Day late, but better now than never! I've been thinking a lot about libraries, librarians, and community this week.
As someone with an MLIS working outside the library and information community at the moment, I'm feeling a little adrift. I'm also enough of an introvert that this doesn't bother me much, but it has given me some things to think about on the topic.
I was all excited about Dr. Carla Hayden accepting the role of Librarian of Congress last week, and I'm no less excited about that this week. In 2003, as I was entering library school, she told Ms. Magazine who named her one of their Women of the Year:
We serve the underserved. When libraries fight against the PATRIOT Act, or against [mandatory Internet filters], we’re fighting for the public. Most of the people who use public libraries don’t have the opportunity to buy books at a bookstore or on Amazon.com. What the library does is protect the rights of all people to fully and freely access information and to pursue knowledge, without fear of repercussion.
Can I repeat that last sentence again? Because that's one of the things that keeps me coming back to information access as a profession and a calling - "What the library does is protect the rights of all people to fully and freely access information and to pursue knowledge, without fear of repercussion."
When I start to despair about what I'm doing, that's what I come back to. Am I helping people get access to information they need to make decisions? Yes? Good. Am I helping people get access to content that enriches their lives by their definition (outside a very few ethical issues)? Yes? Good. One of the reasons I pursued this profession was because of the focus on progressive social justice, social awareness, social good aspect of literacy & access to information. Not everyone goes into this profession for that reason, but there's a significant percentage of people who do care very much about these issues.
I've been thinking about my professional community and this week culminated this morning in the first MLIS advisory board meeting of the year. I'm on the advisory board as an independent at the moment, carrying on from the last place I worked. I find it really satisfying to contribute back to my school, and my profession... and develop my own professional thoughts with exposure to other really smart and experienced information professionals. I love sitting at the table and hear what these, honestly, mostly women, are talking about.
This week we were treated to a meeting with the Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, whose goal in the iSchool community is to bring wisdom from the field into the school. She wanted to know from us what, besides her own thoughts on the matter, we wanted her to bring to students. After that we discussed ideas for some changes to some one credit classes - there were so many ideas! I was not alone in wishing that all of the ideas we had for one credit classes were open to already graduated professionals to take.
Always curious. Life long learning. Five retired women who had worked for their adult lives providing information to people they have such insight, and so much to contribute. It's hard, sometimes, not to get a little intimidated by them! Not that anyone else is a slouch. But they did not shy away from bringing up social justice, serving disadvantaged populations, adult literacy, and #blacklivesmatter while balancing these with practical knowledge from the field about how to target these programs for different locations - from urban inner city to suburban and rural libraries, from special libraries to enterprise content organizations. I often walk away wishing I contributed more, but I am always walking away glad I went.
Which is a lot of stuff about librarians and community, and not so much about myth (though the title should have been a giveaway)... And yet it sort of is - this is the essence of the library through out history. Storage of and access to knowledge and information. Which leads me to how I decided on the names of Phix's Curiosity (that was the original name I had for what this endeavor has turned into) and Mythic Librarian.
It has long been theorized that there is a great library in an underground chamber between the paws of the Sphinx in Egypt. Per Wikipedia, "The Hall of Records is a (mythical) ancient library rumoured to be deposited at the time of King Imhotep at Giza in Egypt. One suggestion has been that it is under one of the paws of the Great Sphinx of Giza, which is in the Giza pyramid complex." Most of the popular media about this right now falls largely into conspiracy theory territory, but the fact that there are stories of it from Herodotus who described it as a giant labyrinth with paintings and hieroglyphs on the walls, and other philosophers. In 2008, archaeologists discovered a network of tunnels beneath the Sphinx. For more on that, here is the associated site: Labyrinth of Egypt.
Phix? Was that a typo? No, that's the pronunciation of sphinx in the Greek dialect used near the location where Oedipus revealed the answer to the Greek sphinx's riddle to pass into the city.
There are, of course, other mythic libraries - the great Alexandrian library that perished in flames. The last known member of this library was Theon, the father of the renowned classic scholar, philosopher, mathematician (and woman), Hypatia. It's probably not right to call her a librarian, but she embodies the curiosity of mind and pursuit of information that runs through the heart of a librarian. :) Here's an overview of Hypatia from the Smithsonian, if more is of interest to you.
A common thread between these mythic libraries would have been the communities of knowledge preservation and access that would have sprung up around them. Libraries and communities. Information and knowledge serving humanity. I don't always feel right calling myself a librarian, and yet... I can't quite let it go either - these intertwining values, wending their way through the ages... One of the board members said today - this is what is in our genes, in our DNA. When I think of what it would mean for me to be worthy of the name ancestor after my bones have turned to dust - it is these values that I would hope to leave as part of my legacy.