NOTE: My own essays for ExLibris are going to be sporadic for a while because I have a very full schedule through June 1, 2006, delivering presentations, coordinating and writing profiles for Library Journal's Movers and Shakers issue, and writing my next book.
I'd like to keep publishing ExLibris regularly, though, which requires your help. I would especially welcome articles from aspiring LIS students and from our profession's newest members. You are the future of librarianship, and I'd like to hear what directions you'd like to take it in. I hope LIS faculty members and established librarians will encourage students and new professionals to participate.
Thank you.
MANLY COMFORT
by Marylaine Block
I've just finished writing the rough draft of the chapter on outreach for my new book, and I couldn't help noticing in my research that librarians do outreach to every kind of underserved group you can imagine -- minorities, immigrants, the incarcerated, the homeless, those with disabilities, etc. But we don't do outreach to an underserved group that constitutes half the population: men.
I've maintained for some time that our profession doesn't do a very good job of serving men, or at least those men who are least like us in their tastes and interests. Since we librarians are mostly female, we have a deep understanding of the interests and needs of women and children. It's easy to build collections on the basis of that kind of core knowledge; we don't have to rely solely on book and movie reviews, because we are mentally checking them against our own understanding of the genre or the subject matter. But we don't bring that same core understanding to the selection of materials on, say, pro wrestling, or customizing hot rods, or war games, or software design.
Female librarians select the kinds of interior design and furnishings that we find appealing, possibly without even considering that our taste might not be equally appealing to men. We don't test the furnishings we're considering on people who are taller than we are, heavier, broader in the shoulders, and more inclined to sprawl, rock and fidget.
So, here's a fantasy I have, about designing a library that says to men who walk through the door, "We get you. You're welcome here."
When they walk in this library, their eyes are going to be drawn to a spacious area, demarcated by rich colors, several enormous, comfortable, leather Lazy Boys, and a fireplace. One free-standing magazine display shows off the latest issues of magazines on sports, cars, computers, adventure, and such. Another displays the current Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes, Money, Entrepreneur, and other business and investment periodicals.
The book display shelving highlights a different topic every week; books and videos on home building projects one week, on fathering the next, on men's health the week after that, and so on. Brightly colored bookmarks, hanging on hooks on the display shelves, will list things like hot new business books, "readalikes" for Tom Clancy, "viewalikes" for the Lord of the Rings movies, upcoming library programs of particular interest to men, etc.
There will also be brochures lying around, describing what they can do from your website: search the databases, reserve material, download audiobooks, or ask a reference question (settle a bar bet). There will be brochures about the bookclubs for men, as well, because this library will HAVE such bookclubs. A science fiction club, perhaps, or a sports book club, or a father-daughter reading club, or a history club; there are a lot of possibilities.
A table off to the side has a couple of computers, on which icons labeled Careers, Sports, Investments, Men's Health, Military, Computer Games, etc. will take men directly to the web pages librarians have built on those topics to steer them to the best internet and database resources.
At least one side of the men's reading area is glass -- windows which both let in lots of natural light, and let people outside observe the inviting area that men are enjoying.
I know some of you are thinking that those Lazy Boys will attract some of your least savory customers, the ones you'd just as soon discourage. But between the windows and the nearby circulation desk or reference desk, anyone in this area is going to be highly visible. Furthermore, the entrance to this area has two game tables. Count on it: people will be sitting there playing chess, and their presence will discourage the folks who are just looking for a warm place to snooze.
Notice that nothing explicitly says this is the MEN'S AREA. Men are, after all, as varied as women are in their tastes and interests. Some men might be put off by this area, just as some women will be attracted to it. The point is that the kind of men we have not served well in the past will find it comfortable and welcoming.
How do the library's female librarians decide what programs to put on for men? How do they choose the best materials in subjects and genres they don't understand well? They ask men to help them. They talk to the local Linux users club, to the owners of the local gaming store or sports memorabilia shop, to motorcycle dealers and auto customizers, to the folks at the VFW hall, to the guys at the sports bar and comedy club. They say to these guys, "What are the best books and magazines and videos in your specialty? Where do you go for news and reviews? What are the current trends, and what are the things that haven't quite broken yet but will in the next year or so?" They ask the guys what kind of programs would interest them, and whether they'd be interested in presenting some themselves.
It's a funny thing about asking people for their help and their ideas: it says we value your opinion, and we want to serve you better. It gives them a sense of ownership, which is always a good starting place for drawing them in.
As I said, that's my fantasy. If anybody's actually done something like this, I'd love to hear from you about how it worked.
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COOL QUOTE:
Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theaters.
Mason Cooley. City Aphorisms, Eleventh Selection, New York (1993).
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Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2005.
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