book block

reading in a minefield

Once you become a librarian, all of your non-librarian friends and family think your entire personality is reading.

This is complicated.

I do love reading. I’ve always loved reading - my dad will tell you a story about me getting him to show me what different words looked like, and I was determined to unlock the secrets of reading early on. I remember the first time it clicked, in kindergarten. I was sitting on the carpet, reading a Berenstain Bears book, and the sentences became full pictures, not just a series of letters and words I had to put together. And that was it! I was reading!

My next goal, in fact, a lifelong goal, was to read as much as I could. So I taught myself to read as fast as I could. My parents were suspicious about how fast I could tear through a book, and for a period which felt like a very long time but was probably more like a few months, had me give them oral book reports on things I had just finished reading. Later, when my new boyfriend expressed some skepticism about how quickly I could read a page, my father piped up from the living room, and said “We checked.”

So when I announced to whoever was listening that I was going to be a librarian, I was met with “oh, of course. You love reading!” And yes…but also no. Enjoying reading in my particular line of librarianship is helpful. Being fast at reading is even more helpful, because I read a lot of biomedical research for other people. The more quickly I can get it done, the better. But this romantic idea of getting to just read all day ain’t it. I don’t get to pick what I read, and frankly, most of what I read for leisure isn’t particularly helpful to me in a professional context. I like fiction, I like narrative non-fiction, I like poetry, I like literary fiction and historical fiction and dystopian novels, I like essay collections. I read a lot and widely, and occasionally it will intersect with my work, but very rarely. Professional reading stays at work (…often in an unread pile on my desk) and leisure reading doesn’t usually crossover.

I like reading, a lot, but it only tangentially intersects with my work. The reason I enjoy reading is the reason I became a librarian, actually: I want to know as much as I can about everything. Being a librarian means I get to learn about lots of different things all day everyday, I don’t have to concentrate one specific thing to be good at or study. I like knowing things and I like learning. I like information! It just so happens that we stored information in books for a very long time, and thus, the relationship between libraries (houses of information) and books (vessel of information) was born.

I explain this a lot in my professional life to library users or managers and directors up the line from me. Yes, there are books. No, they are not longer the core of our business and that’s okay. While there are in fact many issues with digital content, like licensing, access, and preservation, that’s usually not what people are talking about when they talk about books. They’re talking about how they think libraries = books in their mind and when you go against that, even though it may be a correct and relevant thing to do in your role as a librarian (it’s me!), you’re violating something they hold sacred.

Matthew Noe 😔💜 @NoetheMatt

Apparently library twitter is up in arms about books and their role in the profession again? What did I miss?

My library, the one I manage, doesn’t have many print books anymore. I’ve reduced the stacks considerably since I started working there, partially as a response to a shrinking library space, but also in part because there was no need for it anymore. The vast majority of our materials budget goes to things that are not books, and things that are online, for the most part. Our book budget has been chopped to less than 40% of what it was when I started. Again, partially because of the realities of library budgeting and resource costs, but also because it doesn’t make sense for us to buy books. And when we do - it’s more equitable if we can get ebooks, though they’re another minefield again.

I don’t touch that many books in the course of a day. And the ones I do deal with are because I don’t have staff in my library site to do it for me.

The versatility of being a librarian is why I enjoy it. I teach, I consult, I answer questions, I get to learn about so many cool things! There’s always a pile of different things to do, and when I’m not feeling a certain type of work - I can go work on something else. I like finding stuff and I like helping people get what they need so they can do their work. But the reading part? Not on the list of reasons I enjoy my work, because it doesn’t exist in the way people think it does.

I don’t really love upholding the stereotype of being a librarian who reads, because not all librarians read! Nor is it the only thing we do! It’s a job. A job I like, but it isn’t my whole life. Reading is fun, being a librarian is work. I don’t go home and practice being a librarian (check my bookshelves. There is no order to them and I’m not going to fix it).

And also, for a period in my twenties, I didn’t read for leisure much at all. Up to and including the time I went to library school, and for a few years after. I had to learn to read during my leisure time again, and I had to force it, before it became part of my life once more. I didn’t read, I didn’t borrow books from my library, and I didn’t go to bookstores. If there’s anything that’s going to hurt your love of reading, it’s university. When I did read, I chose to reread books rather than try to tackle anything new. It was a period of time in my life where reading was a challenge, and the first time in my life where I understood why people might not want to read.

This all said, the complexity of being a librarian who likes to read but doesn’t like the baggage associated with it, doesn’t stop me from having my cake and eating it too. I told a friend this evening to stop reading a book she wasn’t enjoying because life is too short, and if she was feeling bad, she could take solace in my obviously Professional Opinion, because I’m a librarian. I try to use that power for good, though.

Like telling people you can throw out books.¹

1. You can. Most books aren’t special. It’s really easy. I did it yesterday. Probably going to do it again tomorrow.