Re: GEN: librarian's objective

["Karen G. Schneider" <kschneid@UMICH.EDU>]

>Date:    Wed, 1 Nov 1995 05:50:56 -1400
>From:    "T. K. Cassidy" <tkc@KUENTOS.GUAM.NET>
>Subject: librarian's objective
>
>Last year, Quality Quinn Sharp came to our island to speak to  teachers
>and librarians. She was fascinating and had a lot of good ideas. But the
>one which applied most to me is exactly what you have been talking about
>in the on-going discussion about whether we should make the kids do their
>own research or spoon feed them the answer. I was so impressed with
>the idea that I had signs made up and put them in the office and the
>library where we are constantly reminded:
>
>                A librarian's prime objective
>                (in information gathering):
>                teach kids what to do when
>                they don't know what to do
>

Yes, and public librarians concur with this.  "Give them a fish, they eat
for a day.  Teach them to fish, they eat for life."  Of course, when you
are struggling with some teacher's bizarre request for 60 different
dinosaur books (and yes, after calling the schools to ask their needs),
public librarians end up tossing a few fish--and I'll bet you do, too.  But
otherwise PLs do a lot of educating; it's just structured differently than
the education that goes on in the schools.  One key thing you can learn at
a PL is that education doesn't begin or end at school--that we all have
responsibilities for teaching ourselves, throughout life, and that much of
our education will be extemporaneous, on-demand, and highly specific to our
immediate needs.  That's a complementary role to what kids learn in school.
It's essential that kids learn to learn on their own or they end up
spending the rest of their lives waiting for "them" to solve their
problems.  And often they spend a lot of independent time in public
libraries (Betty's situation is unusual), where learning how to behave
socially in a relatively unstructured environment is also important.

There can be excellent synergy between school and public libraries--as long
as both honor each other's roles in public service.

Karen <kschneid@umich.edu>