The Upsides of Librarianship: Books On Hobbies

One of the big upsides of being a library shelver is I get to see the books that people borrow. I see what hobbies people are investigating, and you find out by the books they return, which I put on the shelf. Beer making is a good one this time of year. There's also lots of books on knitting stuff. And there's an entire row of cookbooks and food-based hobbies. An entire row is around 10,000 books. Think about what that means. One of the big challenges of modern librarianship is finding a way to connect patrons, searching through the stacks, to remember there are internet URLs to support that subject. In one of my classes, it was suggested we generate 2D barcodes and stick them up with a label in the stacks. And that might work.

In prior years I used the internet to investigate many different sports, such as bicycling, and found information on Bicycle Tourism (not just day rides but overnight with luggage on the bike), and motorcycles and scooters, and over the summer I learned about RVs. A lot about RVs.

For this Fall I have been learning about small sailboats: board sailers and day sailers.

The Laser is a wonderful olympic class boat. They're very simple to sail, which is why they are extra difficult. You really need to know what you are doing, and the more you learn, the faster you become. And there's books on that, too.

Stevenson Project Weekender, a day sailer with a cabin to sleep inside. 

Locally, we are about to have Octoberfest. Which is a fine thing, since All Hallowes is technically 3 weeks long, and starts with the beer and runs until Hallow Evening, aka Hallowe'en. Its a harvest festival. Feasting of the stuff you can't cure and preserve for the winter, spring, and summer until something ripens enough to eat.

My buddy collects pocket knives, even classic ones. I appreciate their essential value, being a Boy Scout, something that stays with you. Boy scouting taught me backpacking, astronomy, sailing, and even marksmanship. I liked putting holes in paper, and knocking over black metal animal-shaped steel plates from 200 yards away, also a sport, collectively known as target shooting. Being country people, and a Boy Scout, this is part and parcel with my skillset. There needs to be librarians with male interests too, after all. Like beer making, BBQ grilling, fishing, hunting, shooting, boating, motorcycles, 4WD jeeps and offroad navigation. Fire making and whittling and pocket knives. We do stuff not many women are interested in. And women who are interested in these things end up very popular with men, which irritates all the women who would rather eat chocolates alone than climb a mountain with a man and gain the associated benefits. We all make choices.

Exotic Eucalyptus Burl handle

Classic Opinel, with beechwood handle

So I was recently reminded of the Opinel pocket knife, which is a fantastically simple design. Its a curved bit of beechwood with a narrow slot, a slender blade, and a twisting collar to lock it open. Collecting and carrying such things are classic male interests. Like reading about horsepower to weight ratios in supercars, or the latest grilling techniques, or a review of beers or single malt whiskeys. Or carbon fiber paddles for the latest lake kayaks. Or the qualities of good digital SLR cameras. Men like this stuff.

Civil War Recreationists on Constitution Day, Nevada City, California. 

The whole point of public libraries is to get people in the door, and get them to borrow books, and thus serve the people. If you don't offer stuff like this, men won't care, won't visit, won't fund libraries. And if all your librarians are female, they might be unaware of men's particular interests in things like tools, and not purchase representative materials. You really have to watch out for that. Your entire nonfiction section may end up gender biased to the point of uselessness to half the population. Remember that. Males are 49% of the population. I'm encouraged that so many of my classmates are married women, many with sons, and won't put up with any gender bashing nonsense. Its discouraging to see it at work, even if only a few of the staff commit it for their own reasons I am not privy to. I am glad they're still stocking men's magazines since the last male head librarian was there, over 5 years ago and still bashed by the lesbians because he has Aspbergers so wasn't easy to get along with, a condition common in librarians, much like OCD and ADHD. We can't afford cruelty to people who work in our industry, nor can we afford to overlook institutionalized abuse. I am not in a position to remind these haters to knock it off, and they've been like this their whole lives. And probably will continue for the rest of them too. Meh. I do what I can for my patrons.