Category: Mission

  • The Two Faces of the Work

    The Two Faces of the Work

    I’ve been digitally carrying this screenshot mashup for a while now. I keep coming back to this picture pairing because it so clearly shows what I know about my profession: librarianship holds joy and gravity in the same hand. In the first image, our small group is gathered around a conference table, and every face…

  • I Will Never Leave a Fallen Comrade

    In the final Thread of R. David Lankes’ The Atlas of New Librarianship (2011), we finally get to the librarian. In amongst the descriptions of skill sets, teamwork, processes, and curriculum, there is a statement which stops me in my tracks. Lankes proposes that in the case of deadlocked debate between new librarians and bibliofundamentalists,…

  • My Mission, Should I Choose to Accept It

    I like having a mission. I like a solid foundation from which to spring into action and a bright goal toward which to work. The mission that R. David Lankes proposes in his recently published book, The Atlas of New Librarianship is right up my alley. According to Lankes, “the mission of librarians is to…