10.10.03

I went to Oklahoma City today with Laura, Cindy Y. and Courtney for a workshop on young adult programming. It was lead by a leading library consultant named Patrick Jones. He’s brilliant, entertaining and has a very realistic outlook on how we need to serve the young adult public in our libraries today. He made me realize just how important and how responsible librarians are for the future of children. I’ve often reasoned that librarians are here to assist and contribute to the upbringing of a child. This workshop has made me realize that a librarian is responsible for a lot more. I remember reading once that “it takes a villiage to raise a child”. I think I understand how true that is now. The impact a librarian can have on a child/teenager is so much more tremendous than I ever knew. I don’t want people to take this out of context. A librarian shouldn’t try to be a parent to every child that walks through the door. I just think that I need to stop using the excuse “it’s the parents responsibility to make sure their children are exposed to a library, or “it’s the parents job to make sure their child learns to read, or enjoys to read, understands right and wrong, becomes a model citizen”, or whatever. As adults in this world, it is our responsiblity to take care of OUR children period. Where this becomes difficult, obviously, is when we disagree on how this is to be done. But we all must have this collective purpose in mind, we all must be sensitive to other peoples opinions, no matter how ludicrous we think that opinion is. I think it is this very confict, this constant differing of opinions, that always made me resort to this attitude. I’m really not sure where I’m going with this. All I know is that I’m starting to question my beliefs. I’m not talking about anything drastic here. I find myself doing this periodically in my life, especially here lately, because it’s the only way I know how to keep myself open minded.
Patick Jones website