The special mission of Interlibrary Loan in a time of crisis.

 We Interlibrary Loan Librarians have a special mission in a time of crisis, especially the one faced by us librarians in Republican-dominated States in the present era.  Capital F Fascism is a genuine threat to Western liberal democracy at home and abroad.  Whatever can be said for library neutrality as a virtue, in the present time merely asserting a Freedom To Read IS NOT NEUTRAL.  It never has been.  And that's OKAY.  We are unabashedly small d-democratic civic institutions.  We oppose authoritarian rule EVERYWHERE as contrary to the library's mission.

(Pictured above:  Freedom to Read t-shirt sold by the Chicago Public Library, featuring the artwork of Art Spiegelman of the series MAUS, recently banned in some schools).

It is our civic duty to provide reading materials to our patrons, especially in cases where such books have been challenged and (temporarily or permanently) removed from our shelves locally....as Mister Universe stated in the movie Serenity, you can't stop the signal.  We have a duty to provide such material on the down low via Interlibrary Loan whenever and wherever possible to #resist.   Our opponents are brutes but they're also quite stupid and just as likely to forget ILL exists as an option to patrons.  Hell, I even obtain the craziest right-wing dreck and religious drivel for my patrons.  They love me for it.  I may privately deplore them for wanting such material but I still work hard to get it for them nonetheless.  Benefit of the doubt, maybe they're doing Op-O research... Probably not but I'm in no position to judge that particular question.  A freedom to read means a freedom to read even that garbage.  But it also means I will obtain whatever LGBT+ material my patrons want, regardless of local collection policy.

I definitely salute the Brooklyn Public Library for making its ebook collection accessible all teens nationwide in an effort to fight #censorship and make materials available virtually and remotely what local tyrants are trying to stamp out locally, from so-called "CRT" (e.g. any material providing an open and honest account of historic and systemic racism in the United States) to LGBT+ material,  They are doing heroic work and are worthy of our support.  The Brooklyn Public Library has a webstore where you can support their library system directly and land yourself some dope-ass swag like this:

(Brooklyn Public Library t-shirt)

It might seem trivial, it might not seem like very much at all, but let me assure you, this too is a form of #antifascism and it matters.  I renewed my American Library Association Membership and Texas Library Association Membership on my birthday this past year because it matters to me that much.  It matters for me to bolster civic institutions like this as a move to defend small-d democracy in the United States.  I support the one political party left in the United States that actually cares about democracy but that alone is not enough.  Direct action and bolstering of civil institutions vital to the lifeblood of democracy also matter very much.

Publicly reaffirming The Freedom To Read as an American Value is vitally important at this time.  Libraries as institutions cannot wade into the political discourse directly but we can make it known we do stand for democracy against authoritarianism.  We stand for FREEDOM versus autocracy, we stand against narrow bigotry and for pluralism.  This we must do as Librarians and dedicated professionals.

I love my job and the part I play in sustaining the democratic discourse in a free society. 

Could we stop valorizing Patron ignorance as any kind of guide?

 Recent discussion on a thread about my Alma Mater's campus library, one contributor noting how she spoke to librarians who said "our newest users don't know Dewey or how to use a card catalog, they use iPads and smart phones...."

I replied with a brief caveat:  "Academic Libraries use Library of Congress Classification, not Dewey.  Dewey is for public libraries."

More to the point, we still have to use Dewey or LC Classification if we want to have a coherent way to organize physical books in our physical library.  Each has its shortcomings, sure, but while patrons may proudly profess their ignorance of our classification schema, it's absolutely necessary for library staff to have a working knowledge of it and organize the collection accordingly.

A more experienced patron will at least learn the rudimentary outline of our classification system(s) so they know where to find more books on their specific area of interest.  My Russian history professor at Texas A&M told us where to look for Russian History books in Evans Library (6th floor, as I recall).  This kind of thing matters, it still matters today.  There is no binary "either/or" when it comes to physical books vs. digital media...it's not one or the other, it's how to utilize both to meet patron's information needs and also make the most efficient use of precious library shelving real-estate.  Large, unwieldy reference works used mostly for looking up discrete bits of information can definitely go all-digital...are probably improved by doing so, since search-ability can be enhanced that way.  

Deep dive monographs on the other hand will be with us as long as we have libraries.  Proudly ignorant dismissals of Dewey or LC because of some techno-utopia just around the corner is so late 90s and I wish folks would just STAHP already.  It wasn't true then, it's not true now.

It behooves the average Public Library user to at least learn the top level distinctions for DDC...000s, 100s, 200s, etc.  The more fine grain distinctions are less important for everyday users and mostly of concern to cataloging staffers.  Every library puts their own spin on things, too.  There are local cataloging practices in place if DDC allows books to be placed in multiple locations; the head cataloger will make a firm decision and keep all books of this general type within that chosen call number range, even if valid points can be made to shelve the book elsewhere.  This tweak is in keeping with one of Ranganathan's Laws of Library Science....save the time of the user! It's not just a fun intellectual exercise for the individual cataloger; it's a matter of institutional policy to facilitate ease of access for the end user.

