Coffee With English and Library

Coffee With English and Library

By Ted Gentle

            Should librarians be more creative in their careers and in their private lives?  It is an unexpected irony that the vast majority of librarians come from English major backgrounds.  However, the typical library school in many cases discourages raw English scholarship and creative writing in favor of Education and Technology-based pursuits.  This is done, in this author’s opinion, to encourage each librarian to have a hard opinion toward the matter at hand.  However, in doing this, does he or she alienate the English faculty member or English student he or she may work with?  Would his or her opinion seem too ironclad, and not flexible enough?  It seems to me that more similarities between English and Library professionals should be encouraged, to help him or her to more readily engage new ideas and new people.

            How calamitous are the interactions between English graduate students when they pursue their first Master’s Degree, or even the PhD!  English students and teachers seem to know each other better, and they seem to be more facile when it comes to group projects and group study sessions.  Immersion in technology, which is not people based, is placed second in favor of the study of text and, directly, the ideas contained there.  Literary movements such as modernism and postmodernism are studied, including the ultimately class-based prejudices sometimes present in modernism and addressed by the rebellion or at least more direct tone of postmodernism.  They may worry less about scientific consensus, in favor of a larger theme such as helping people.

            Not every library committee believes in the value of helping others, or in a number of years studying canonical or socially important books.  One apparent stereotype is that they are looking for a webmaster or at least someone who can add to the website, and little else!  However, in doing this, they neglect the humanities education that even many of their sites offer!  These texts prepare one for the infinite number of situations that one may encounter at the circulation or reference desk, and they describe the type of people one might meet during these situations.  Should a scholar of Hamlet or Ulysses really be substituted in favor of someone who is basically an extension of a collection of CDs?

            To further discuss this problem, let us examine the differences and similarities between librarians and library faculty.  Library faculty function in a culture that is, in many ways, more open to texts than the historical English department.  Serialized comic books and graphic novels are often discussed by the student body, as are fantasy novels.  However, the role typically taken by most library faculty is to steer them in a more practical, technology-minded direction.  It is debatable, I think, that they can really take hold of these technology lessons, however, since the programs only run for a year to a year-and-a-half.  In response to this, I would argue that the library schools need to substitute much of this for history-based, text-based pursuits, whether they are informed by Librarianship or Literature.  Students retain these lessons more, and they also get more out of them!  I have always believed in a relationship between fun and success, and too much practicality I think stagnates the programs.

            Let us imagine an English liaison Librarian discussing Collection Development with the English Faculty.  It would definitely be to his or her benefit to have a PhD in Creative Writing or Literature, or at the very least to have familiarity with the texts taught at the BA and MA level.  This department, I feel, is the most aggressive promoter of that campus’ ideological and financial success, fueling a lot of the conversation, good will, and even enrollment on campus.  Familiarity with this department and its content directly relates to the success of the campus in question, and in a very intense way to the success of the library itself.  I have no question that this department is the most credentialed, purchases the most texts from  the library, and has the most aggressive interest in the texts that they teach.

            It would be in the best interest of the library schools for them to emphasize and expand the literature-based classes that they have.  Young Adult classes are present but not well-known.  Classes in the commonly cited William Carlos Williams or Stephen King would also be a welcome addition, preparing the library students for the conversations that they might have across the desk.  An English Literature sampler class would not hurt either!  These classes would serve to play up the librarians’ Humanities credentials, and prevent them from being seen as automatons.