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My favorite part of my job is getting in front of a class of students who are probably bored and would rather be anywhere else, and somehow drawing them in, getting them awake and interested. This usually happens as soon as I walk into the room, since I don’t look like what most people think of when they think of a librarian. I am a rambling, big, burly African-American guy, covered in tattoos, and I tend to not fit the librarian cliché, though I sometimes do wear my glasses perched on my nose just so. You never know when the librarian stare needs to be implemented.
Even though I get attention with just my physical presence,
I don’t stop there. I am very much a people person and like to meet the students
in my classes halfway. I work primarily with majors in the School of
Communication which includes journalism, film and video, and strategic
communication, so the work tends to be topical. Their research usually draws upon
current events and pop culture, and ties back to established communication
theory and principles. This kind of thing can still be boring in the wrong
hands, but I make sure it isn’t. If a student throws out, “I want to do some
research on feminism”, and I say, “Let’s look at something like the impact of say…Beyoncé
and feminism just as a starting point”, they tend to think that’s cool. Because
Beyoncé.
I use this tactic not because I want to be seen at the “cool
librarian”, but because it can remove the wall that a lot of students put up.
My goal is to be accessible. My agenda is not to just stand up and lecture about
library resources for a paper the students will write two months from now. I
want to establish a relationship. I want them to know that I am their subject specialist,
a person who once upon a time worked as a freelance writer, a filmmaker, producing
music videos and commercials, and a person who loved studying classical film
theory as well as documentaries. These are things in my toolkit that, as their librarian,
I can bring to bear over the course of their time at my school.
Those are my intentions, and things have always gone
according to script. Until recently. I had my first real panic late last
semester when I was working with a new professor. Not only had I never worked
with this individual, but s/he taught an introduction to media 100-level course
as well as a 400-level class that deals with specific research in communication
marketing. I gave myself plenty of time to learn the database the professor
wanted demonstrated since I’m somewhat new myself. I was scheduled to do
sessions for both classes on the same day – a day where the professor would not
be present and I’d have the students, whom I’ve never met, all to myself. I
tend to keep my nervousness at bay, however when I walked into the 100-level
course ready to talk basic database searching, and how to find electronic
copies of say Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly in our journal finder and
found out rather quickly that it was the advanced research class where I
would be performing a demonstration of this software I honesty wasn’t very keen
on, the students noticed.
I am proud to say that it wasn’t a disaster. I took a couple
deep breaths and recovered. I was able to demonstrate how to use the database to
pinpoint what sports drink a video game playing male, between the ages of 18-25
who preferred Xbox over Playstation and played between the hours of midnight
and 3am and used an Android phone, is most likely to purchase and why. What
struck me, however, came next. Two graduating seniors lingered as the rest of
their peers headed out the door after the class was over. They made a point of
telling me that not only had they enjoyed my presentation and taken copious
notes about the database, they also remarked how funny I was. Then they went
further and asked to buy me coffee and talk shop about library school and what
it was like. The catalyst for that moment was my apparent cat-like reflexes.
They had seen me thinking on my feet and readjusting after realizing that I had
mixed up my classes. They said that was a skill they see in lots of librarians.
They said librarians, more than anything, are prepared and go above and beyond
in helping people. For me, removing that wall, helped them see me as someone
who isn’t just there to tell them How Things Should Be Done, but also as
someone for whom knowledge can move in both directions.
Sometimes we feel the need to be super-prepared and
super-professional, but it was that moment of being human and making a mistake
that helped me connect with the students. I don’t recommend making mistakes
like that if you can help it, but I do recommend being who you are with your
patrons.
Derrick
Jefferson is the Communications Librarian at American University in Washington,
DC. He received his MLIS in
2012 from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA as a Project Recovery
scholar based in New Orleans. He tweets about food, vinyl records, and
libraries at @geekandahalf.
Bravo Derrick! I'm so glad you're my colleague. And Beyoncé! :)
ReplyDeleteAlessandro! Grazie, grazie! Thanks for reading and see you soon! --Derrick
DeleteGreat job!
ReplyDeleteKudos Derrick! What a great story! Always motivating to hear those times when we can really inspire students.
ReplyDeleteYou are stinking awesome.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone. Many of you know about the obstacles I faced in library science school but I'm thrilled that I've been able to embrace and become the librarian I thought I could eventually be. Still continuing to learn and grow from new colleagues. Shout out to my vintage ones and old friends. --Derrick
ReplyDelete