Now, you might know that what you do is unimportant. Or, for people like firefighters or doctors, it might truly be important. They’re still going to think it’s more important than other people do.

I disagree with the techshop-post that traditional library services are no longer as important as they once were. I think that they are, and would like to see the fundamentals substantially improved. I think that there are ways to provide traditional library services, and do a better job of introducing people to technology as well — without engaging in the vacuity that AL rightly rails against.

I good way to introduce people to technology would be to provide access to good computers that people can use for longer than 30 minutes. Public libraries need to be more consistent in providing good technology classes for the community. I hear that computer programmers past the age of 30 are put out to pasture…why not hire one of them to run the computer section and give free classes to the community? I think that, in many cases, the most qualified people available for a given job are not hired by libraries.

Libraries are about literacy and education through reading. Libraries are about reading, first and foremost. Books, periodicals, community information, reference, instruction, reader’s advisory, and storytimes are #1 [note: I count graphic novels, maps, photography, and the like here as well].

Second, libraries are now about being the only place people can use computers and the internet for free. I’m OK with that. Using the internet is now vital for most people, and many people who do use the library are using the internet for serious/important purposes (taxes, jobs, keeping in touch). Let’s serve that community need happily.

The third and last priority is non-reading education and entertainment. You gotta be selective with this one. There are important aspects to it: adult and childrens programming, resume and job searching help, college prep, some music and documentaries, DIY classes, and so on. There are also trivial aspects to it: Hollywood blockbusters, video games, surfing youtube, spending hours on Facebook, etc.

This techshop idea grows out of a third-level priority, and moves it to a second or first-level priority. That amounts to a wholesale redefinition of libraries. As you argue correctly, the only reason for such a move is if the first-level priority is irrelevant, and it is not.

On the other hand, if US society actually does start (continue?) to devalue reading, and reading does become a 2nd or 3rd level priority, this may be something to revisit.

Other thoughts are where would we possibly store all these tools? (at my branch we barely have room as it is). Who would clean the tools when they are returned? Are we to test the inspect and test each tool when returned and before check-out?

Another aspect is keeping track of all the parts associated with tools. Just like we put stickers on books indicating the CD is missing, can you see where a drill set would have a sticker saying “MISSING 2 bits, 3/8 & 1/4″.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

This idea sounds great to folks that never have owned and used tools. So, the few librarians qualified to take on this project (like me) would be the ones refusing to do it!

I hear you.

Actually, the sad thing is that there’s plenty of librarians or ‘were-going-to-be-librarians-til-something-better-came-along’ out there with great interpersonal skills but from what I’ve seen a lot of them leave library school and can’t get a rewarding, challenging job in a public library because there aren’t any wonderful entry level jobs out there. I’ve been in libraries a while now, and it is way too much of a struggle to find jobs that actually exercise or push my skills (I’m really lucky to have a good one now). Folks graduate from library school with a great deal of useful, cutting edge knowledge and educational theory/teaching skills and whatnot only to find that if they take a job in a public library they are likely to be ‘trained’ (see also: put to sleep) on a reference desk and asked to do boring work when likely they have a whole lot more they could offer. Then the budget gets cut, and since they were the last hired they are the first out the door and….

When I was reading about the techshop thing and thinking about staff skillsets, my thoughts immediately jumped to this bizarre predicament some libraries find themselves in which they want to open up computer centers that offer more than just an outdated version of Internet Explorer and Office 97 and they *don’t have staff that could operate them*!!! The techshop is a worst-case scenario of untrained fools slicing off fingers with bandsaws, but meanwhile we can’t even offer Photoshop in the library.

Anyways, @Fat and Grumpy, don’t be too hard on the librarians because there’s a lot of great ones out there who want jobs and want to do all of these things- they just aren’t getting the opportunity right now. They’ve all been laid off over the last couple of years, or they are about to graduate and are headed into a rough job market. We need to find ways to employ them and let them do what they know how to do… we shouldn’t be maintaining, we need to be pushing ahead… and who knows, maybe we do need some 3D printers just to shake things up.

For the record: 3D printers are awesome. Internet Explorer 6 is not awesome.