by Sandra Besselsen  |  June 23, 2010

I’ve watched it happen so many times: a person walks amongst thousands of books, running his or her hands across the spine until they touch the perfect title. What is it about that particular book? Is it the strictly assigned code on the bottom of the spine? The color of the spine? The cover of the book? Maybe the title makes such a statement that the person instantly knows that the book contains exactly what he or she is after. Whatever the reason, it happens all the time. While authors get to do the creating, as a librarian, I have the pleasure of seeing people connect with the creation.

The satisfaction of helping somebody find that perfect title is what gets me to work in the morning. I didn’t grow up knowing I was going to be a librarian. I wasn’t an avid library user or even a huge reader until after college. I first found the joy in books when I was called upon by a patron to chase after a text in order to fulfill a special need. Whether it’s recommending a story collection or pointing to a statistic in reference, connecting readers with the information they need is what it’s all about for me.

Here’s something you may not know about librarians: we pride ourselves on being able to make wise decisions when it comes to advising people on what to read. We choose the books on the shelves based on our consultations with patrons. In this role, I feel responsible.

But frankly, readers need to take on some of this responsibility themselves. I often wonder why a person comes to the check-out desk with a particular book in hand. If it was a recommendation, they’re letting somebody else dictate their information on a topic. If it was the cover, they’re letting a graphic designer choose their information destiny. It’s too bad we can’t have an information devil and angel sitting on our shoulders prodding us with questions like, what does the author want you to think and feel? or how might this information influence your thinking?

Words can make us feel part of a faraway culture or become an enthusiastic baseball fan for as long as it takes to read 656 pages. Whether we’re reading a good beach book or reading for scholarly purposes, the words that we take into our lives become a part of us. I once heard a story from Nancy Pearl, a specialist in reader’s advisory. She was relaying a story to someone about a high school memory and that someone replied: isn’t that from such and such a book? It certainly was. Nancy Pearl had taken on that memory as her own. What we read becomes a part of who we are; each book, article, and character becomes a small thread in our tapestry of thought. We are very conscientious when it comes to who we bring into our circle of friends, where we choose to work, or what we ourselves put on paper for others to read, but when it comes to what we take into our lives from print (or digital means), we can be careless or misuse the new-found bits of information.

Books give us a connection to a variety of things, but they can also give us a misleading sense of power. I have to laugh when somebody carries on like an expert and it turns out that he or she has read a short snippet or a single book on a region, time period, significant figure or one sole novel by an author who has written five. Never mind the twelve other perspectives or seven other novels written by the same author sitting on the shelf next to the chosen book. Fifteen-year-olds are notorious for this, but I think we can all name an adult who does this as well.

The remedy? Keep reading and writing. If anything, becoming a responsible reader involves reading more variety and seeking out different perspectives and reading experiences. Next time you pick up a memoir, historical novel, or newspaper, think about what it is that the text is trying to make you do, feel, or think. Who are you letting into your head? Is it fiction or truth? How will you apply your new knowledge to decisions or opinions? What do you still need to investigate? All knowledge comes from somewhere; where is your knowledge coming from or not coming from?

Sandra Besselsen is currently the director of libraries at the Interlochen Center for the Arts (ICA). She’s been a librarian for nearly eight years in a variety of library settings and loves her work.