Article Note: On Knowledge Management and How It Applies to Libraries

Citation for the article:

Sarrafzadeh, Maryam, et.al., "Knowledge Management and Its Potential Applicability for Libraries." Library Management 31.3 (2010): 198-212.

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The article basically looks at the concept of knowledge management (KM) and considers how it applies to libraries. It begins by reviewing the literature and outlining the debate within librarianship as to whether KM is just something that librarians do anyways or if it is something different that librarians should be doing. KM comes into play because of the trend to apply business solutions to library and information science environments. KM is in fact a business concept, and it has found its way into librarianship. I am not interested in looking at how business practices have been applied in libraries; that is material for another time, and the author mentions examples briefly. The main interest here is the KM concept.

The authors argue that in order to survive in a competitive world, organizations need to be able to transform information into knowledge so they can use that knowledge to stay competitive, make decisions, and make new products and services. They write that "the principal asset for organizations in both the private and the public sectors is knowledge" (199). This is why firms and organizations are investing in knowledge management. Though it started in the business world, by now, it has been applied in the nonprofit world, which includes libraries. And yet, in spite of the fact that KM has attracted the attention of libraries and library management, at the end of the day, "there appears to be no clear indication about how KM relates to libraries" (200). It seems the profession is still just trying to figure out what to do with it.

Historically, librarians have always dealt with the organization of knowledge. This is what libraries do. Librarians work as facilitating intermediaries between those who have knowledge and those who need it. It's what reference work is about as well as other library services. But the authors argue that librarians need to expand their vision of KM. They cite Davenport and Prusak, who write that librarians "must realize that people, not printed or electronic resources are the most valuable information asset in any organization" (qtd. in 200). This is why I say that I will always have work. You can have the best databases in the world, but if you do not know how to use them and how to leverage them to your best advantage, the database is just an expensive subscription toy. Librarians are also assets as people in terms of the knowledge they have and in terms of the connections they make with other people. Those are resources that should be leveraged as well. In essence, librarians are knowledge managers. The authors cite Middleton, who makes this distinction: "management may be aware that information resources of a library are their collection and materials, however, the knowledge resources of a library are its staff" (qtd. in 201).

The authors go on to define knowledge sharing in the context of the article. "Knowledge sharing is a means to achieve business goals through transferring knowledge between employees, customers and other stakeholders" (201). This kind of culture needs to be developed for libraries to formulate a KM strategy according to the authors, and it is something that will take time. Librarians are already familiar with this concept. In fact, "KM authors sometimes see librarians as key brokers of knowledge sharing" (202). The problem often is that libraries lack the resources or infrastructure to make KM practical and possible. The librarians may have positive perceptions about it, but it seems their organizations often fail to put into place KM initiatives. Even things as simple as librarians consulting their colleagues as sources of knowledge rarely occurs because, even though librarians do show an interest in consulting, they often do not see other academics as a knowledge acquisition source. I wonder which librarians were surveyed in the work the authors cite. I have always know that sometimes it is just better to consult a local source for an answer. Yet campus infrastructure, the culture, so on, rarely encourage for more of this to happen. On the positive though, librarians are developing their own tools and resources to engage in KM such as blogs and wikis. Internal reference blogs can be an example of this.

The authors did conduct their own survey to investigate perceptions of the LIS people as well as benefits and advantages of KM in libraries. Let us look at some of the findings.

• "Knowledge management has been seen as a survival factor for libraries" (203). Given the challenges libraries face, this may well be another way in which librarians add value.
  
• "Furthermore, KM gives librarians an opportunity to collaborate with other units in their organizations and hence, to become more integrated into corporate operations and enhance the overall visibility within the organization" (204). I think you can replace the word "corporate" for "academic" in that statement, and it would still be a valid statement, especially at a time when more academic administrators see the library as just a budget item that can or should be cut.
  

Some examples of KM activity. I am pulling these from some activities mentioned in the study:

• Set up of a database of topics proposed for publication and for those published in the organization. This can serve not only as storage but as a planning tool.
  
• An internal archive. Intranets.
  
• Creating a knowledge base, which can then push information internally or two a public website depending on need. I would guess this could translate, at the public website level, into tools like FAQs.

