Forking librarians for a cause

2006 October 5
tags: , , , , , , ,

A close friend, an american ex-pat who has lived in Norway… well… long enough… sent along Jantelegan as the status quo there. It occurs to me that it could describe a certain attitude in the former model of gatekeeper-librarianship or pre-Google librarians or, I’ll just say it our professional old-skool.

  1. You shall not think that you are special.
  2. You shall not think that you are of the same standing as us.
  3. You shall not think that you are smarter than us.
  4. Don’t fancy yourself as being better than us.
  5. You shall not think that you know more than us.
  6. You shall not think that you are more important than us.
  7. You shall not think that you are good at anything.
  8. You shall not laugh at us.
  9. You shall not think that anyone cares about you.
  10. You shall not think that you can teach us anything.

Even if we won’t cop to it being our attitude, ask around, I betcha this is how a lot of users, nay, patrons see us. The fact is that we’re patronizing or we have been. As the profession shifts, and I think it is, to user-centered design we need to consciously recast ourselves as partners and collaborators - we need to ask and not tell.

4 Comments leave one →
2006 October 10
Remaining Relevant » Blog Archive » Enough service, let’s eat! permalink

[...] It’s time for this profession to get down on its hands and knees and participate in, make an effort to understand, the communities which we have always simply served before. We need to be where they already are - the coffee shop, chat room, or dormitory. Hirschey sums up the special attitude of traditional library Jantelegan: Don’t expect kids, seniors, and everyone else to trudge downtown for the convenience of librarians. Put information technology at the fingertips of every kid, and every senior in Lawrence. Because low incomes limit the ability of some to connect to high-speed access, even when it

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2006 October 19
r.jxp permalink

Seems a total misreading of intended satire of the laws. The empathsis seems to be the collective over the individual (YOU v. US), in which case it would anti-customer service. Since the individual customer would be less important than the group of customers.

2006 October 19
Casey permalink

@r.jxp:

My only argument might be that it depends on who is wielding the law, and to what end.

We can all appreciate the collective good, but when does it become an excuse for laziness?

2006 October 20
Remaining Relevant » Blog Archive » Hermaphrodykes permalink

[...] It’s not exactly a typo, but I think Brian has a great point about being aware of our image as librarians representing our profession at large as well as the institution we work for. Every interaction we have forms people’s opinions of the library. An offhand comment about a book or politics or religion, a joke, a low-cut shirt, a comment about another patron, etc - any and all of that is noticed by patrons all the time, and could very dramatically affect their library use, or at least from which library staff they feel comfortable seeking help. [...]

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