Guerrilla Librarians

If anyone in Library Land should feel empowered, it’s front line staff: the reference librarians and circulation clerks who day-in and day-out encounter grouchy customers, endure screaming kids, and carry out often tedious or trivial tasks, all in the name of providing professional library service. The more these people have a say, not just in library philosophy and policy, but in the day-to-day practices, routines, and arrangements of their work environment, the more they will be excited about actually coming to work every day — and that kind of enthusiasm can make or break everything from customer service to employee morale.

So what’s a librarian to do if his or her ideas aren’t appreciated, if he or she works in a library where opportunities for contribution and participation don’t exist (or worse, where feedback is solicited and ignored)? Simple: as long as they do something to make your work environment more productive or your customer service more effective, make those opportunities happen. Even if it’s something as small as rearranging a few chairs, or grouping a few books together at the edge of the Help Desk, or taping a comic to the inside of your keyboard tray — if it’s genuinely a change for the better, make that change happen yourself.

Now just to watch your own back, make sure you take the following steps:

1. If it makes things better for the customers or makes you a more effective librarian (and it doesn’t harm anyone else), do it.
2. If someone asks you why the change was made, claim that everything is exactly as it used to be and that you don’t know what they’re talking about.
3. If someone persists in believing that a change was made, deny all responsibility.

These three rules can be summed up in one phrase: guerrilla librarianship.

Now this isn’t about existential solipsism (like Sisyphus pushing that stupid rock up the hill) or defiance against authority (like Milton with his red stapler). Guerrilla librarianship, if anything, is about empowering librarians. It’s about individuals taking ownership of and responsibility for their own professional lives, their institutions, and their communities.