l’bibliothèque, ç’est moi

Paraphrasing the Sun King there although there is a bit of a dispute as to whether or not he actually said L’Etat, ç’est moi! (I am the State)

I am stealing it and re-purposing it for the 21st century and for Librarians.

So L’Bibliothèque, ç’est moi! – I am the Library!

While a Librarian without a Library is still a Librarian, the opposite is not true – a Library without a Librarian becomes a room or building full of books and other resources that people without the requisite know-how are unable to access fully. So yes the Librarian makes the Library and can be said to actually be the Library.; at the very least the Librarian is the interface through which many people can access the services on offer.

This train of thought led me to consider why so many schools have re-branded their Libraries as ‘Learning Resource Centres’, many are still run by Librarians, some are managed by Resource Centre Managers and still others are unstaffed; after all who needs a Librarian if you no longer have a Library?

One Thought on “l’bibliothèque, ç’est moi

  1. Sarah111well on September 16, 2017 at 6:49 pm said:

    When I took up my current post I was a LRC Manager but everyone, teachers, students, caretakers called it the Library. I renamed it to match and I am the Librarian. I’ve often thought schools do this because teachers tend to consider the title Librarian a bit of a joke.
    “What would you like to be known as? Librarian. Are you sure?” Oh … ok.”

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