That's what Terry Pratchett says we librarians should call ourselves rather than "information providers" in his Boston Globe-Hornbook Awards acceptance speech for Nation. It is a wonderful speech - funny and witty and profound in the same way all his writing is. But that phrase, mentioned again today by one of my colleagues at work, particularly tickles the Children's Librarian in me.We have such seriousness about us lately. Much is just the worry of family and friends jobless and struggling; our communities reeling from the nasty tone of so much discourse; concern about where everything is heading - from books, to reading, to libraries, to the economy, to civility, to just the way things are going (can you tell it is early February in WI....seasonal affective light disorder is stalking us all...).
To this life-long comic book reader, Pratchett's words let me re-imagine my work life as one of Super Librarian getting out there and fighting the good fight for advocacy, reading, literacy and libraries. I mean how cool is being a Shining Acolyte of the Sacred Flame of Literacy in a Dark and Encroaching Universe? Onward!
Image: 'Athena' http://www.flickr.com/photos/12426416@N00/103708820
I loved that description when I came across it, too, Marge! Cheers for librarians. And good luck coping with winter in WI. Spring will eventually come. Fortunately, you have plenty of books in the meantime.
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