More findings:

• "In KM, people (their skills and expertise) are the most important asset of an organization. Organizations need to capture the tacit intuitions and know-how that knowledge workers acquire through years of experience and practice, so that their knowledge can be leveraged at the organizational level. This will avoid risking a loss of knowledge when people leave organizations. In other words, in KM, people are not only knowledge users but also knowledge resources and knowledge generators" (208). This also has to do with things like succession planning, which is something not many libraries seem to worry about, and yet they should. Lose a couple of good librarians or staff members, and chaos will ensue. I wonder if in many cases this has to do with the fact that librarians, at least at the early stages of their careers, may jump around every two or three years in search of better opportunities. You take a job knowing you will jump when the better one comes along. For libraries, this means a significant cost in terms of training and continuity, and if it is a case where a particular library has a poor environment that leads to a lot of turnover, the problem is worse. You have to treat your people as assets, and I mean more than saying lip service. They have knowledge, and it must be used and managed.
  

For those interested in reading further, the article does have a pretty extensive bibliography. While the article seems a bit more focused on corporate libraries, I think it does have a thing or two to say for those of us in academic libraries as well.

Booknote: This Book is Overdue!; It is also overhyped

Below is my review of the book, which I wrote for my GoodReads page, that a few librarians out there seemed to like. I was not too impressed, but at least, if anyone asks, I can say I read it.



This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Given that this book has been hyped by a good number of librarians in Librarian Blogsville, I resisted picking it up. I am not much into reading stuff that seems to be over-hyped. In the end, I picked it up because I saw it in the new books shelf of my local public library, so I figured it would be a low risk reading. The book does not even live up to the hype.

When I started reading, I noticed right away that it has a fanboy tone to it, and I am not using the term in a good way. The book seems to be written more for non-librarians and people outside the profession. Those of us in the profession already know most of what is in the book. I wanted to think that it was a good thing that someone would write something positive about librarians in this age when governments and communities want to cut library funding left and right while people think everything is online (it is not, contrary to a lot of wishful thinking, nor will it all be online anytime soon). If nothing else, the book is a pretty quick read. If you are a librarian, as I said, you probably know a good amount of the material, so you can likely skim parts of the book without feeling you missed anything. For instance, if you are a librarian blogger, or you at least follow library blogs, you can safely skip the chapter on librarian bloggers. There is nothing new here that you have not seen before.

The best parts of the book, at least the ones that resonated with me, were the chapter on Radical Reference, the one on the Connecticut Four, and the profile on the New York Public Library. The Radical Reference folks are a good example of what librarians do best in terms of helping a community right at the street level. The Connecticut Four chapter is a must read if you do not know who they are or what they did to fight for your right of privacy. They fought a government more than willing to set aside the Constitution and your rights for the sake of security. What was that thing Benjamin Franklin said about those who are willing to give up their freedom for security? These guys were not willing to give up their freedom, and they fought and won. Be sure to thank a librarian for they are one of the few folks these days willing to stand up for your rights. Finally, the NYPL piece shows a real tragedy, in spite of the good work this institution does, in terms of forsaking specialized, often unique knowledge and resources, for the short term chimera of more foot traffic. Folks may try to spin it, but that is what it boils down to.

In the end, the book has a good moment or two, but overall it just tries too hard to promote the hipster librarian image a little too hard. Sure, we are trying to get away from the shushing librarian with a bun image, but this book goes to the other extreme. I feel the book could have been more, but it failed and took an easy route. I think some people should read it, to get a sense of some of the good things librarians do these days, but be careful not to fall for the excessive hype and attempt to be too cool. If you have to keep proclaiming how cool you are, you are not.

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Revisiting whether I should or not blog something

C.W.'s recent post at Ruminations for her seventh day in her 30 day blogging challenge made me think a bit. It made me think because some of the questions she is answering are questions that I have pondered myself at one point or another. For some reason, I have been pondering some of those questions again. I figure then this could be a good time to revisit the topic of things I blog and do not blog about.

For reference, let me start by boiling down some of the key questions from her post and the post C.W. is replying to, which you can find at C.W.'s post. I am basically rephrasing the questions as I understand them from the readings so I can then address them.

• Do you feel constraints in terms of speaking/blogging about the profession? This is applicable to those who blog but do not do so professionally.
  
• If you blog professionally, do you feel it has threatened your career? Then again, I think this is applicable even if you have a personal blog.
  
• Is it concern even when you are blogging about general LIS issues?
  
• Would you be uncomfortable or feel restraints if you knew the boss or other powers that be read your blog?
  

