Librarianship

LJ letter to the editor, response to Michael Stephens' "Heretical Thoughts"

"Innovation required
In 2009, we created 'innovation' as a performance requirement for all staff at my library. Each person (shelvers, custodians, librarians, department heads) must 'bring a new idea, development, or system' (Michael Stephens, 'Heretical Thoughts,' Office Hours, LJ 12/10, p. 72).
...
The goal is to encourage and reward the staff for thinking of improvements.
...
Stephens's closing paragraph recalls something that Lawrence Clark Powell wrote: 'A good librarian is not a social scientist, a documentalist, a retrievalist, or an automaton. A good librarian is a librarian: a person with good health and warm heart, trained by study and seasoned by experience to catalyze books and people.' —Nann Blaine Hilyard, Dir., Zion-Benton P.L., Zion, IL"

Ms. Hilyard, please hire me!

LJ Feb. 1, 2011