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I should expound on that latest, though; explain what librarianship means to me if you will. Of course I'm not claiming that mine is not a service profession. We are there to provide service for the library patrons, and being arrogant and presupposing the borrowers don't know what they talk about or what they want is not conducive to that. However, accepting that the borrower is automatically right can be even worse, for a lot of the time they aren't. They know what it is they want, and my job is to make sure they get it or the closest possible equivalent of it. This means I need to think for myself, and if I am certain of something I mustn't be afraid to say so -- otherwise the borrower won't have a chance to check what it was he actually wanted!

Of course I must always keep my mind open to the possibility that I have very likely missed something, and check, double-check and ask around. . . but that's the first thing they teach you at library school so I don't need to point it out here.

Labels: library