Slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails...what's 21st century librarian made of?
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The document describes a staff meeting in 2008 where library staff designed what a librarian of the future would look like. They outlined the body of a librarian and described what skills and tools they would need. It then introduces Margarita Staples, an extreme librarian from a YA novel, who enjoys tracking down resources for customers deep in the Wordhoard Abyss, despite risks of getting lost for weeks. Her job includes cataloguing, reshelving the shelves, and fetching books requested from deep in the abyss by following ropes for miles in risky conditions.
Slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails...what's 21st century librarian made of?
- 1. Slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails.... Whats a 21st century Librarian made of? Jennifer Wilson Fairfield City Library Service May 2012
- 2. At a staff meeting in 2008 we gave Fairfield Library staff a challenge let loose with the outline of a human body and the childrens craft kits they were to design the librarian of the future, describing who they were, what they would need to know, be able to do and the tools theyd be using.
- 3. Heres what they came up with
- 18. Weve heard a lot today about change and new opportunities and tools, apps and changing customer demands. It doesnt change the fact that the reason many of us are reference librarians is the thrill of the chase the ability to track down that perfect resource to answer the customers question.
- 19. Being the National Year of Reading its fitting of course to end with a story. In China Mievilles YA novel Un Lun Dun our hero Deeba has re-entered the alternative version of her home city of London by climbing up through the shelves of her school library. Emerging above the Wordhoard Abyss and having avoided the warrior booktribes, shelf- monkeys and wordcrows, she meets, funnily enough, a librarian.
- 20. Let me introduce you to Margarita Staples Extreme Librarian. Bookaneer.
- 21. My job was never boring, Staples said. Theres nut-and-bolts stuff like getting the tarpaulin over the shaft when it rains and so on. Cataloguing and reshelving. The shelves are in a shocking state, And when youve got everything ever written or lost to keep track of, its quite a job. And theres fetching books. I used to really look forward to requests for books way down in the abyss. Wed all rope up, follow our lines down for miles. The order falls apart a way down but you learn to sniff out class-marks. Sometimes wed be gone for weeks, fetching volumes. She spoke with a faraway voice. There are risks. Hunters, animals and accidents. Ropes that snap. Sometimes someone gets separated. Twenty years ago I was in a group looking for a book someone had requested. I remember it was called Oh, All Right Then: Bartleby Returns. We were led by Ptolemy Yes. He was the man who taught me. Best librarian theres ever been, some say. Anyway, after weeks of searching, we ran out of food and had to turn back. No one likes it when we fail, so none of us was feeling great. We felt that much worse when we realized that wed lost Ptolemy. Some people say he went off deliberately. That he couldnt bear not to find the book. That hes out there still in the Wordhoard Abyss, living off shelf-monkeys, looking. And that hell be back one day, book in hand. Mieville, China. Un Lun Dun (2007)
- 22. What are your 3 indispensable tools? Tweet what you think @jemawi