Is taking care of a library a science or an art?

[Masters, Gary E]

Most students in the sciences (and engineering) do not get much library
time.  The information they learn is in the text books and is plenty.  I was
an engineering student for four years and hardly ever went to the library
for class projects in my major.  As a librarian at the university of North
Texas (in the science and technology library), I saw many students who were
about to graduate and were in the library for the first time.  So, it is not
a surprise to find a fourth year student who does not know much about a
library.

It is not uncommon to find poor service in libraries.  It will be easy to
beat me up on this point, but I see better service in the grocery stores
than in many libraries.  I also see lots of  good service.  But sooner or
later, most people who use libraries run into some bad service.

Many times when I just do the "basics" for someone I get more gratitude than
I expect.  Many who have had a few bad experiences are very grateful to have
someone help them.   I think that service in libraries has room to improve
and that there are quite a few people in the world who have bad memories of
libraries.

What a librarian does is not that apparent to the casual visitor.  They may
see several people putting books back on the shelves and a few checking out
books.  A reference librarian may be at the reference desk (and may not) and
is often busy reading or sorting or otherwise occupied. (Not just once have
I heard supervisors of reference say "Nothing to do out there, you might as
well keep busy and ...")  So, the one librarian they do see may not look
like a person who can be approached.  "I am sorry.  May I ask a question.  I
see you are very busy."

Several people I knew in library school had friends or family that asked
"What is there to learn?"  Sometimes I think cataloging is the only true
craft of librarians and people never see a cataloger.  Well, hardly ever.
ILL requires a detective who can find complete records from incomplete or
inaccurate data.  And to run a reference desk is often to be like a ring
master of a three ring circus.  People line up and the phone never stops.  

Too often I have read of University presidents saying that they want to get
rid of the Library School or are glad that there is no connection between
their institution and library science.  I wonder how many over due books
they had in the past.  University administrations see libraries as
bottomless pits that take all the money they send that way and want more.
When I was at Texas A&M in Laredo we got a 4.5 million dollar special
appropriation to restore the collection to support the classes and we told
the administration that we needed a lot more then that.  Also we told them
that it was more work than we could do to spend the money.  

If University presidents don't want or value Library Science programs, if
the most professional work of a librarian is not where it can be seen or
even understood, and if many students have little or no time in the library,
it should not be that much of a surprise if some write articles that reflect
that lack of experience and knowledge.

Libraries have been created and supported by the hard work of people since
Franklin and may have been coasting for a while.   Articles like the UCLA
student one are warnings that people need to know why we have libraries and
what they can do.  There is still a need for shared resources and people to
manage them.  Robert Heinlein was right when he said that the success of our
civilization depends on librarians getting their job done well.  Information
needs to be organized and shared among many more than in the past.  Science
depends on knowing more than one tiny area of a field.  Medical advances
often requires materials science, just to mention one connection between two
once distant fields.

Ok.  Sorry to be so long winded, but I saw that article as a message that if
we don't let people know what we do and why it is important, then they will
not value either us or our work.  And in some cases, it would not hurt to do
better work.  I can do better. 

Gary  


Gary E. Masters
Librarian (Systems)
CDRH - FDA
(301) 827-6893