Be like Emeril: my response to Steven Bell

A few weeks ago Steven Bell posted about librarian careers on the ACRL Blog. He urged us not to worry about where we are professionally- that careers are like marathons. He described the ebb and flow of the hills and valleys that we encounter and instead of getting caught up in the spotlight, encouraged us to think strategically about how we can position ourselves for the next five to ten years.

Well spoken for his generation, however my generation only cares about celebrity. Turn on CNN and you’ll probably see something about Britney Spears within ten minutes. Flip to MTV and you’ll see 16 year old princesses crying because some second-rate band won’t play at a party. Open the New York Times and you’ll read about “hip” librarians.

We’ve become a culture of instant success; Sartre’s nightmare of fashion above all else. The American Dream has shifted away from a good job, a white picket fence, two kids, and a dog--- and is now about prominence, contempo-organic living space, and 15 minutes of reality TV fame.

And the thing is… I would not want it any other way.

What the library profession needs are transformative personalities. Emeril Lagasse is a perfect example. Before he came along my diet was microwaveable, and cooking shows were horribly boring. Martha Stewart is my grandmother’s brand. Emeril brought style, flair, showmanship, along with expertise. He opened the doors for others like Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver, and even Rachael Ray. If you look at the Food Network demographics over the past decade I’m sure you’ll see a dramatic increase in male viewers, and it’s not all just because of Giada.

Emeril transformed cooking; he made it cool, popular, and approachable. The same can be said for Howard Schultz and coffee. Before Starbucks the town I grew up in had one coffee house where lots of wanna-be pretentious artist types hung out, along with the wanna-be wanna-be’s like me. Growing up no one talked about coffee, that was something our parents drank. Now there is coffee shop on every corner and someday there will be one in every library.

Emeril and Schultz have had a tremendous impact not only on the food and beverage industry, but on our society. Why don’t librarians think like that? Why don’t we talk about experiences instead of transactions? Bell urges us to ford the river, but I say build big bridges.

Happy New Year everyone.

Comments

If I had to vote for who I thought would be our profession's first transformative personality it would definitely be Mr. Ubiquitous. I wrote somewhere recently (a comment somewhere) that we need to create libraries that people WANT to go to - not HAVE to go to. If you can make that happen and people associate you with the library they want to go to, I think that would be tranformative. Then again, if you come up with a great viral video that could do it as well. I'll just finish with two thoughts. First, as I said in the post, I've seen some past "quick up and comers" get their 15 minutes only to fade from the spotlight. Second, even if you are a celebrity librarian, well, you're only famous among librarians. Personally, I'd like to see you build up a lot of good accomplishments over a long career - those are the types that have a better chance to make it into the hall of fame. Well, if the post helped you to figure out where you want to be professionally - that's a good thing.

Posted by: stevenb | January 03, 2008 at 06:31 PM