I Will Never Leave a Fallen Comrade

In the final Thread of R. David Lankes' The Atlas of New Librarianship (2011), we finally get to the librarian. In amongst the descriptions of skill sets, teamwork, processes, and curriculum,  there is a statement which stops me in my tracks. Lankes proposes that in the case of deadlocked debate between new librarians and bibliofundamentalists, "we will have to do something painful. We will have to leave them behind" (p. 172). To me, this is not something painful, but something inconceivable. My language, and therefore my blog entries,  heavily reflect military culture. I suppose that is not surprising, considering that regardless of what other roles I have played in the last eighteen years, the one constant is that of Army Spouse. This culture in which I've lived my entire adult life does not allow for leaving a comrade behind.


Soldiers' who undertake a mission together subscribe to a common ethos that defines their guiding beliefs, binds them to each other, and emphasizes duty to their community. The core of the Warrior Ethos is in the following quote from the Soldier's Creed, which can be found at http://www.army.mil/values/soldiers.html:

I will always place the mission first.

I will never accept defeat.

I will never quit.

I will never leave a fallen comrade.

I am not proposing we continue to engage in unproductive conversation, or that we apply hard core conversion tactics to bring artifact-centric librarians around to our way of thinking. I am proposing that we show them the value of our mission by example--by continuing to carry the mission out effectively and gracefully. I suppose you could say that bibliofundamentalists didn't sign up to improve society as facilitators of knowledge creation anyway; that they weren't really ever part of  the mission to start with, so what does it matter if they are left behind?  It matters because they are great resources; it matters because they are our potential allies; and it matters because if we can eventually inspire them to come along with us, our mission is guaranteed to succeed. 

My Mission, Should I Choose to Accept It

I like having a mission. I like a solid foundation from which to spring into action and a bright goal toward which to work. The mission that R. David Lankes proposes in his recently published book, The Atlas of New Librarianship is right up my alley. According to Lankes, "the mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities." If enough librarians and future librarians embrace this mission, libraries will be as unique as the members who frequent them.

I have a quite simple and firm conviction regarding where this mission begins--with people.  While the internet is rife with bloggers who call on librarians to employ new technologies and digital databases to remain relevant, I think they miss an important point. We only remain relevant when we understand what makes us relevant to our community at this moment in time. Thoughtfully employing new technologies is important, but not half as important as finding out what the individuals who come to our libraries want and need. When we've tuned in to our members, then we can concern ourselves with what technologies and media will best create an environment in which they have the tools they need to create knowledge.

Our solid foundation is our understanding of our community. Our bright goal is to create a safe place for our communities' individuals to share information and ideas to create understanding, reasoning and philosophy. And, because libraries have been evolving since their inception, our mission is ongoing. It is a mission I gladly accept.