The above are the basics. C.W. raises other questions as she writes, but I may or not get to those as I take a look. Let me start with the first question on that list.

Do I feel restraints in terms of talking about the profession?

I do feel some need to be restrained. It is not so much that I worry about others in Librarian Blogsville (though I have had at least one visitor who got a little defensive in making a comment. Let's just say I don't always have a good opinion of the powers that be, and said commenter was a member of the powers that be club, and leave it at that. After a while, it's best to just let things go). It is more that I worry about what my current employers may say or think. Even though I keep this blog, as well as my personal one, very separate from the workplace, one never knows when some post might trigger a superior's reaction. As for Librarian Blogsville, I am very much below the big radar as my three readers know. In terms of others in LIS, the only real restraint is trying not to beat dead horses. If a topic has pretty much made the rounds, I avoid blogging about it even when I may have an opinion. For one, the big boys and girls already took care of it. For two, I don't always have the time to reflect and come up with a good response in a timely fashion; after all, some of us do have to work for a living. So at that point, I just don't feel like making the effort. It is not that I lack ideas or opinions. It just seems that by the point X topic has made the rounds, it is already old news.

If you blog professionally, do you feel it has threatened your career?

Locally, I don't think my professional blog would represent a threat to my career. Though I have some strong opinions, I don't think I have blogged anything that would displease the university president (the mantra here is that I "serve at the pleasure of the president") or any of my superiors. If I have to be concerned, it might be if I went back out on the job market. It is not because I think I have blogged anything terribly controversial in the professional blog, but what I may consider tame someone else may consider incendiary. I have no control over what someone chooses to be offended about, so I try not to let it bother me much. I also try not to be intentionally incendiary just in case. A few years ago, Rochelle Mazar wrote the following:

"Apparently, when it comes to getting a job, it would be best if candidates appear meek, mild, and without opinions, ready to be inoffensive to everyone she meets. Again, I realize full well that there are inappropriate rants that get published on blogs, and I'm the first to cringe at them and work on writing up the blogging policy, but doesn't it seems odd to disqualify a candidate because s/he is prepared to express opinions in any forum? It would be nice if the concept of academic freedom actually meant that academics generally respected and supported the idea of free thought and expression for everyone, but apparently this doesn't work everywhere."

I quoted that passage in a post of my own considering the hazards of blogging and applying to library jobs back in 2005. I dislike the idea of being forced to appear meek, mild and without opinions. The one thing that a lot of the celebrities in Librarian Blogsville fail to realize is that many of them are a little more shielded than other folks. Whether it be due to tenure, which grants certain privileges of academic freedom, or to their fame, a lot of those folks can afford to say what they want in relative safety. Let's be honest: if your library is the library that employs one of the big celebrity librarians, you are not going to fire them over a blog post because they may express a strong opinion that may or not be popular or controversial (this of course does not apply if said blogger does something that is libelous, illegal, so on. Do I really need to make that distinction? I am sure my three readers get it). Hell, Library Journal hired the Annoyed Librarian, who is often both controversial and incendiary at times (then again, she, assuming it is a she, is a pseudonymous blogger). In the end, we are talking reputations here for the employer, and that employer does get the bragging rights of being the place where so and so works. Now as for the point of academic freedom that Rochelle brings up in her writing, it's interesting how that works. You get the academic freedom when you are employed. When you are in the market, all bets are off, and you better watch what you say or blog about. It's the reality of the profession, and by now I accept it. I am not saying it is right; I am just saying it is what it is. I know I may take a risk or two, and I know it is part of being a librarian blogger. Again, it is what it is. I don't think it threatens my career. I think it makes me a stronger and better librarian that I am able to blog and write about my profession, express my thoughts and ideas, and overall reflect on what I do to see what I can learn.

As for my personal blog, that is a different ballgame, and I may have to address that at a later time so as to prevent this post from getting too long. I do have a thought or two on that since I don't really buy into the idea that a librarian has to remain strictly neutral, or at least maintain that illusion. Sure, we do it at the reference desk for it is what is expected of us being professionals. But outside of the library, the way I see it, what I do is my business. As I said, that is another story of another time.

Is it a concern even when you are blogging about general LIS issues?

