General Components of Solo Librarianship

Alternatively: The Research Hat

There are a lot of roles librarians take on, and if you can name one librarian who only fulfills one role, you can color me surprised.  We wear different hats like it’s our job (and for the most part, it is).  In a larger library, though, a librarian may “specialize” in one or two particular roles.  As a sole librarian, you become a “jack of all trades”.  That doesn’t mean you can’t specialize, only that you can’t expect that specialty to be your only hat.

Some of the components involved in sole-librarianship include:

• Cataloging
• User Maintenance
• Ordering, updating, and maintaining subscriptions, books, and other resources
• Physical space organization and needs
• Reference/research
• Creating/maintaining policies
• Technical services (including creating/maintaining a website)
• Staying current in the field
• Outreach

Some of this I have written about in the past, including physical space requirements and cataloging, so I’ll try not to wear those subjects down.  Instead, I’m going to share a little research anecdote that happened just last week.

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I’m sitting at my desk, logging the information I have been collecting (measuring out the physical space each book takes to determine the shelf space we need in our new location and what can be culled…very thrilling stuff), and my phone rings.  It’s an attorney I don’t work with very frequently but enjoy speaking with.

“Good afternoon,” I greet her, “how can I help you?”

“I am so sorry!” she begins.  That’s how I know it’s going to be a hectic afternoon.  “I should have given this to you three days ago but I forgot about it until just now!  I was supposed to researching issues with [redacted] in various states and nationwide, but only second-hand sources.”

“That’s not a problem; when do you need it by?” 

“In twenty minutes…”

Woah, hold your horses.  Let’s come to a screeching stop.  Twenty minutes?  But as we know, special librarians are in a somewhat unique position where reference questions have to be answered and “I’m sorry, I couldn’t find resources for that” is absolutely not an option.  (Not that other types of librarians say this frequently; however, it is generally considered more acceptable for them to admit defeat if the situation calls for it.)

So the two of us are working frantically at our respective desks.  I let her search WestLaw, since she’s familiar with it, and I search the databases most of the attorneys here don’t know so well.  Including, I’ll admit, Google Scholar.  It’s hitting the fifteen minute mark and I’ve only found two secondary-source articles that are peer-reviewed and published in the last twelve months.  The phone rings again.

“Yes?” I answer, wincing because I can only imagine how disappointed she’s going to be at the fruits of our labor.

“What does it mean if something is out of plan?” she asks.

“It means we’re not subscribed to it so we’ll have to pay extra for it,” I tell her, “we usually bill it to the client.”

“This is non-billable.  Oh, I don’t want to have to pay for it, it’s just exactly what I’m looking for…”

I hesitate, not wanting to get her hopes up.  But, at this point, in the final hour, what the heck.  “Can you email me a screenshot so I can see what you’re looking at?” I ask her.

I watch the second hand tick as I wait for the email.  It comes in after twenty-three long seconds.  

 “Great, I’ll call you back in a minute.”

It’s an article from a journal, dated to their January/February issue of 2016.  There’s a brief glimmer of hope – a lot of legal journals archive their material on their website if it’s over a year old.  This one is, just barely, over a year old.  I run a quick search on the journal.  I pull open the website.  There’s the archive link, and a link to the year, a link to the months …click, click, and click.  And there, shining hyperlink-blue like a beautiful beacon from above, is the article.  Click and save.

I email it as I call her, attaching all three articles.  “It’s on the way to you!” I have to rush the words because I can hear her moving around her office, rushing to get on her way.

“Perfect!” she exclaims.  “I have to go, but you’re wonderful!  Thank you!” She hangs up on me mid “you’re welcome” but that’s okay.  It’s moments like these that made me want to be a librarian – helping someone with the almost-impossible.  Also, to be fair, I do enjoy the occasional "good job" pat on the back.  And we didn’t even have to pay.

Stay tuned for more anecdotes or thoughts on the many hats of a solo-librarian.