Another quick & dirty secret of YA & Juvenile cataloging of "controversial" subjects while working in a conservative community is to classify these books as adult materials and shelve them with other adult material, but to let YA & Juvenile users where to find them all the same.  It's a low key way to avoid unnecessary confrontations while still providing access to marginalized youth.

Similarly the dumb trend in search interfaces to offer only a single search box.  I'm glad some catalog systems allow more experienced users to use more fine grain searching.  I can live with the single box as the default setting "because that's what most users want/expect" but I don't see any point in hobbling and making life difficult for smarter users who actually know what they're doing and need more refined searching capability.  For the experienced library user, it's often as much about excluding irrelevant info as it is gathering available info.  Another example of "both and..." that's a win-win for everyone.

Sure, we need to "meet users where they are", but we also are, as librarians, also teachers and mentors.  We need to help our users become more informed and capable, so they can eventually reach a point of self-directed searching that is fruitful for them without intervention from us.

Goofing off on Social Media is Library Work.

 Not only is goofing off on Facebook and Twitter fun, it's fun to do at work on the clock.  And it is NOT a "waste of taxpayer money", either.   How else are librarians and library workers supposed to stay on top of the cultural zeitgeist and keep their fingers on the pulse of the community they serve?  Do it on their own time off the clock?  That's unpaid labor.  Screw that.  Besides, I got anime to watch, manga to read, etc. in my leisure time off the clock.  Twitter happens in real time, and so long as "normal" library services are not disrupted or hindered, it should be normalized and okay to keep a tab open with Twitter running in the background.   Ditto Facebook, for similar reasons.

Look, we all freakin' do it, alright?  If you're an Gen Xer or younger you know you do it on the sly.  We should be okay with doing it out in the open, without fear of reprisal or disciplinary action.  It should be a normalized part of regular library work, not this hush hush taboo thing we do on the down low.  When left to individual departments you get uneven and unfair enforcement.  Some library staff get away with watching MOVIES at their desk while others get griped at just for looking at Facebook for a few minutes.

I'm honestly at my happiest when I'm doing some low-level necessary but repetitive mindless work like barcoding new books for the catalogers while I can do a deep dive listen on podcasts I love.  I feel too guilty to sit at my desk ONLY listening to podcasts if I'm not actively doing library ILL work also.  I refrain from it until the work picks back up in intensity.  My daily routines with ILL are often feast or famine....either we're REALLY busy, crunch time, etc, or else it's dead as a doornail.  The barcoding tasks are awesome but sometimes there just aren't any new books on trucks that need my attention, so we just kind of do other low-level maintenance work but even that only goes so far.  That kind of down time is ripe for hopping on social media....scrolling Facebook & Twitter, interacting with other users, etc, or maybe even writing a brief post on Tumblr about an anime I watched recently.  

Sidebar, our IT department recently eliminated all physical fax machines in the library system and replaced them with an all-digital fax system accessible from our desktops.  I was even given a personalized fax number for ILL work.  Since it's a tool in my box, I do actually use it.  If a library lists a Fax number in their contact info, I will fax them when I need a book renewal, etc.  Emails can be ignored but a fax usually has to be attended to.  I'm sure other libraries might find it weird or unorthodox but hey, if my people give me this tool, I'm gonna put it to good use.  It's kinda retro but also kinda cool at the same time.  The only downside is our system-wide fax utility is tied to our email server in some way, so if email goes down, so do our fax capabilities...stinks but that's how it is with the software we use.  We found this out the hard way when our email system had to be taken offline for an entire week for a major upgrade/repair job.  We simply had to stop accepting new ILLs completely.  It made for some very long work days.  We could contend with existing requests but that was all.  And so yes, I made covert use of Facebook & Twitter during those lulls in workflow, too.  Even if I don't use a particular social media platform, I also read news articles online from reputable sources.  The "pocket" widget on Firefox is helpful for that, as is the default news settings in Microsoft Edge.  Again, I just feel as though it's a librarian's duty to keep informed about current events, even on the clock--perhaps especially on the clock.  It's not a bad thing and it should be encouraged, not discouraged, so long as it is used responsibly and ethically.   We should be active participants in the wider culture, promoting literacy and good informative books & authoritative resources.  We should bolster small "d" democracy, agitate for accountability in government and from corporations, and we should do our part to dismantle racism and remove barriers to access to vetted & reliable information.  Using social media "on the clock" are a means to those noble ends, for real.  It's detrimental to democracy to pretend otherwise.

I still can't believe my colleagues able to watch entire movies on the clock though...that's WHACK.  But whatever.  Not what I'm asking for.  Just want the ability to participate in Facebook groups and follow Twitter users whose subjects of interests align with my own, whether it's music, art, anime, whatever.  I want to be able to do all that without having to look over my shoulder or get the stink eye from some co-workers who might threaten to narc me out over some personal beef with me.  That'd be real nice.