Enough of the Traveling...On to the Librarian!

Like many librarians, I enjoy reading.
That is a bit of an understatement. Reading is my relaxation, my way of re-centering myself in my world. I'm usually in the middle of a few books. My list of current reading includes:
Voyager by Daina Gabaldon -in it's printed form
Sag Harbor by Colson Whithead-on CD, I listen while I drive
the O'Reilly Drupal book (which I don't totally understand--waiting on our copy of Drupal for Dummies)
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations by Clay Shirky
and the one I finished today (ok I started it today too, it was that good) This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson.

The best part about This Book is Overdue may be that it was not written by a librarian. So much of the library literature (and blogs, and websites, and journals, and so on and so forth) is written by librarians for librarians. The outsiders view of the profession is refreshing. It helps that the author is fully on the side of librarians, not ready to see us replaced by Google and Yahoo Answers. Some things that surprise the author (and I'm sure will surprise the non-library working reader) include the prevalence of poop in tales librarians tell. Most books about professions that require a Master's Degree don't often include the term "rouge turds". If you are not a librarian, you are likely squirming a bit and rethinking ever touching a book, table, or person that has been in a library. If you are a librarian, you'd likely shake with laughter through that section as I did. Yes, even in libraries, poop happens.

The book addresses a lot of issues that get air time in library land, but perhaps not in the rest of the world. Virtual Reference services in Second Life, the collecting and preserving of ephemera and detailed archives, the institutional knowledge that is lost when librarians retire, and are replaced by digital natives, or not at all.

The Chapter about St. John's M.A. in Global Development and Social Justice was moving and touching. I admit bias, St. John's is my Alma Mater, and of the people highlighted in the chapter, included were the Director of the School of Library and Information Science, who in addition to advising me on academic matters, was the supervisor of my Graduate Assistantship; the woman who had previously held my graduate assistantship, and left me some rather impressive shoes to fill; and the professor whose course convinced me I could, and should, in fact, be a librarian. Their involvement in my life non-withstanding, these brilliant individuals are training groups of people, some who have never seen a computer before, to research and learn in a connected world, so that they can bring to their developing countries a way to investigate, document and fight injustice, and "realize the fullness of human life." This is what librarians can do--they can help to change the world.

I'd recommend this book to librarians of course, as it is always important to see how the outside world views us, even if the praise in the book seems almost too much at points. But more so, I'd recommend it to library lovers. Whether you enjoy walking the stacks to find an interesting read, or knowing there is always someone available to answer your question, even if you haven't been in a library for years, read this book. See what is happening in this world librarians have created, and how this world can help you.