It seems to me that we all need to just let go. No, read on.
One of the ways in which we can help our libraries succeed is turning them into user-centered institutions. This means really thinking about our users, and examining the rules and policies that might benefit us, but also might be preventing our patrons’ successful use and continued enjoyment of our libraries.
One of the reasons librarians might not fully embrace this concept is because it takes away some of the control we have over our institutions. And if there are a few things that many librarians like, I think control and organization (a form of control) are up there. I can sympathize with this. When I first started working in libraries at the age of 21, I think I unknowingly entered into an antagonistic dynamic between librarians and patrons. Not that I wasn’t helpful or pleasant, but rather I thought that patrons were to be helped on the Library’s (capital L) terms. Perhaps I thought that being serious about libraries meant upholding library rules and defending the library from rule breakers.
Six years later, I must have mellowed out.
All of this stems from an event that occurred a few nights ago. A patron had a nonstandard file that she wanted to print, and we had no way of reading the file. I noticed that she had a CD-ROM in her hand, and inquired whether that’s what she used to write the file. It was. I installed the program, we printed the file, and the computer was rebooted (and the program erased) in about 5 minutes. She was extremely thankful for that act, and had a great library experience. I realized that not every library (including us) can give that kind of individual attention 100% of the time, but there’s nothing prevent libraries from having a few (protected) workstations on which users can load their own programs. I can hear the groans.
MAYBE if libraries were immensely influential cultural institutions we could think about influencing people to do things Our Way (even though that wouldn’t necessarily be the right thing to do) but sadly, we’re not. So we can either choose to alienate users by making things difficult for them, or we can embrace the big picture and our users by making our institutions convenient, usable, and relevant.
Other misc related thoughts
Being user-centered vs. being library-centered reminds me of how grammarians and linguists like to argue about descriptivism vs. prescriptivism. Perhaps librarians that are user-centered tend to be descriptivists and vice versa.
I think user-driven taxonomies (folksonomies), and getting their content (such as ratings) into our catalog is a important and exciting aspect of being user-centered that we’re just starting to explore. What a great way to engage them with our content and form a relationship.
