Superheroes wear polo shirts
The young man’s excited voice rang out clearly over the hubbub of the crowded KFC.
“Hey Library Lady! I got the job!”
People turned and stared, and up on high the scorers in The Good Place (Netflix, great series) chalked up another 1,200 points for our mild-mannered modern superheroes. For every day Library Ladies and Library Men across the country put on their branded polo shirts, name tags and comfortable shoes and set off on a mission to make the world a better place.
Not that this is what their job description says, or what most people think of when (if) they think about the people who work at their local library. It’s more about returning books to shelves, running a sing along for screaming kids, asking whether you’ve tried turning it on and off, reconstructing the newspapers and tidying the booth in the back corner where the teenagers were. And let’s face it, those things are part of the everyday work of a 21st century librarian.
Behind the glossy veneer, the tabloids and the paparazzi shots of a Library Manager, Councillor and smiling young Mum holding a clutch of picture books is a profession whose work goes largely unnoticed – except for the people whose lives are touched in the most extraordinary ways by our unassuming supermen and women. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) was a librarian, and I know just what the DC Universe looks like when it’s populated by librarians. It looks like my library.
How do I know? Over the last three years we’ve added a short activity to the workshops we run with staff as part of library reviews or strategic planning sessions. Everyone in the room gets a 7cm x 7cm Post-It® Note and has to write down an example of one of the times they had a real impact on someone’s life. Everyone who has worked in a library has one of these stories. Most librarians can reel five or six of them off the top of their head without thinking. And they all know that somewhere out there, between the stacks and the printer is another person in desperate need of a smile, a kind word and some practical help.
Every day in every library across Australia (well, not so much on Saturday afternoons and Sundays when many libraries are closed), library staff deliver customer service that changes people’s lives (to borrow a phrase). It’s not in their PD, it wasn’t part of their training. But it happens because of all the things a public library is, ever was or might be - a library is a place where you go to get answers. And the job of the reference librarian has morphed into something where many people who walk into a library hope/expect/know that whatever question or concern they have the patient librarian will try to help them.
Out on the library floor – that’s where the magic happens. It’s about reading. It’s about work. It’s about memories and connections. It’s about learning. It’s about feeling safe and welcome. And it’s about having someone listen and care.
So we collect 20-50 word snippets and get staff to share them with one another, reinforcing for the group the incredible power they can choose to have if they take a positive outlook to their customer service responsibilities. The stories are all real, I can imagine them happening. They make me smile, sometimes they make me tear up, but they always make me proud to be in the room. Here are a few examples (from just one library service) – with thanks to all the superheroes in our midst.
