**This is an old email I sent to a listserv many moons ago, it has made its way around the internet several times, published in a library newsletter, and once I even received a request for permission to use it as part of a class introduction [and yes I am bragging]. While most people have said they liked it, all of them had a quibble with a statement in the end part. I've added an addendum to explore that particular issue a little more. Enjoy.**

The Role of Librarians

Here’s what we do and what we have always done…

 We help people access appropriate information as quickly and effectively as possible.

 Here’s what we used to use… Books

Here’s what we use now… Books and Computers

Information used to come in… Books and Periodicals

Information now comes in… Books, Periodicals, Audio, Video, Computers

 Nothing has changed but our options. We do the same thing. A patron asks a question. Depending on the type of information and the time available for the patron we access the materials that will best answer the question in the time allowed.

 Here’s what the public used to do…

 If you were rich you had a personal library or was a member of a private one.

If you were poor you went to the public library or if there was none you remained uninformed.

 If you were somewhat intelligent you used either the private or public library effectively on your own (unless the problem was very involved then you asked for help).

If you were not very intelligent, or possibly just lazy, you asked for help from the private/public librarian.

 Here’s what the public does now…

 If you’re middle class and up you access the internet at home and find a fair amount of information, or you go to a bookstore and buy the book you need. If you are poor you go to the public library and use the internet there and take out whatever book you may need.

 If you are somewhat intelligent you get what you can from the internet, get what books you need form the bookstore, and if its something really involved, something you can’t get a handle on you either call or come to the public library and ask for help.

If you are not very intelligent, or possibly just lazy you fiddle with the internet and either give up or come to the library and ask for help.

 Librarians give poor people access to materials they could never access at home. They assist rich and successful entrepreneurs in finding information that the individual simply has no experience in to provide a basis in searching. We are guides in a maze of information that is becoming more and more mapped out. But no matter how well mapped out it is there is a significant portion of the population that cannot even read that. We are educated and well trained. We do not need to market ourselves. No advancements in technology short of artificial intelligence will ever change who we are or what we do. The tools are different but the work is the same. We are the last and best source. There is a percentage of people who will live very happy lives without our help, either through natural ability or incredible lack of interest. The percentage of people who still need us and will always need us is more than ample. We may give reference service over email, someday we may even do it through videoconferencing, but it will not change what we do or who we are. We are librarians, we haven’t changed in a thousand years and we won’t be changing for the next thousand.

**Addendum**

   We do not need to market ourselves. 

   Nobody, and I mean nobody has liked that. "But how will they know what we offer?" "How will they know what we do?" First of all they know who we are, we're certainly not the second oldest profession, or probably even the third, fourth or fifth, but we've been around. Say the word librarian and many people get that dreaded image we all love to hate but surrounding that image are stacks and stacks of books so people have an inkling of what we're about. 

   I'll give some ground and say if you want to put an ad in the paper that you've subscribed to a new database that's fine. And having a visiting author come and speak doesn't accomplish much if people don't know about it. When people say marketing however, the next word not long in coming is 'reinvent' as in "We need to reinvent ourselves."  Reinventing gave us well-dressed information specialists who think libraries should be loud and obnoxious places where everybody wants to hang out and nobody wants to read anything. I'll pass on the reinventing and the marketing.  

    I'm going to do my job. I'm going to shush loud patrons. I'm going to wear comfortable shoes. I'm going to speak quietly as I help patrons with their questions. When I help a patron place a hold I'm also going to tell them about our website where they can look up books from and place their own holds. When I help patrons with their research products I'm going to show them what we subscribe to and also show them how to access databases with 10x the titles and information that we have. I'm going to help patrons print from the internet, save to a disk, setup a resume, track down obscure information, and fulfill every other task set before me and required of me to do. As often as possible I will do it in as pleasant a manner as possible. And yes, that's marketing, but its also pride in your profession and its all that's ever really required.