Vol. 28 No. 3 Nov/Dec 2000

From the October 1943 issue of the SLA SCC Bulletin

BECOMING A SUPER SPECIAL LIBRARIAN

Perhaps, as a profession, we are not more given to self-improvement schemes than are other groups. The business world is constantly talking about increased efficiency; it makes surveys, gives aptitude tests, and even, occasionally, achieves results. Physicians are continually consulting together, dentists convene to discuss the latest refinements of their oral tortures, and plumbers congregate to pass tips about pipe sections and other lively matters of their trade. But we librarians; individually and as a group; are eternal perfectionists; we never stop improving ourselves and even each other.

Naturally, in my student librarian days, when I practiced here and there, I was "improved" all over the place and the sad fact that so little of it took cannot be laid to lack of zeal on the part of my preceptors. At one place I was given a real heart-to-heart talk, the first day. I had come to work quaking inwardly about government documents and how to find state and Federal statutes, but I was told that such details were not the main thing. The main thing was (1) Setting a Goal, and (2) Living Up to It. I was given a chance of jotting down, for future reference, the ten main points in becoming a good librarian,

That is, I think there were ten. I wrote them down, but they weren't of much immediate help because I promptly lost the scrap of paper that contained them. But as I recall them, the magic precepts were all aphoristic and succinct and had very little to do with what might be called the crassly practical side of our calling. Indeed, I couldn't help thinking at the time that the person who mastered them would be rather lost as a librarian; his truer sphere would seem to be the company of the saints. The maxims were something like this:

Remember to keep smiling.

(I had a sudden nightmare vision of a busy library with a staff with fixed, frozen grins perpetually on their faces - pale Draculas feasting on the corpses of books)

Be Honest at All Times.

Exercise Daily.

Keep Up With Great Books.

Be Tolerant.

Love Humanity.

Develop a Sense of Humor.

(By the way, have you ever met a human being who didn't think he had a sense of humor?) And so on.

The librarian who gave me these helps quite lived up to them herself. All her life, she told me, she had been improving herself, and though I hotly denied it, she candidly admitted there was still much to be done. To show what you could do with your life, she had arranged all her reading methodically. She read on a single subject for three months at a time. Then she changed to another subject. Everything she read was helpful to her life and to her work. She had her time completely budgeted. She could tell what she would be doing at any given hour, a month, six months, a year hence. "Of course, your roof might fall in some windy night," I almost, but: didn't, say.

We have been learning a great deal about public relations, and there is a great deal we can learn; but somehow, I can't help feeling that some of the stuff I've been reading lately might lead the unwary a little astray. I suppose there is a great deal to be said to adapting Mr. Dale Carnegie's theories to library work -- and that's what a good deal of public relations seems to be – but I've always been a bit worried -- suppose everyone learned how to make friends and influence people and we had everyone going to work influencing everyone else -- it would be chaos. What the world needs are some good influencees as well as influencers. In fact, if we get too imbued with the new spirit, I can envision something like this happening in a library.

A business man hastens in one morning and asks for the latest banking statistics. The Librarian immediately turns on the latest technique. She smiles; even at nine in the morning it is sheer radiance. "Are you registered with us, Mr. ---?

"Mr. Pottle. All I wanted was- -

"Yes, of course, Mr. Pottle. I simply want to tell you how happy we are to have you in our little library family -- as we call it, laughingly, of course." And she gives a carefree little laugh, which, for that hour in the morning, is golden, simply golden. "We only wish more busy people would avail themselves of our resources. 'We could make so many short cuts in their valuable time."

"Yeah. I just wanted--"

"Now, Mr. Pottle, we want to give you exactly what you want. We want to keep you right up to the minute in material relating to your business or occupation. So first of all I wonder if you would fill out our new Triple Patron Interest Locator Form. See -- a few simple questions, -- occupation, number of marriages: hobbies, education--"

"But, lady, it's just some banking figures --"

"I hope this will be the beginning of a long and pleasant association. 'We want you to feel at home. When you have filled out the Interest Locator, we'll send you cards at intervals -- blue cards for the books you'll like red cards for the books you should read. Or, if you prefer, we'll give you a teeny weeny intelligence test -- oh, it's no end of fun, and then we can sensibly talk over your reading needs--"

"Lady, please – banking -- you know a bank--"

"Yes, in a minute, Mr. Pottle. Now you look as though you'd enjoy this book, it's not about banks, but it is about three years in the Arctic and men usually - why, Mr. Pottle's run away. And he looks so wild. Probably an unstable personality -- too bad he didn't take that Personality Profile so we could have found some self-help books for him."

A. D. M.