Flexibility and Librarians

I literally just posted yesterday how it’s been relatively quiet in the library and I’ve been getting a lot of work done at my desk – revamping the library website, booklists for a new librarian and patrons, and I came in today with a pretty decent to-do list and this is the only thing I’ve done today that been on my to-do list.

Basically, our picture book collection is built around a square with a raised platform with shelves on the inside and shelving along the outside.  Just recently we realized that the floor was feeling a little soft in some areas and now in the past week, we’ve had our maintenance crew remove some of the carpeting to check the floor (which is all dry-rotted) and we are now in the process of having contractors come out to take a look.  So, rather than the myriad of other things that were on my to-do list, I am now (with the help of many other staff members) moving about 70 shelves of picture books from our collection to a temporary location in order to allow the contractors to be able to work.

I feel that this is a perfect example of how flexible librarians need to be about their jobs and the technology that encompasses the library world.  Librarians can choose not to embrace change and be rigid in their views, but in the end are only preventing their patrons from new ideas and information and access.  And that’s exactly what this picture book project has become – accessible (or at least it will when were all done)!