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LIbrarian twitter is all in a tempest in a teapot again about the boundaries of public library service, sparked by a statement by @JustinLibrarian that people wanting to work in libraries in 2019 need to be "everything to every community member." Here's the thing: HE'S RIGHT.
Did you read @EricKlinenberg's PALACES FOR THE PEOPLE, and did it resonate with you? Libraries are one of the only, if not the only, pieces of social infrastructure we have here in the US. Our professional mandate is free and open access.
In pub libs, we have no control over who walks in the door, and we shouldn't. The very nature of our customer base means we have to be ready for anything. We need our toolbox to be full of resources so we can support & connect our communities. That's the work we've always done.
But, just like whenever anyone in our profession suggests that it is, it HAS, changed, librarian twitter gets all upset. HARD FACTS TIME: THE LIBRARY OF YOUR YOUTH DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE. THE LIBRARY OF YOUR LIBRARY SCHOOL ERA DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE.
Librarians in particular are going to be the death of libraries because our profession wants its cake and to eat it, too. We want to be viewed as an essential part of that social infrastructure, but we turn away from our communities, which are in crisis.
We insist we are not the quiet, studious places of the past, but are centers for our community, and then bristle when it is suggested that, in order to work in the public library of today, you need to be ready to work in a community center, not a hallowed hall of books.
If public libraries are the place where people can go to find help, to find resource, to be connected to their community, we need to be staffed with people who can go with that flow. That, to me, is what @JustinLibrarian is saying.
@justine_hyde wrote a great piece for @lithub about this, too, in response to an article published in Australia about libraries in Sydney: lithub.com/stop-the-libra…. The 2019 public library isn't the "private childhood memory palace" of anyone.
As a director, it's my job to try and get the resources my staff need to meet the current community challenges. Do I expect my staff to be social workers? No, but I do expect that they are interested in meeting the community's actual needs, and not just the ones staff want.
Like @HalpernAlex said on a thread for this topic (and which we were JUST talking about over lunch yesterday) is that staff need to be trained to provide this kind of emotional labor & social work. Library staff aren't special; anyone working in crisis situations needs support.
If you are working in a public library in 2019 and you're expecting your organization to provide all of your self-care support, you *are* in the wrong job. And, if you're not letting your administration know what could be most helpful to provide for support, you're not helping.
I've worked in small, rural libraries, and guess what? They've had to be everything to everyone for AGES, because there is literally no where else to go. You have to learn how to take on the emotional load in your community, because you're it.
I've worked in some of the largest libs in the US (NYPL, Seattle, Multnomah) including at their "central" locations, and guess what? Our cities have been in crisis for a long time, and that divide is only deepening. If I can't live in that reality, I can't work at an urban lib.
We don't do information jobs in the same way any longer. Literacy, lifelong informal education, internet access, connecting over books -- they all remain a core part of public library service.
But public library staff need to understand they work in *community service.* Today's expert is someone one who is flexible, who feels prepared to help a community in crisis, whatever that crisis may be, who enjoys the variety, and who actually likes working with people.
So thanks, @JustinLibrarian, for being clear about who will be successful in your library. It's the same type of person who will be successful working in mine.
