Genuinely nice story about a librarian who works in a Sacramento-area (CA)low-income neighborhood library where he does his best to provide books, services and a “safe haven” for local users, despite vandalism and poverty. Derek McHenry grew up in a similar neighborhood and found “sanctuary” in his neighborhood library while he was growing up.
No matter what goes on outside,” cautions McHenry, of the world beyond, “once you come in the door, you are going to be treated with respect. A lot of these kids come from single-parent families. Some of them are not used to being treated with kindness. So, I make it a point to treat them with dignity. I care about this community. I want to do my part to make it better.
More from the Sacramento Bee.
Nice
That was a nice article thanks for posting.
As librarians we certainly can play a crucial role in our patrons lives. Be it from simply providing an air conditioned respite from the heat, temporary literary sanctuary from a less than wonderful home life, or a computer connection to find work or write a résumé.
It amazes me how much we can help. We provide authoratative information for our patrons, many of them in crisis. From information about medical problems, disease and treatment; legal information and reference sources; immigration information, study guides for the SAT, GRE and GED, information on How to repair food. , and we fill all sorts of other information needs.
We know that nursing, medicine, social work, the ministry and the like are the ‘caring professions’ but we as librarians certainly know that libriarians are on that list as well.
Re:Nice
Are there any library documents out there on the responsibilities or obligations of librarians to serve the rich? In this country, we have more rich than poor, and perhaps some of the rich can thank libraries (and probably do through endowments and certainly through their real estate taxes and help with bond issues) for their good fortune.
When I was at Ohio State, my library had the largest endowment of any of the dept. libraries. Before he died, no one knew the donor had money, and no one knew he had a soft spot for the veterinary library. So no one cultivated or recruited him–which was my good fortune, btw.
Just what are libraries’ responsibilities to the rich, if they really are supposed to serve all? You have a new blog–go for it.
Re:Nice
I saw that you talked about this on your own blog as well. I strongly doubt there would be any documentation decribing our obligations to the rich. The arguement a liberal would make is that any and all services not specifically labeled ‘for the poor’ includes the rich. My take would be that all services should be bank account neutral.