Honestly, I am rarely concerned when I blog about general LIS issues. If it is some big issue that everyone talks about, I probably won't blog it in the first place (see above). If it is a small issue, since I am flying below the radar, I don't worry much either (again, see my reply above). There are topics I find interesting, that I have opinions and thoughts on, and that I can write about. I just choose what to write about in the blog versus what I choose to write in my private journal. In the words of the wise Walt Crawford,

"There's a lot to be said for responses not posted, and blog essays never blogged. Writing it down is great as a safety valve. Submitting it for anyone else to see is frequently pointless (and sometimes dangerous). "

You can find where I quoted him originally here. If you follow the link, you can dig up the context. Sometimes I just need to write it down, to express myself, to explore my thoughts. It does not follow that I have to share them with the rest of the world. It does not mean I am any less thoughtful, reflective, informed, or passionate.

Would you be uncomfortable or feel restraints if you knew the boss or other powers that be read your blog?

I already know my boss reads the blog. She told me so. I don't know if she has read it recently, but I do know it is on her feed reader. It has not bothered me, and I have not changed the way I blog because of my boss. I came in to my current position as a blogger. Since I do not write on any specifics of the workplace, other than the occasional chronicle of an outreach event for documentation, I do not worry or feel uncomfortable over the boss reading it. As for the other powers up the food chain, I do have some concerns. But as a good friend of mine once said, I try not to poke the bear if it is not necessary.

What I have learned overall is that I need to exercise some common sense as a blogger. There are things I can do, and there are things I cannot do. The things I cannot do are often labeled as such because I have an interest in remaining employed. One needs to be discreet in this line of work. I do take some more risks in my personal blog, but even there, I still exercise some degree of caution. The main question is where do you draw the line? This will vary for every blogger. Where do you take a stand, and where do you let the line slide back a bit in the interest of self-preservation? I have found that as a librarian blogger, you learn to choose your battles. Librarian Blogsville can be exciting, interesting, educational, but it can also be an unforgiving and hostile place; it depends on what the mood of the community may be at the time. Write something on a blog that gets interpreted the wrong way, or taken in a less charitable light, and the shells will fly. Skewer the wrong sacred cow, and you may find yourself labeled as "someone who does not get it." Again, it is what it is. I have been blogging as a librarian long enough by now to now what I can write about, what is not worth my time, and the minefields that I definitely should avoid.

At this point, this reflection is pretty much like a status report. It is kind of where I stand in terms of my blogging. It does not address everything; I could still consider my personal blogging. For now, this is just a snapshot, a work in progress. There is still much to explore and consider.

For reference purposes, here are a couple other past posts where I have explored some of the ideas I am trying to express here. If nothing else, from looking back, I can see that this is not a new issue or concern for me. Pretty much I have been thinking about this in one way or another almost since I started blogging. And from what I can gather, I will likely continue to consider it, explore my boundaries, evaluate, and keep blogging within my comfort zones:

• "On blogging about my library experience."
• "Can I or should I blog that?"

Article note: On the need for librarian continuing education

Citation for the article:

Massis, Bruce E., "Continuing Professional Education: Ensuring Librarian Engagement." New Library World 111.5/6 (2010): 247-249.

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This is basically a short opinion piece that advocates for the importance of continuing education and professional development for librarians. I don't think anyone can argue against that, even though training programs and options are often the first thing to get the ax when budgets get tight. Massis does mention that training is one of the first things to go in depressed economic conditions. To counter, Massis argues that training and continuing education have inherent benefits such as "strong engagement on the job and supporting the overall mission of the organization" (247).

Massis goes on to mention that there are options for affordable training; these options often take the form of online offerings. Things like "regular web references, postings and readings of blogs, wikis and other social networking tools can increase the level of knowledge, understanding and engagement in the profession on a daily basis" (248). Such tools tend to be the darlings of the 2.0 librarians, and I agree with the statement to an extent. I do quite a bit of my upkeep via blogs and tools that provide a feed, but those only go so far. My problem with cheap (or free) online options is that, like everything else in life, you get what you pay for. The quality of those cheap options varies greatly. A good number of free webinars, for instance, do not provide anything new or substantial if you already keep up and are well read in the profession. After a while, one needs more professional sustenance than blogs or links you follow on something like Twitter. My point is that too cheap training, something that many libraries are relying on now in the interest of being budget conscious, is not going to be beneficial either. For example, I have kept notes on some of those webinars that are not exactly groundbreaking, such as this one.

