Over the past month, I've been asked no less than four times, by four different people, when we will be able to have a library "with no card catalog." My answer, in a nutshell, is that it's not possible. And each time, I am met with an incredulous stare. I've been asked why on earth we use the Dewey decimal system, instead of the Library of Congress system. I've even been asked how I feel about not having kids check out books at all. I'm not even a librarian, though I came this close to starting my Master's in Library Science.
Working in the library had been a dream come true for me. Many times, I've wished that someone--anyone--had known me well enough in high school to suggest looking into the field. My interests are about as diverse as they come, and if I could make a living as a "learner," I would be in heaven! Being surrounded by information about any topic imaginable is alternately overwhelming and exhilarating. Some may argue that all the same information can be found just as easily on YouTube or by Googling it, but it's been my experience that without the proper key words, my searches wind up feeling like just that--searches. In a library, I can hone in on topics more quickly. Admittedly, I was completely lost in the stacks for most of my life. Why on earth would Dewey put cookbooks so close to the pet books, and how could poetry, plays and even some prose belong in the non-fiction side of the library?? Why (I still wonder) do people describe fiction as being "untrue" so that non-fiction would then be "not untrue?"
Tuesday, the sixth grade came to visit the library. I asked how many had never been in a library before, and truly had no reason to be surprised at the number of hands that went up. Our elementary schools have been restructuring in order to accommodate larger numbers of students, as well as a move to a new building -- two new buildings, actually. As a result, their libraries have been packed, unpacked, repacked, stored and/or on a cart for a while. Although they had library class, some of the kids had been a little overwhelmed by the new library last January. Plus, our library looks very different from that one; our stacks are double the height, and we have easily double the books, at least.
Janet used to do the sixth grade orientation, and I had seen it enough to feel pretty comfortable showing them around. I found a video about the Dewey decimal system that they tried not to be amused by, and told them about our expectations of them, and showed them around. But the moment they'd been waiting for--the one thing all four classes asked about--was checking out books. Just try to stop them! I told them we have two card catalogs; one in a great big case on the floor, and one on the computer. Most of the kids who wanted to look for something specific, when told to look it up first, went the the physical version rather than the virtual one. And, interestingly, their searches were quicker than the computer searches. On the computer, they have to log on, find the card catalog on the desktop, click on the appropriate school, then type in what they are looking for. It works, for sure, but by the time they did all that, the kids who did it the "old-fashioned" way had already found their books, and were queued up at the check-out desk. Which kids had time to start reading their books before the bell rang?
Why do we need the big piece of furniture in the middle of the room? In addition to being quick if you aren't already logged on to a computer, it never crashes, it never loses power or connectivity, doesn't get corrupted, and it has those nifty drawers. I've been told it looks like a dinosaur (ridiculous because it is cube-shaped!) and does not fit in with the information age. Maybe. And maybe it's not necessary for kids to know how to search for something on their own, without the aid of an engine. But the sixth grade now knows that cookbooks fall under Dewey's broad category of "technology" (so do cats,but I'm not sure I understand that part yet), and biographies are part of history. And they also know that fiction IS imaginary, made-up, fantastical (although the supernatural is non-fiction), and non-fiction IS factual, proven or theorized, real, true, and that art --poems, plays and some prose-- and legends, myths and fairy tales are all considered non-fiction.
We'll always need to have a card catalog in some form or another, and I hope that when the digital age pulls the library in completely, as I think it could, and maybe should in some ways, I hope the name stays, even if the piece of furniture is forgotten. There will always be a need to find the information for oneself; to be able to see the other points of view nearby--how closely related world religions are on a bookshelf, or how similar the covers of books about neighboring countries at war can look. As long as there ARE books, they will be checked out of libraries. That sense of sharing, that trust in stewardship, is necessary to the survival of humankind. I really believe that.
It used to be, when I worked with Janet the Librarian, that I had a long list of books to check out sometime. She was regularly adding new books to the collection, and part of my job was to type up the cards for the card catalog, as well as covering the new books on their way into circulation. Now I make up the cards for the books in the library that had been purchased but not yet catalogued. I have far more interuptions than we had before--the student flow has been changed, and requires much more 'hovering' at times. It has its good points and bad points, but kids still check out books every day. And they use the card catalog. Many of them still need help with both alphabetical and alphanumeric order, but I need help with the Macs, so it all evens out in the end.
I love my job, and I love that libraries are evolving and changing and staying relevant--a tradition in place since Ben Franklin. I love that Dewey still "works" even if it is a little wacky until you get the hang of it. (Watch the video, it's really quite clever!) So don't ask me if the library will be "necessary" in years to come, or if people really "care" if it's there. I do. And I'm not alone.
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