Librarians can and do often have vision beyond the horizon. Librarians typically, lack the vision to see past next week. Having been around my share, I can safely say most of them can barely see past the cat gifs and punny jokes.
Two reasons I think. The first is fear. Training plays into the second.
Fear is crippling. I know from experience and watching other people in my profession deal with it. Did I do something wrong? Is my suggestion to switch coffee brands going to upset someone? Is anyone going to show up to my program? What happens if they cut our budget? While fear is healthy in small doses, librarians by nature have a tough time fearing lots of things they don't see. And to some degree rightfully so! A well intentioned program gets picked up by a group of haters in the community and the next thing you know already precarious library budgets are suddenly cut. The PC police, whom we genuinely care to please, pull us for speeding through a 'Woke Trap" we didn't know about. There are stories abound about librarians with the best of intention, most of the time, getting stuck in a bad spot. Having been there in another field, I know that pain.
Still, this fear is costing us opportunities. Too often local pettytics (petty politics) strike down great ideas in the library. Will the other branches get jealous? If the Library Board finds out they might say something at the next meeting. By nature most librarians are risk avert, so anything like switching up book club books from the tried and true or having drag queens come for story time, is a big damn deal! They shouldn't have to worry for trying something new or innovative. At the end of the day, if people want to fault librarians for taking some risk, then its on them, not the librarian. Be damned anyone who is feeble minded enough to put down something they are not creative enough to figure out, they can't understand with their pea sized brains, or worse..they're offended by. Libraries are supposed to be for all. We need to be making moves that bring in all kinds of folks..except Nazis. Fuc* them! So if a program is going to get a section of the population into the library, it needs to go on! If an initiative the branch over brings an award to the system, bully for the system! Fear only limits!
Besides being terribly fearful, a second helping of detail orientation is not good for the vision field. Librarians are trained to dot Ts and cross Is. And to a degree that's good. We want books in the right place so we can find them easily. We need our systems to be smooth and efficient. Anything that disrupts, more might otherwise change, is suspect. I get it. But again, some creativity never hurt anyone. If new things never pushed us in the field, we'd still never have a way to catalog microfilm much less DVDs, blenders (think library of things), hold auto repair classes that draw 45 people, or even...have computers. So yes, a little discomfort will subside, and at the end of the day it could end up with more patrons served.
Fear is good. It keeps us safe from lions in the savannah, out of sticky situations in bar, and off the FBI's most wanted. Unhealthy doses, usually found in the type who enter librarianship (myself included at times), is keeping us from great programs, new ways to reach patrons, and (I think) constant flux in matters like budgets. If we took more chances and produced more services, any governing body who doesn't appreciate the increase in output for the dollar is dumber than they look. More bang for the bank is always a good thing, but bang takes....backbone.
You thought I was going to say balls.
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