Massis also suggests that full time staff members (from the title of the article, this term usage would suggest librarians, but I am guessing Massis does mean to include paraprofessionals) need to meet with their supervisors and plan their professional development. This is what annual evaluations are supposed to do, at leas the part where you set some kind of goals for the year. The problem often is budget; if there is little to no training budget, and key training is part of your plans, well, to put it simply, you are in quite a pickle. In the end, it becomes a matter of making do with what you do have. Massis calls for a "blended learning" model where the staff should be able to choose from various learning options that can suit the person's needs and learning styles. This sounds very nice in theory, but again, it can be limited by budgetary constraints. I mean, you can discuss all you want with your superiors about learning options you need to have as part of your plan, but if that involves travel to some crucial conference, and there is no travel budget, it isn't going to happen. And while you can at some times substitute with some free options, that is not always desirable. I am not sure what the answer is. When you have cut as deep as you can go, and the administration still asks you to cut more, well, let's just not dwell on that.

Finally Massis reminds us that it is important for those who do undertake training opportunities to share what they learn with others. He then ends the article urging that librarians need to keep up and stay ahead of the curve. I know I will try to do so with what I have.

Just summer reading? I read all year long

Now I am not saying I read all year long just to brag. The reason I say it is because summer is once again upon us. True, summer does not "technically" start until June 21st, but people pretty much get rolling on Memorial Day. Those of us in the library world, along with those in the book retail world, start seeing and putting out the ever popular summer book reading lists (if you need ideas, Rebecca's Pocket is compiling all sorts of booklists for 2010. You should be able to find something there). Summer becomes the time to take it easy, and read some light, fluffy stuff. Unlike reading you may do during other times of the year, the idea for summer reading is best embodied by the beach book, which is basically something light, fluffy, and escapist.

I never got the full appeal or impact of summer reading because I read throughout the year. I don't really make it point to just find specific books to read over the summer. To be honest, I have such big reading lists, all I have to do is reach for the next item on one of the lists. And then, there are other sources where I get reading ideas. In addition, summer has become in recent years just an excuse for schools that were too lazy (or too fixated on testing) to actually cover the readings (and material. My daughter has a pretty hefty math summer assignment plus a reading list) during the school year to dump reading requirements on the students. Sorry, but I come from the old school that says summer is for having fun, not doing homework. That whole idea that "the kids will forget everything" over the summer is hogwash. Besides, we all know the first two weeks or so of school are review anyhow. So, let the kids have some fun, and let them read what they actually want to read.

Anyhow, I wanted to do a couple of things here. First, I wanted to share this post from the Home School Dad where he gives some advice about setting up your summer reading. Dave, the blogger, gives some advice on how to set up your summer reading plan. It's worth a look. Second, there are some suggestions on Dave's list that I could relate to, so I wanted to briefly write about that, if for no other reason than to reflect a bit on my reading habits. That is something I try to do once in a while in the hope, infinitesimal as it may be, that I can chart my reading patterns over time. Just a way to learn a bit more about myself, if my reading tastes have changed, so on.

So, here goes. I am going to highlight some of Dave's suggestions, and then add my reflections and remarks:

Dave writes: "Read a book that you already own but have not yet read."

• Even though I believe in borrowing as much as possible, I still buy a significant amount of books. This is usually because I tend to buy stuff that I want to keep and reread (or think I may want to reread at the time). I also buy books that are rare, and this means stuff I know I would not be able to get in any library in Tyler, TX (including mine). The result is that I have a good number of books waiting to be read. I do try to get through them, but then, since I am also borrowing, often via Interlibrary Loan (thank you ILL Librarian), this is what happens. I start on one book or two that I own. The ILL's arrive, and in spite of my attempts to space out the requests, sometimes they arrive at the same time. Since ILL's do have to be returned, and often they cannot be renewed, I have to start reading them when they arrive. This means that any book of mine I was reading goes into the waiting list so to speak until I am done with what I borrowed and need to return. I then go back to my book or books that I was reading. It also reflects why, if you look at my GoodReads page, there are times I list 5 or 6 books as current reads. I usually read three as a general rule at a time (a fiction, a nonfiction, and a graphic novel or manga). Anything more than that means ILL had a delivery. This pattern is pretty common for me.
  

Dave writes: "Choose at least one book based on something you just read from your list."

