Nancy Pearl: America's Favorite Librarian
- By Susan Halas
Nancy Pearl.
By Susan Halas
Nancy Pearl - many readers, NPR listeners, library-goers and those who think fondly of librarians - already know her name.
This is the Nancy Pearl who started the city-wide book discussions - the format where everyone in town reads the same book at the same time and talks about it. It was an idea that was widely adopted, expanded and has now spread to practically everywhere.
This is the Nancy Pearl who wrote Book Lust, a popular volume on recommended reading, and followed it up with more popular titles along the same lines. This is the Nancy Pearl who teaches, blogs, speaks and can easily be found at her own site: http://www.nancypearl.com.
And talk about iconic high visibility librarian, this is the Nancy Pearl who has her own action figure (both regular and deluxe links below):
Regular
Deluxe
Even though the figure shows her with finger to lips making a "shushing" gesture, Nancy is far from the quiet type. She is outspoken about where she sees her profession going, and also about the future of libraries in general. On the positive side she points to places like Boise, Idaho, which she called "a livable city with three brand new branch libraries, the result of a supportive community and a supportive Mayor."
But she feels Boise is an exception, more and more libraries and library services are on-line and fewer new libraries are being built. From her point of view this is not necessarily the best of all possible worlds.
"As a result of the Internet tsunami, many people believe that information access is the whole role that a library plays in a community. I believe - along with a few others - that information is part of the larger world of libraries. Many others, including library educators and members of the public, believe that the library is part of the world of information and has no - or little - other role. But to me, a library is still a place where people come to find good books to read, to attend programs, to get help in job searches, and to connect with others in the community through book discussion groups."
"Most of the bigger, more prestigious, and better known professional schools have dropped the word library from their names; they're now Information Schools, and their curriculums tend to be highly theory based. I find this trend to be very sad."
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Nancy Pearl: America's Favorite Librarian
- By Susan Halas
Nancy Pearl action figure.
In her view this emphasis neglects and diminishes interaction with real live people, and with the programs that increase live interaction.
"When I went to library school at the University of Michigan (now called the School of Information), we were taught the importance of building quality, balanced collections. These days the emphasis is on circulation statistics, and we all know that a popular DVD will circulate more than, say, Thackeray's Vanity Fair, or even the newest Pulitzer fiction winner. I still believe that it's important to have books available for all types of readers, for those who want light fiction, or histories, or literary novels."
When she started it was about building a quality collection. Today she thinks it's more about give-'em-what-they-want-ism. Taking the time to make decisions on reading or decisions about if a book is worthy of being in the collection, that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore. In her view reading is critical and any book can fulfill a need. But not all reading is reading for pleasure, enjoyment or light reading. However, other reading, deeper more demanding reading, has not been given the same weight.
"I am feeling increasingly as though my generation, who got our degrees in the late 1960s, (we) are dinosaurs in the profession. Our values, our beliefs about the function of a library are now often regarded as quaint or dated. I often feel as though I were a dinosaur, facing certain extinction."
"A community without a library is a community without a soul. Libraries, book discussions, and all the rest breed dialog, civility. In the view of the younger generation - my view of libraries is narrow. And they might be right. It's certainly not going my way; to put it bluntly, 'That train done gone.' I don't see anything great happening and I'm still reeling from being a dinosaur."
That said, she's still a pretty influential dinosaur, because people still want to be guided to good books, and for obvious reasons a recommendation from Nancy Pearl is an excellent place to begin.
"I finish one book for every twenty-five I start. Those are the ones I talk about. That's a lot different than when I started; then I finished one in every ten, but there's so much more 'not good' being published now. I'm not necessarily looking for a page-turner. I want writing so wonderful I copy down whole paragraphs. I'm so tired of badly written books, clunky characters, and all the rest."
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Nancy Pearl: America's Favorite Librarian
- By Susan Halas
Nancy Pearl's Book Lust To Go.
"How many books do I get? I'd say about ten a day. When I came back from my book tour there were a hundred books waiting, mostly from publishers. When I talk about a book, that book sells. I've gotten feedback that says as much as forty percent of sales can be directly related to a mention on NPR's Morning Edition. You could say I've established credibility on Public Radio. I've been doing this in one form or another since 1971."
Her latest volume - Book Lust: To Go Recommended reading for travelers, vagabonds and dreamers, was recently published and doing well. She's traveling and speaking widely to promote it, but she doesn't think there will be any more in the series. Reviewing her heavy commitments to "read, talk, radio, teach," she's contemplating how to retire gracefully. "It's hard to come to terms with the end of your own career."
As for the future, "I would like to write fiction that I would like to read. It's just finding the time to do it."
Reach AE Monthly writer Susan Halas at halas@hawaii.rr.com.
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