel like you are entrusting them with your deepest, darkest secrets? Or, are you confident in your reading choices, whatever they may be? Have you experienced a not-so-nice librarian in your past? If so, do you still hold all of us in contempt or have you found a librarian who has proven us to be a once more trustworthy profession? Librarians, have you ever worked with someone with whom it took a while for them to tell you what they were *really* looking for? How did you work with them to get them to that point?
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I worked in our public library after school my senior year -many moons ago! – and spent most of my time reshelving (heaven) or checking out books for patrons. In my small hometown, everyone knew everyone and their business. We had four revolving racks for paperbacks, which included a large number of romances – and trust me, I had read most of them even before that job! The racks were positioned in a nook that was mostly hidden from the library so you never knew who or what you would find when you went around the corner.
One day I came around with my cart and nearly ran over this person crouching beside the rack, reading. She looked up and just about choked in horror – it was the girl who would be our valedictorian, the girl who was very vocal about how she would never read ‘trash’. Since my mother had hammered manners into me, I just said hello and moved on so she could die of embarrassment in private.
Later that day, I was checking out books and she hovered near the desk until no one else was around, then came up to have her books checked out. You would have thought we were conducting a drug transaction by the way she acted, looking over her shoulder, stacking a nonfiction over the novel.
After that, she always waited to check out books until I was at the desk and by the time June rolled around, she had gone through most of the racks, but she never acted as if reading romance was a normal thing to do. So I guess you could say I earned her trust by not ridiculing her, but I still fell badly that she never felt comfortable enough to display her reading choices openly. I haven’t seen her in years, but I hope she has relaxed enough to read whatever she wants by now!
I always wonder how someone who is so publicly degrading of something they secretly read, watch, whatever can truly enjoy whatever it is. That’s so cool you were able to hopefully help her feel a little less ashamed of what she liked to read!
Oh, that is so funny, Wendy!
You really know the readership, Katie. Authors and publishing professionals should be interrogating you regularly.
Aw, thanks Kimber!
I actually have a great relationship with the librarians at my local public library and those here at my university library. But since I’ve started researching romance, I feel self-conscious going to pick up my interlibrary loan books or checking out armfuls of novels with race covers. To be sure, none of the librarians involved have been anything other than the same lovely professional people they’ve always been, but I do wonder what they’re thinking.
Consuela, do you think there’s anything the library staff could do to help you feel less self-conscious?
I feel like I’m missing out all of a sudden. I live in a midsized city with automated check out machines at all the libraries. I can order inter-library loan books on my own and just pick them up at the counter. Most of the time the cover is completely obscured by the paperwork they wrap it in. I haven’t actually TALKED to a librarian in years. The database may know my secrets but I don’t think the physical people could tell us apart.
The level of automation many libraries have managed to implement over the last five years is a dual-edged sword. There are many like you Kate who really appreciate how it helps streamline your usage of the library, but our ability to show the human value in libraries has decreased. There are librarians out there like me who really do enjoy speaking with our patrons, so if you’ve got an extra minute or two, stop by one of the desks and say hi
Kate, how awful! I think that we sometimes take automation waaay too far. Before it’s over with, we’re all going to live in little cubicles surrounded by screens and speakers, and everything we need will come in through a chute in the wall.
Hmmm. Sounds like a new sci-fi project…!
Good luck with that, MtnGirl!
Oh phew, this post is about librarians, for a moment I thought you’d found out about my thing for books featuring pirates… ahem.
Uh Oh
Cait
LOL! I really do have to update my list of pirate books one of these days
My high school librarian as considered a nasty old spinster by most of the student body, but she knew I loved books. I think I read every fiction book we had during my years in school and many of them more than once. She started setting aside the new arrivals for me to select from before shelving them. I didn’t appreciate it as much at the time as I do now looking back. The public libraries I go to now are all pretty big and friendly in a distant sort of way. I still love them though.
I’m glad you had such positive experiences, Susan! Too bad the majority of your fellow students didn’t get to know the librarian as “well” as you did!
I’m not going to lie, I secretly worry that book vendors will judge me for what I pick up. But I try not to think about that. Bravado will see you through.
I work in a library that’s been automated for over 10 years and I love it when I can actually help a patron find a book or discuss books with them- it’s such a rare occurance these days. When I’m at the desk I feel all I do is check out DVDs to people or put them on a computer.
To be honest, I really try not to notice what people are getting. I figure it’s none of my business and I’m just trying to give them their privacy. Now if they want to discuss the books with me I will, but many of them don’t.