Re: Librarians and reading

[karen mcintyre <kjmcinty@tenet.edu>]

Betty Hamilton wrote:

> I don't know what comment triggered the response, but I heard one
> librarian say, rather loudly, "Oh, I love my job, but I don't like to
> read!" People surrounding her looked at each other and one or two next
> to me looked at me to get my reaction. I didn't reveal my feelings
> there, but CAN a person be a good librarian and not like reading? I have
> turned that over and over in my mind. How do you sell something you
> don't enjoy?
>
Betty, it isn't just librarians.  Let us ask how many teachers like to
read and read in front of their kids?

I don't think you can be the kind of librarian I aspire to be and not
like to read--correct that -- not love to read, not consider literature
a salvation in itself....

But how much of what we do as librarians revolves around keeping track
of endless statistics, getting onto kids who left their books at
grandmas, not checking out to students who have kept materials overdue?

The SLJ article several months ago about the invisible school librarian
suggests we don't sell ourselves for what we can do, but sometimes I
think we have done too good a job at selling ourselves for just exactly
what we do...

food for thought.

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