Now I know that I’ll most likely take a ration for this, but I have to say that I am frustrated. I am very frustrated with what seems like a rampant reluctance among librarians to actually help people access and use the information that they need. They want to spout policies and reasons why they cannot help our users more than they actually want to get anything done. As a whole, I am outraged at the impotence exhibited by members of this profession and feel that we do more damage to ourselves than any amount of external devaluation could ever do. I think that if we allow our colleagues to continue to portray themselves as martyrs while in actuality they are simply reluctant to adapt to our current information and cultural environment we might as well raise the white flag.
This post is coming from an experience that I had this morning with my colleague at the reference desk, however the scenario has been repeated numerous times before at different institutions and with different librarians from just about every department. Basically it comes down to the fact that often when I ask a colleague for assistance with a patron or a reference question, rather than offer positive assistance, they offer reasons why the question cannot be answered. Without even listening to the question fully, they dismiss it as impossible or point out some minor logistical obstacle that prohibits them from proceeding. I find this to be both outrageous and unacceptable. It is as a result of this type of behavior that I believe librarians to be their own biggest enemy. In moments such as this, instead of helping people, they are in fact hiding behind the policies and institutional bureaucracy which they outwardly lament. I believe that librarians don’t say no to the requests of our users because they can’t do something, they say no because they won’t do something. Why they won’t do something is up for speculation. Often I hear the refrain that seems akin to a fear of becoming “too helpful” — that is, the old, “If we do this for one person, we’ll have to do it for everyone,” To this I cry, “What would be the harm in that?” Or perhaps, librarians feel that they are too overworked and underpaid already to put in any extra effort or to learn new ways to interact with users — to this I ask how exactly these librarians expect to assert their worth when they are not providing useful and helpful services?
As it stands right now, I see this apathy, reluctance, and all around bad attitude all too often. More importantly, so do our users. It’s embarrassing and I want it to change. I don’t want to be frustrated with my colleagues, I want to understand how I can help them to be less reluctant to change.I know that my aggravation will not help the issue and I also know that being frustrated with someone is not the best way to encourage them to listen to you.
I suppose that perhaps this is both an issue of generational differences and experience levels. As a young, new librarian I admit that in a lot of ways, I still view libraries through the eyes of the user — and this is something that I want to hold on to for as long as I can! I view this as a positive thing. However, I think that it is reflective of a new way of thinking in librarianship which places the user over the institution. It seems to me that in the past libraries were organized according to the wants and needs of their own organizations. They based their resources, services, and policies upon their conception of what they wanted to offer and what they thought that their users wanted. For a long time, I think that what libraries believed their users wanted and what their users actually wanted matched up pretty well. After all, users didn’t have much choice for information access aside from the ones offered by their library. However, I would argue that as a result of the drastic and rapid changes that the information environment has undergone during the last 15 years or so, libraries and their users have diverged in their expectations for quality, useful, and relevent library services.
I do think that most librarians and libraries recognize this and are making efforts to change. However, I also believe that our organizations are not open to, or able to, change enough as quickly as they should. Of course, I am being idealistic. I know that these things take time and that these systems and ways of doing things have existed for a long time. But why does the fact that something has always been done a certain way justify that it continue to be done that way? To me, in light of our current situation, a stronger justification is necessary.
