Email: woltjerg@ci.billings.mt.us Twitter: @@GavinWoltjer
Gavin J. Woltjer is the Library Director for the Billings (MT) Public Library. When not held hostage in a good book, he enjoys exploring the wilds of Montana with his wife, Rena, and three children. His research interests include: data analytics; library leadership; economic development and libraries; archives and record management; and, librarian as public historian.
But there are also other actions taken by my staff to help the public that I have yet seen taught in library schools. Sometimes staff members act as therapists, or substance abuse counselors. Or social workers. Or confidantes. Or interventionists. Or psychiatrists. Or tax consultants. Or coaches. Or childcare providers.
As a valued part of any library’s arsenal, bookmobiles today help to disseminate information, erase barriers, and equalize opportunity for all patrons—much like in the past, only in different guises today.
Wanting to have certain items labeled in a manner that excludes them from the importance of the overall collection is marginalizing, at best, and, more likely the case, insidious, at worst.
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