When I was a student, (it is so nice to be able to say that in the past tense), I was webmaster for this student organization. Mostly all I did was change the dates for meetings and stuff. But, my crowning achievement was putting together a "survival guide" for first semester students to find thier way around this huge campus, which, being built in the early 1970's was specifically designed to discourage students from meeting en masse and taking over administration buildings and making the university go to the trouble of calling in the National Guard, but I digress. At any rate, I checked my school email for the hell of it, (that address is still up on the site because they never got around to finding a new webmaster), and I found a message from a new student providing feedback about this page. One of the things I had done was to solicit advice from other students about the campus and our particular program. And these I slapped up there, with only minor editing for tense, spelling, etc. Apparently this student had a problem with some of the advice given, saying that it was too negative, a real "bummer" and not particularly inspiring to new students. Couldn't it just be said in a more positive way?
I didn't really know how to respond. At heart, I am a disgusting optimist. I tend to focus either only on the good in situations, or to overlook and diminish the negative. And I love being a librarian. I love my job. I love the profession. But . . . I think there is a difference between being an optimist and living in a fantasy world of Care Bears and rainbows. I regret to report there are a lot of library students out there who think that being with books all day will be wonderful, and helping the public will be wonderful, and making and following rules will be wonderful. (I know this last one sounds weird, but I have observed behavior that would support such an assertion.) The truth is, I do not spend a lot of time reading books because I am reading reviews, meeting minutes, developing programs, etc. Another shocking truth is that working with the public is not always wonderful. Sometimes it is just plain weird. A few weeks ago, an older gentleman wanted to renew a book. As I was scanning his card, he took his hearing aids out, put them on the counter, changed the batteries, and then handed me the dead ones as a "gift." Imagine my joy. Anyway, I am all for encouraging people, but to completely deny that there are some aspects of the job that are not exactly ideal is first of all dishonest. Secondly, it would imply that there is nothing to be improved, thus proving oneself to be a self-satisfied prig. But apparently, people want to live by these sorts of lies. When you hear horror stories of mean librarians, maybe it's becuase they bought into the "wonderful" lies, got a taste of the real world, were unable to reconcile the experience to said lie, became bitter, and made the rest of us look bad. Even roses are not entirely removed from fertilizer.
By adriennelibrarian at 12:17 PM