The importance of libraries

Hello and sorry if we’ve been quiet for a while. A lot of changes in our careers and we are trying so hard to become better librarians, that this post has been pushed back until now. Can you forgive us?

After telling you what we do in our daily days in the previous posts, we are going to bore you to death telling you why we think what we do is important. Are you ready to read about it? 

Elena 

You all know what public libraries are: a service for the public, for the whole community, that is provided for free. Even if you don’t know exactly what it is going on there, it still is a great service provided by the public sector in order to be used by anyone belonging to that community.

In the post “Once upon a time, in a public library”, I have gone very quickly through some of the elements of importance of a public library, especially the availability of free stuff. This time I will go through these aspects a bit more in-depth. 

Free books – this is the first image a person would have when someone says library: there are free books, a wide selection of novels as well as non-fiction materials. There are new and old books. Such an amazing knowledge available to everybody. 

Free information & information hub – other than free books, in a public library you’ll find free newspapers, both national and local, and other resources, like guides, flyers, etc. regarding what is happening in the community. or information on the use of computers. There also happen to be some knowledgeable individuals (called Library Assistants aka Information Fairies) that will help you in case you need any kind of support. 

Events – We strive to organise a range of events that can be suitable for everybody: from author’s visits to “mystery murders”, people are involved in the community and the sense of belonging is further developed. This also relates to... 

Community hub/safe place – there are all sorts of groups meeting at the library, the most common being reading groups, but then we have sewing groups, language courses or IT literacy courses. I would like to stress out how important is this trait, because the library serves as a place where to meet people and get to know what is happening in that community, being a big city or a small town. An example is when we moved to Scotland from Italy: one of the first things we did was joining the local library. Not knowing anyone nor the town/surroundings, the library provided a safe place where I could plan things, looking for jobs and understand how I could settle here. Joining the local library gave me the chance to use such precious tools like free Wi-fi, free-to-use PCs, information on working opportunities in the local area, but also bus timetables or local events. 

You can see how a public library is such an important service for the community. 

But most of the time, the people in that same community are not even aware of what a public library has to offer: and this is despite the fact that there are informational flyers around the town advertising what’s going on in the library. 

However, we love our patrons, those coming for borrowing books and those coming for using the PCs, we love those coming to enquire about events as well as those coming in just for a chat. 

One of my colleagues uses to say: “We do the job of social carers, job centres, housing offices, teachers. Oh, and that of library assistant too!”. How can I disagree?

Luca 

As a school librarian, I know school libraries are important, and I experience it everyday. 

First of all, they improve students’ outcomes. We assure that collections are developed and tailored towards curriculum needs and different abilities in our community. And we make sure that, during classes, with our displays and with our social media, the pupils are aware of what’s on offer in the library collection. I think you’ve got the gist by now. We are not all about books. And we not only stamp them. 

We help teachers in delivering information literacy courses and help the children developing digital literacy skills: especially relevant at this moment in history, we help them understand the importance of truth and finding reliable sources and how to discern among real, satire and fake news. We try to do this in an engaging and fun way. For some lessons, I involved the whole class in a challenge against their teacher to see who is more able to recognise amongst real and fake news. And I was really happy to use different resources online, like this fantastic game that helped me explaining what fake news are. 

Furthermore, school libraries, similarly to public libraries, are a safe space. For example, there is a young person that comes to my current library everyday because it is the only place where he feels safe and he now manages to work on the school curriculum just because the library is his own space, and he knows the amazing librarian that works there. And if this example was not enough, the library is perfectly OK for everyone: all religions, all sexualities, all gender identities, all backgrounds an all age groups can cohabit harmoniously. When a pupil comes to the library, they know that no one is going to judge them for being themselves. 

School libraries also help children to read, and live, at their own pace. It is a place where they can take some time out from the frenetic activities of the school and catch their breath. They can really read for pleasure, any book they like, at their preferred speed. Librarians are not teachers, we do not evaluate students’ performances. We are non-judgemental by nature. And the children know that. 

We have various other roles: for instance, we promote change and reflection, helping the wider school to plan or deliver different and meaningful events to create a sense of community inside the school across different topics, involving as many departments as possible. And we value and promote love for reading, trying to be a role model for pupils and staff for what concerns reading habits. 

Most of the school librarians I know, me included, are also involved in helping staff in finding information to help with their continual professional development, and therefore we take care of subscriptions to information materials for teachers, and look for any interesting articles in those magazines, creating some pre-digested summaries of each issue to help the teachers with their busy lives in finding the right information at the right time, and saving time. 

Laura 

Student: “Hi, I need some help. I have an assignment to submit today, but my references are a mess” 

Librarian: “Oh. Did you come to the drop-in session on RefWorks?” 

S.: “No, I didn’t think it would be useful” 

L.: “Oh well, it’s your fault then. Next, please!” 

No, that is maybe what the librarian is thinking, but surely not what the librarian is going to say. 

Armed with a big dose of patience, the librarian will respond: 

L.: “That’s OK. Let’s get this sorted. Next time please consider attending the drop-ins. We do them to help you out guys.” 

And this scenery applies to all the different skills that academic librarians teach: digital skills, information retrieval, research data management, research methods, referencing, academic writing, navigating databases and so forth. It happens continuously that librarians spend time organising training materials, online guidelines, drop-in sessions and these are not always well used/attended; but then, when the need is more pressing, students run to the library, because they know they will find someone keen to help them. Not an ideal situation, but the hard-to-change reality. 

Although I am not currently working in special collections, I have some experience of working in this type of libraries. And the role of those libraries is once again different. During my internship at Magdalene College, in Cambridge, whilst surrounded by hundreds of beautiful books full of history and the strong smell of time (I am sure you get what I mean), this image popped into my mind: libraries are like bridges. They make the past available and accessible to the present generations and preserve its fruits for the future ones. Special libraries, more often than not, are custodians of unique and rare materials. They are a safe haven for culture and knowledge. I know this makes libraries sound like a static place, like a warehouse full of dusty things, and that could not be furthest from the truth. However, I believe that preservation is still an essential task that libraries have. 

Let me spare a paragraph to express what libraries are to me, as a user. In my numerous moves over the last few years, libraries offered me: free Wi-fi when I had none at my place; information on how to move around the area I was not familiar with; friendly people to have a chat with, when I knew nobody else; a safe place in which to work or relax and escape reality; also, I confess, a place where to nap between shifts at the nearby restaurant (I thank the Central Library in Auckland for this!). 

We tried here to explain why we believe libraries are important. I am sure that we missed an awful lot of reasons that support this statement and as many roles libraries play in society. We invite you to enlighten us! Leave a comment below, don’t be shy! It’s your chance to let others hear your thoughts. 

Bye now!