Today, I finally maxxed out my 200 free books in LibraryThing and paid the unassuming $25 for a lifetime membership.  If you click on the LibraryThing category in the right column of this blog, you’ll know that I’ve admired LibraryThing for a long time. 

My familiarity with LibraryThing began when I wrote about it for SLMAM at Deb Levitov’s request a few years ago- available via EBSCO or ProQuest databases; Worldcat entry here. 

But it wasn’t until I told our children’s lit class last fall that I would hold myself to reading 50 books over the term just as we expected them to that I became a consistent LibraryThing user. 

I am surprised at how it’s been helpful:

• When I can’t remember the name of something I’ve read recently, so I can recommend it to someone else, I look it up.  Being able to tag with my own language helps.
• By giving me aplace to document what I’ve been reading, I get a reality check on how much I’ve been reading (it’s often more than I think) or what I’ve been reading (for example, how much YA to keep up with things for the children’s lit class vs. how much elementary material for my school library or where my own reading biases are).
• Having each entry date-stamped helps me set mini-goals for reading. My summer goal is 60 items.  (Lucky for me, I work in an elementary school, so keeping up with picture books and short non-fiction makes this possible.)
• I’ve used it to get man-on-the-street reviews to supplement the review publications for books that I’m unsure about buying for my elementary readers.

There are other features I don’t use (I don’t apply for advance reading copies via LibraryThing, for example.  I just don’t think it’s fair when I don’t even make it through the ARCs I get at ALA twice a year.)  Paying $25 was a small price to pay when I reflected on how much it had impacted my practice as a university adjunct and as a practitioner.Â

I’ve been using LibraryThing on and off since Deb asked me to write an article about LibraryThing’s usefulness in school libraries for SLMAM in January 2008.  (Click on the LibraryThing categories in the sidebar for additional musings by my colleague Roberta Sibley and me on this topic.)  I got in a better habit of posting my latest reads when we incorporated it into the children’s literature class we were teaching.

Today, I got a surprise comment on my LT profile:

Just from looking at your library I want to replicate you and bring you to my elementary school as our media specialist. We have one of those dragon ladies who likes the media best with no kids in it - it has the atmosphere of a cemetary and my students are terrified to go browse for books. sigh…….

Now, of course I like being flattered, even though my LibraryThing account is a tiny representation of who I am as a librarian.  (This fellow LT member has never seen the ever-accumulating pile of stuff-I-was-just-sure-I’d-take-care-of-that-day near my office door that has been there since December vacation, my lackadaisical overdue notice schedule, or the cockeyed ceiling tile in the Storytime area, a souvenir from the time I let kids use the space to film a football demonstration video.  Loose shoe + football demo = conversation piece.)

But then I got a wave of sadness.  This isn’t the first time that I’ve gotten a compliment and had the conversation instantly segue into, “I like you, and especially because I don’t like our librarian.” 

Does this happen to you? That when someone finds out that you’re a school librarian, they instantly tell you how crummy their/their child’s school librarian is?  It’s awfully sad.  (In past years, when I answered, “English teacher” when someone asked my profession, people started confessing their distaste for/lack of skill with grammar, but they didn’t point the finger at someone else.)

AASL Advocacy calls this situation “The Elephant in the Room” and points out that we have to be realistic that when we are publicizing libraries and librarians and recognize that we may have folks remaining in our profession who aren’t doing that vision a service. 

On one hand, being a school library media specialist is one of the most entrepreneurial jobs in K-12 education.  Those in the profession who want to create a dynamic space/program generally have some flexibility to make that happen.  What other teacher has access to and freedom to spend as much money as we do?  But what do we do about those who are not interested/able to do so?  Unlike real entrepreneurship, there’s little incentive — beyond the pension/retirement benefits at the end of the 30-year road — for those folks to change.  Their incentive may be simply to make it until that pension kicks in.

I’m watching HGTV as I write this.  I just heard Angelo Surmelis of Rate My Space describe the kitchen as “the heart of the home.”  Hmmm … think he makes makeover house calls to the dragon ladies in “the heart of the school”?

If not, what strategies do we have to pull along those who want to stay put?

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Additional resources on the Elephant in the Room from AASL Advocacy:

• AASL Blog post, “The Disposable Librarian” an excellent articulation of this issue.
• Blog post: “Houston, We Have a Problem”

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Image: Two dragons … (the gate to the end) by Giampaolo Macorig, used with a Creative Commons license

Has anyone chatted in LibraryThing for book discussions? Some colleagues and I are trying to use a LibraryThing group to discuss a novel this summer.  We’re just exploring the ropes and would love to know how others are using LibraryThing groups.