Who we are
is shaped by our life experiences, our families, our friends, our religious and
cultural traditions. I grew up in Eastern Canada in a religious tradition that
was predominantly shaped by Methodism. Two degrees in religious studies also shaped
my understanding of some of the world’s major religious traditions as well as
my understanding of the world. While I
have been a librarian for more years than I can count, I often go back to my
first degrees for inspiration or sometimes provocation.
The
Eighteenth Century British cleric and theologian, John Wesley, expected that
his Methodist ministers would be ready to preach, pray, or die at a moment’s
notice. While this might seem an odd
mantra for a library blog, I think there are some interesting lessons that can
be drawn from this saying.
Preach
(Speak Up)
While
librarians do not preach in the religious sense, we do speak, talk, advocate, and
debate heatedly about libraries and their impact. The idea that librarians are a quiet, reserved
group, is a movie caricature, and one that should be discarded.
Over the
years I’ve been told that I needed to have an “elevator speech” – a pithy two
or three sentences about the library in case I had a couple of minutes to talk
to the university president, a donor, a faculty member, or students. I think the elevator speech idea is too
simplistic, as if the work and impact of a university library can be so glibly
distilled. Rather I think there are a
series of stories of impact that can and should be developed that provide a
richer and more nuanced view of the library and the library staff and the work
they do. People are seldom moved by facts and figures (number of books, or
number of visitors) but rather they are moved by stories of what difference the
building, the services, or parts of the collection have made to students or
faculty, or the public.
Jim Neal,
University Librarian emeritus, Columbia University, once stated in a
presentation I attended, that every librarian should find a way to have a
voice- to present their work, their ideas, and their impact beyond themselves. This
is sage advice and one that I have been attempting to follow.
In today’s highly
politicized environment it is even more important to speak up about things that
matter. It is sometimes easy to think that one voice doesn’t matter but I’ve
learned that every person’s voice counts, especially in changing the world for
good. This year, for the first time I
participated in the Women’s March. Along with my daughter Rachel, we joined
more than 650,000 others in Los Angeles to speak up for women, their rights and
their role in our society. It was
amazing to see the passion of people to change the world for the better.
Pray (Be
Mindful)
In today’s
society there is, for many, a recognition that prayer, or meditation, or
mindfulness plays an important role for individuals and for some communities.
In my more than 30 years as a librarian, I have found that rather than prayer,
meditation, or mindfulness, we often see busyness, frustration, exhaustion, and
sometimes burnout. Our work life, our commute, our use of social media consume
a greater and greater part of our day and week. Each of us in the library profession want to
make a difference, to do good work, to change our work and our world for the
better, but we often feel frustrated or unable to move forward in a positive
way. We often put off the important for the urgent.
One of the
significant educational/professional development events in my career was the
ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians. While the people in the program were
interesting, the instructors were great, and the material was thought
provoking, the most valuable part of the week long program, for me, was the
opportunity to be reflective. Where in
our very busy work and personal lives do we have the opportunity to take five
full days and think critically and reflectively about our work, our profession,
and ourselves?
As I have
some extra time these days, I have been reflecting on what is important to me,
both personally and professionally. Are there projects that I’ve been wanting
to do but I’ve put off for another day because of work, or fear of failure, or
general busyness? Are there friends and
family that I’ve been neglecting because I’ve been so busy.
I’ve also
been reflecting on people who are not like me and what their experience of the
world is like. I live in a very diverse part of the US where the majority of
people I see don’t look like me. Right now at Panera Bread where I’m sitting to
write, I see a well-dressed African American man doing some work and I’m
wondering how he feels in light of the arrest of two innocent African American
men in Starbucks this week. I see Asian and Hispanic students and wonder how
they experience the world and what sort of systemic prejudice they deal with on
a regular basis. I think of my own adopted Hispanic children and think on how
to make the world better for them.
Reflection,
prayer, or mindfulness should lead us to awareness of ourselves and others and
move us from inaction to action. It should lead to appreciation and
thankfulness, and hopefully to some forward movement.
Or Die (Find
Your Passion)
John Wesley
expected that Methodist ministers would live in such a way that there would be
no regrets if they died at any time. I
think the value of the “die” section of this mantra for us is not about dying
but on how we spend our time and our passion while we have time.
In general,
librarians are very passionate individuals. We are passionate about many
things: the right to privacy, the right to read anything and everything without
interference, the needs of our communities and our students to name a few.
Librarians, for the most part, are passionate about social justice, even if at
times we get things wrong. We want our
world to be a better place. We want people to be treated fairly and equitably.
One of the
things that I think plagues librarians is that we want to do everything. We are
passionate about so many parts of our work and about so many issues in our
country and world. My challenge to
myself is to focus part of this time of reflection on the one, two, or maybe
three things to be really passionate about and to devote serious energy to. I
am expecting that I will work another 10 years before I retire and I want these
ten years to be meaningful for me, my family, my profession, and the world.
My challenge
to all of you is to Speak up, Be Mindful, and Find Your Passion.
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