Schellenger 1 Shelby Schellenger Professor David Hanson LI 863 Public Librarianship 3/11/2013 (Edited 4/7/2013)

Paper One: Three Reasons for Public Librarianship

1. Executive Summary: This document seeks to establish three reasons for the public library: Self-education, Entertainment, and Guidance. Each of these concepts is defined and the reason for its selection is discussed along with any supporting references. Self-education serves the needs of individuals which collectively make up the public. Entertainment serves the wants of individuals which collectively make up the public. Guidance is the intermediation performed by librarians to assist patrons toward self-actualization through self-education and entertainment. 2. Introduction: Three reasons that public libraries exist are self-education, entertainment, and guidance. Each of these reasons seems overly broad, but each shall be precisely defined in their usage. It is important to remember that these may not be the only reasons for public librarianship, but they are key to many of the concerns of collections, programs, and other services offered. As they are not the only reasons, it is also important to recognize that these three reasons have a certain degree of overlap conceptually. Guidance may result in either self-education or entertainment. Self-education may be entertaining or require guidance or result in guidance for others. Entertainment may result in education, or again require guidance or result in guidance for others. 3. Guidance:

Schellenger 2
Being privileged to work hard for long hours at something you think is worth doing is the best kind of play. (Heinlein)

Guidance is the main reason for which public libraries exist. This is where the conscientious provision of services comes in. Guidance, as a reason for public libraries, is the careful provision of assistance as a service. It can take place prior to encountering the patron through the selection of materials judged to be especially worthy for entertainment or self-education. This selection of materials is one of the key tenets of librarianship and entire courses are taught on this basis. Guidance also occurs where the librarian meets the patron. At this stage, the librarian assists the patron through guidance in reading materials or other media (reading advisory), and guidance in self-education (reference). Guidance is possibly the most important of the three reasons, since it is the human connection between patrons and the materials which the library holds. It is also likely the most objectionable. It can be argued that any sort of guidance is a further restriction of patrons' wants and needs. It can also be argued that guidance forces a perspective on others. One way for librarians to serve the purpose of guidance carefully and consistently is through the crafting and use of collection development policies which reflect the needs of that library's public. (Evans and Saponaro) Guidance can be an opportunity for the library to advocate for itself and for growth toward self-actualization in patrons. 4. Self-education:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. (Heinlein 248)

A public library exists as an institution to promote self-education. Self-education is defined in this instance as effort put forth by an individual to result in knowledge about a thing or process without formal instruction or training. Self-education is an important reason for public librarianship, as it

Schellenger 3 represents the equal opportunity for self-improvement. The public pays for the library to collect materials or make materials available, irregardless of format, so that individuals may learn. This nondirected learning gives individuals the opportunity to decide what to study and for their own purposes without undue restriction from the library. An excellent discussion and definition of information need is presented by Case in chapter four of Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior. This notion of self-education has many ramifications. It suggests the valuing of privacy, it suggests the importance of freedom of information, and it suggests the provision of content, with any associated means of accessing that content. It can be seen as a reason for providing internet access, a reason for purchasing use of expensive online databases, and any particular product or service that makes it easier for patrons to find and make use of information on their own. The limitations which are placed on the public library in the pursuit of supporting self-education are of two types: legal and financial. Legal restrictions exist as to what materials may be accessed or provided and sometimes contracts entered into for the purposes of increased self-education have provisions which limit to whom the information can be provided. Similarly financial restrictions limit the materials and services which can be provided to support self-education to those which the local library decides to provide. An ideal public library would be able to provide access to all existing content in any way that content could be accessed. This is not an ideal world, so keeping the principle of self-education as a central reason for the public library helps focus how the library interacts with the public. 5. Entertainment:
To be matter of fact about the world is to blunder into fantasyand dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful. (Heinlein 348)

The provision of entertainment by the public library is the opposite side of serving the purpose

Schellenger 4 of self-education. Entertainment is defined by Dictionary.com as hospitable provision for the needs and wants of guests. This definition easily stretches to cover self-education as well, but for our purposes will be more narrowly regarded as providing for the wants of guests. The public library exists as a public space, virtual or physical, one in which all patrons are guests. For this reason, the library provides popular media, video games, and in some cases a coffee shop. The public, collectively, can be viewed as both proprietor and guest. Their financial support determines what a library can provide, and as guest, the public's wants guide what materials are provided. Entertainment is limited the same way as self-education, by legal restriction or financial restriction. Ultimately we serve the public, and apparently we do it quite well. Library staff reports entertainment to be one of the things which public libraries excel at providing to their patrons. (Zickuhr, Lee, & Purcell) Hopefully we do so conscientiously. 6. Conclusion: These three reasons for public libraries do not rely on any specific technologies or on any specific political or religious grounding. Instead these three reasons for public libraries may be expressed in nearly any culture or society (except for those which expressly forbid them), and even in societies which disagree with them, these reasons might still be adapted to serve. Public libraries exist to allow individual members of the public to engage in self-education in order to give themselves opportunities through learning which might not have otherwise been available due to social status or financial status. This is the promise of self-education. Public libraries exist to allow individual members of the public to find entertainment, the materials which they might not have easy access to which allows them to imagine and relax. This is the promise of entertainment. Public libraries exist to provide guidance. Librarians do their best to assist patrons in entertainment and self-education without forcing a perspective on them through omission or authority.

Schellenger 5 Progress toward self-actualization is the promise of guidance. These reasons are timeless, they can be adapted to a given library's situation, and they are reasons for which public librarians can be proud.

Schellenger 6 7. References: Case, D. O. "Looking for information: a survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behavior." Library and information science (2007). Dictionary.com. Definitions: Entertainment Defn. 2. Accessed 2013. Online. Evans, G. Edward, and Margaret Z. Saponaro. Collection Management Basics. Libraries Unlimited, 2012. Heinlein, Robert A. Time Enough For Love. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973. Print. Zickuhr, Kathryn, Lee Rainie, and Kristen Purcell. "Library services in the digital age." Pew Internet & American Life Project (2013).