- Computers: in 1976 at the beginning of grad school at Drexel University in Philadelphia, we had a professor tell us that, not too far in the future, everyone would have a computer in their home. Ha!, we all thought. Now we carry computers in our pockets and wear them on our wrists. She was prescient. And computers have changed everything.
- Card catalogs: a thing of the past because (see above). And I'll never go back to the Old Ways. Filing above the rod was a PIA, especially in one library that I worked in in the early 1980's where the cataloger bowed down five times a day in the direction of Library of Congress, and where the catalog was so technical that it was almost unusable. Try finding the fairy tale about the Seven Swans with the original Danish title. And what was that Latin term for bedwetting? And as for knowing where a certain book is, you'd go to the catalog, look it up, go to the shelf, it's not there. Is it out? Stolen? Misshelved? Gone for repair? When will it be back? Can the patron get it anywhere else? Who knew!
- Reference collections: also a thing of the past (see Computers above). I had a woman just the other day ask about a word in the dictionary, but wanted the print version. Luckily, the only reference books we have are two dictionaries. The large atlas is about to go, after we blow the layers of dust off of it.
- Books: in 1978, audio books were for blind people. Ebooks and Eaudio had not been thought of (that I know). It was print, print, nothing but the print. Now, print circulation is going down, but ebook circulation is going up. I don't mind; there are more choices for patrons.
- Diversity: I was a children's librarian for the first 28 years, first in Philadelphia, then Brookline, Marion, and New Bedford. Early on, diversity was the African-American kid in "The Snowy Day". Then things started to change. We saw more diversity in children's books each year. There's still a long way to go, but believe me, it's better than it was before.
- YA books: in 1978, the teen books were mostly about romance. Then came S.E. Hinton. Boys were flabbergasted to learn that Hinton was a woman. Then Lois Duncan. Then "Annie On My Mind", one of the first teen books about a lesbian relationship. As with diversity in children's books, so with diversity and openness in YA. The genre has exploded, and that's a good thing.
- What the library is used for: it used to bug me in the early days of circulating videos that this was sometimes the only thing people came into the library for. Now I'm more sanguine. People use libraries for faxing, computers, DVDs, museum passes, lots of other stuff than books. Sometimes people just come in for a certain program and leave without checking anything out (well, that still bugs me a little). Libraries are more than repositories for books. I think that is one of the biggest adjustments I've had to make, outside of Computers.
- The Library of Things: I remember it was a big deal when we first heard of libraries checking out stuff like tools, cake pans, and the like. Now we all do it. As small as my library is, we checkout wifi hotspots, snowshoes, a ukulele, a telescope, and science and nature kits for families.
Now that I'm nearing retirement (5 years to go!), I'm watching the younger librarians and what they're getting excited about. People in my generation are lamenting the smaller presence of print in the collection, but print is not going away anytime soon, that's for sure. The next director at my library may see things differently, but that's the way things go. The last 40 years have been in turns harrowing (having to cross picket lines 2 months into my first job; being threatened by a teen in my first library; breaking up fights between both kids and homeless men; and much more. Ask me about the guy who carried around a large inflated Oscar Meyer hot dog wrapped in a blanket.) and fun (a kid inviting me home for supper; being called "Library Lady"; being presented with rocks, dandelions, and drawings; the relationships with regular patrons). I've enjoyed it. And I wouldn't have done anything else.
Sorry, Mary! We're not like this anymore!
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