Ok, bear with me on this one.
I just finished reading Without Fail by Lee Child. Part of the Jack Reacher books, I recommend them to people who want to read well-written thrillers (something that's not as easy to find as it should be). No need to go into the whole plot but the story revolves around an attempted assassination of the Vice-President-elect and the Secret Service attempts to keep him safe. Besides being a good and fast-moving thriller, the book made me think about the Secret Service and what is required of them. Imagine having to protect an elected official that you don't agree with. It must be incredibly difficult to imagine sacrificing your life for someone who (for example) wants to pass a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. What motivates a Secret Service agent to take a bullet for a politician they know to be corrupt? I can only imagine that they believe in something greater than that particular person; something along the lines of patriotism and honor and a sense of purpose.
And what motivates a librarian to go to work day after day, especially those of us who work in downtown urban libraries or branches with very tough populations? I think it's a variation on the same theme. I believe very strongly in the right to access information and equality of that information. My role as a public servant is to take the good with the bad, even if the bad manifests itself in fights, abuse, drug use and a generally tough work environment. Striving to treat everyone equally and with respect is not an easy thing. It is much easier to ignore or judge or justify why we should give up on our tough populations.
But we don't give up because Intellectual Freedom is "the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored." This is not achieved in a vacuum. Library staff reinforces and affirms this every day, through their dedication to finding information, how they treat individual patrons and the environment that they create.
We didn't become librarians for the money or status. We became librarians because we strongly believe in Intellectual Freedom. New technology is wonderful and I'm as excited as anyone to try it all out but it's most important that we remember why we do what we do and what motivates us to go into a tough environment every day. A Secret Service agent protects because of a love of country and a commitment to protection of our highest elected officials. A librarian has something to protect, as well: a right to information, no matter who you are, how you smell, your education, how you look or what you believe.
It's a beautiful thing.
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2 comments:
I always imagined you became a librarian because you liked to shoosh people... come to think of it I can't really think of anywhere else people can go to just "hang out" hmmm... librarians are tough.
No reason people can't hang out at the library, as long as they are respectful.
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