3B: Reflection on Readings

In “Personal Relations between Librarians and Readers” by Samuel S. Green, he writes about how people who are in positions of authority, such as professors and scholars, are not afraid to come into a library and tell the workers exactly what they need or are looking for, whereas those who don’t possess authority, such as students, are very timid and shy when asking for help (sometimes they have to be prompted to ask for something). I have experienced this first hand many times. The only time professors are timid is when they are brand new, or have never used the library before, like when putting a book on course reserve or checking a book out. Then there are some professors or public patrons (not affiliated with the university) who like to give everybody a hard time, especially the student workers, and sometimes even staff or librarians. I have diffused many situations over the years in which someone was irate at a student worker or one of my coworkers. I intervene exactly how it says to act in “Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service”. I apologize and am calm and do everything I can to make the patron happy. What I have noticed is that the next time they come in, they come right to me to take care of something for them, or they will ask for me if I’m not there. Sometimes I have run into them in the hallway, or they come in to the library when I’m there, and mention to me that they had been looking for me the other day. With students, the more you interact with them, the more confident they become. I have also seen how patrons will have a favorite reference librarian, and will come back later if their favorite is not currently sitting at the reference desk. These experiences of mine support what Green says, “a hearty reception by a sympathizing friend, and the recognition of some one at hand who will listen to inquiries…make it easy for such persons to ask questions, and put them at once on home footing.” (page 74)

The author goes on to discuss all sorts of scenarios of how a reference librarian can assist patrons with all sorts of questions and always point them in the right direction to the sources that will help them in their research. Sometimes they have to teach the patrons how to do research for themselves. This fosters important personal relationships between librarians and patrons. The help librarians give to patrons causes “conviction [to spread] through the community that the library is an institution of such beneficent influences that it can not be dispensed with.” (page 78-79).What the author discusses supports exactly what I said earlier in another blog: libraries aren’t going anywhere and neither are reference librarians because people will always need them.

The speech Melvil Dewey gave, titled “Libraries as Related to the Educational Work of the State”, was an enjoyable read. He was imploring the state of New York to support libraries as part of their educational system. It must have been something to have heard the speech in person. He is very eloquent and seems like he was a funny guy.

In his speech, Dewey discusses the differences between the old and new ways of the library. He states how the “old type of librarian was a crabbed and unsympathetic fossil…and a reader among his books was as unwelcome as the proverbial poor relation on a long visit” (page 3). I laughed when I read the fossil part. I think that some librarians are probably still like this though. But that’s because they are the ones who are the archivist of a library, and have in their possession books that are hundreds of years old, and could easily be destroyed by a careless person.

Dewey states that the new version of the library is important to education because after graduating from school, education still should continue in one’s lifetime, and the library enables this continued learning throughout one’s life. He concludes the speech with saying that the state of New York should recognize and support libraries because “then again shall she wear her crown of leadership” (page 16). If they don’t decide to support the libraries, then other states will choose to do so and surpass the state of New York in educational matters. He closes with “it is to-day your high privilege to lead. To-morrow it may be your bounden duty to follow” (page 16). What a way to stroke people’s vanity. I don’t know how anybody wouldn’t be convinced by his speech. I was; it was very persuasive and full of great supporting arguments.