• This is something I want to do more. Very often I read something really cool, often nonfiction, and I want to learn more. For example, I recently finished the book Liquid Jade, which is a history of tea. By the way, if you like microhistories, this is a pretty neat book to read. In the book, it talks about Zheng He, the Chinese eunuch admiral and the time when China did rule the seas. This sounded like an interesting topic to me, so I added When China Ruled the Seas to my reading list. Books like that are things I find by serendipity, which sometimes is the coolest way to find something to read. By the way, speaking of eunuchs and similar, I have had Moreschi: The Last Castrato on my reading list for a while as well. I don't think there is a pattern there in those reading choices, but these are interesting things. Moreschi was the last of the castrati, children who were castrated before they reached puberty in order to keep their singing voices. Moreschi was the only one of his tradition to be recorded. No, Moreschi was not mentioned in Liquid Jade. I am recalling it now since I was mentioning Zheng He. Sometimes my reader's mind works that way; I find connections or lines that go in what may seem like wild tangents.
  

Dave also suggests reading biographies of personal heroes. I have to admit that I am not very keen on reading biographies. This has changed over time. When I was younger, I loved biographies of people like Sir Frances Drake. While I do find historical figures fascinating, I often prefer to read about them within larger histories than reading a biography. I may have to take a chance on this since I have seen some good reviews of biographies recently.

I don't agree much with the suggestion of choosing a book you should (or ought to) read. Dave argues that you should challenge yourself as a reader, so he picks something he should have read in high school. I pretty much got done with compulsory reading when I left graduate school. I still have an idea of things I should read, usually related to my work as a librarian or because I want to learn more about a topic. Overall though, I don't care for the notion that I should read X or Y just because some stuffy list or professor says so. Besides, I am fairly well read already, so I can leave the "books you should read" to those who actually need to be reading them desperately.

Dave writes: "Read the book if you have seen the movie."

• I say to this absolutely yes. The movie will never be as good as the book no matter how hard they try. More often than not, movie makers butcher a book. Even the Lord of the Rings films, which are excellent and capture the film's feel and ambiance fairly well, cannot substitute for the books. I went ahead and reread the trilogy before the films came out. I had not read them since I was a teen, so this was an interesting experience going back and seeing if I would enjoy them as much now as I did then. I liked them a bit better as a teen, but they are still good. I will add that if you watch a movie based on a comic book or graphic novel, you have to read the original work. You practically owe it to yourself. While the film for Watchmen catches the graphic novel pretty closely, if you have not read the book, you will not know about the different ending, or even about the comic inside the comic. On the other hand, the film for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is nothing like the book, other than catching a bit of the steampunk. Don't get me wrong: I find the movie very entertaining, but if you think LoXG is just the film with Sean Connery, you are missing a lot. So yes, read the book if there is a film for it.

Dave also writes: "Read something based on someone else's recommendation."

• I will say that for me it depends on who is doing the recommendation. Since I already have many ideas of what I want to read, I usually take recommendations from sources I trust. For example, if Jon Stewart, of The Daily Show, interviewed and author, and it sounds interesting, odds are good I will try to pick up his or her book at some point, even if it is not on a topic I am usually interested. Why? Because I know Stewart and his gang are thoughtful in their selections, they are smart in interviewing the authors, and they make pretty good book talkers to be honest. I read Paulo Coehlo because my mother suggested it. I get suggestions from others from all over, but I trust a few. Having said that, I am fairly open to new books, and if someone suggests something, within reason, I will at least look at it; it's no guarantee I will go on to read it, but I will look it over. I do try to keep the options open since part of my work after all involves recommending books to read to other people.
  

At times, I think that I reflect on my reading habits, and I know there is at least one librarian out there who may read this and cringe. "You mean you don't read classics" or "you don't read (insert whatever may be considered proper, correct, etc. here)." Those librarians don't worry me much. I am more worried about the librarians who actually admit, some with a degree of pride, that they do not read at all. Yes, I have met those creatures who use the excuse of being around books all day to not read at all. They mean they do not read for recreation or outside the narrow materials they may read related to their work. In my book, a good librarian should be an avid reader, and he or she should read as broadly as possible. Reading widely should be part of the job and trade for us. In the end, I will agree with Dave when he says that you should make your summer reading list as unique as you are. You should make your reading lists as unique as you are. Make them as eclectic or as specific as you wish, and in the end, read. Read because you want to learn new things. Read because you want to escape. Whatever your reason, just read.