Mole People

Every library has them. People who don't work with the public. Technical Services people. People who do cataloging, acquisitions, fix things, put covers on books. In my library that role is more than adequately filled by our tech services department, which just happens to be housed in the basement.

Now it's been my experience that the mole people, as I like to call them, can be kind of odd. Not a value judgement here, just an observation. I've speculated that it's the reprocessed air, dust from old books being reclassified, lack of sunlight...(when I worked evening shifts, I walked in as most catalogers were walking out, blinking and squinting into the afternoon light--that was when they became "mole people" to me)...but there is a real difference between people who work with the public and people who work in technical services, and I really don't know what causes it.

The one thing that really irks me though, is when the mole people start telling me how public service works. The thing that brought it to mind most recently was one of those "how would you manage this" articles in Library Journal. The second reply, you'll notice was written by a technical services person. Now, here's the deal--if catalogers say "We can't do [whatever...something that would help me vastly in my public service job]" then, that's OK. I'll find a way to work around it. When acquisitions people say that their process has to be done a certain way....well the grass bends while the mighty oak cracks (thanks Tao Te Ching) and I find it more useful to bend. When I say "Teenagers who disobey all the rules and show no respect for anyone else in the library, staff or other customers, ought to leave", suddenly there are all sorts of people who don't work with these teenagers saying "future taxpayers", "being sensitive to the community", etc.

You want to talk about taxpayers? OK. These potential "future taxpayers" are running out the people who are our current taxpayers. Our current taxpayers come up to me at the public desk and complain. You want to talk about the needs of the community? Let's talk about the community! I live there! We're sick of children running wild, throwing bottles at our houses and cars, spraying graffiti on our front doors, and threatening people on the street for imagined slights. The last thing we need is to have that sort of behavior in the library too! And I'm sure, with a little thought (and perhaps a week or two on a public desk), the mole peole would agree.

Disclaimer:
I like most of our teens. My opinion on what they need from the library differs though. Mostly, I think we need to be a haven for the kids who do want to follow the rules. The streets are hard and when you're a mostly good kid, you need a place where you can go and be protected by a good set of enforced and enforcable rules. After that, when they come up to the desk asking for a book, we can smile like it's no big deal, and show them their way there. Maybe they need an offhand piece of advice: "I don't know anyone who's won a playstation off the internet--It might be they just want your email address" or "sometimes books or websites represent things differently based on who wrote them--you might look for other stuff to back up something you read, or look up the people who wrote it to find out if you think they're reliable." But I don't think they need yet another place that runs on "the law of the street". The street surrounds us, it shouldn't overcome us too.