Now What Do I Do? Things They Never Taught in Library School – A Book of Case Studies

Citation

Duckett, B. (2002), "Now What Do I Do? Things They Never Taught in Library School – A Book of Case Studies", Library Review, Vol. 51 No. 1, pp. 45-59. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.2002.51.1.45.10

Vandalism, confrontation with users, complaints about a book, computers that crash, student having a fit, disruptive groups, vermin: we all have crises to deal with. Little in our training prepares us for them. For new and younger staff such crises can be frightening and stressful. This smart paperback aims to help us cope. The context is US school libraries and media centres, but most of the crises have general applicability and the book would profit front‐line staff anywhere. We all have to cope somehow.

A total of 55 problems, each presented as a fabricated case study, are classified in ten broad subject chapters. The book starts with “Michael’s fit”. School librarian media specialist, Sylvia, sees quiet user, Michael, crashing to the floor, twitching. At the end of each of these brief vignettes are some follow up questions to prompt thought and discussion. What should Sylvia do next? What should Sylvia do with the rest of the class? Should Sylvia have said something when she saw Michael’s medical bracelet? After Michael’s fit we have librarian Ralph noticing a student borrowing a pile of books on suicide. He knows that it is not for a class assignment. What should he do? In “The labour question”, a student goes into labour. In “Shooting stars”, librarian José discovers a comatose body and a hypodermic needle. A user drunk in the toilets stars in “The liquour case”. Our troubled librarians do not always get it right, but we can identify with their panic. Following the “Medical” section, we get “Physical plant” (water leaks, mice, vandalism and display problems); “Personal” (crushes, over‐demanding users, disruptive groups, vicious rumours, pot‐smoking colleagues, and charges of discrimination): “Personnel” (awkward relationships, union problems, unhelpful manual staff, etc.), and “Potholes on the information highway” (misuse of e‐mail, hackers, is machine maintenance part of the job?, who supervises the computer lab?). All these problems come under the rubric: “Nitty gritty: emergencies, etc.”

The second five chapters, which form part II, are “Bigger issues” that cover approaches and attitudes rather than immediate crises. Chapters are headed: “Certification” (a specifically US problem); “Policies”; “Personnel”; “Scheduling”; and “Physical plant”. Problems include: How to manage from a distance; should you pay for things yourself?; conflicting policies; and who pays for professional development? The final part consists of the texts of several “Position statements” from the American Association of School Librarians, and sample policies. This would be a useful collection for US school librarians. There is a full bibliography, some suggested reading, and a small subject index.

The 55 case studies make good reading, if rather folksy and twee – what would the next librarian be called, I kept wondering. The problems are real enough though and I guess staff in our thousands of small branch and isolated departmental libraries will identify readily enough with Sylvia, Ralph, José and the others. The impressive collection of position and policy statements and lengthy bibliographies is of a rather different nature and the book becomes decidedly textbookish.

It is hard to be prescriptive about the crises and problems featured here, since policies, practices and institutional structures vary so much. To its credit this little book is not prescriptive: it raises issues, prompts questions, and makes the reader think “What would I do in such a situation?” Despite its limitations, this is a welcome contribution to professional practice. I hope some enterprising publisher will do something similar for the UK, relating it to our different legal and bureaucratic structures, practices, and to libraries other than school ones. We all have crises and problems for which we are ill‐prepared; we all need guidance in coping with them.