Friends of the Libraries' Guest Columnist Features The library: a terrifying nightmare By Laura Windsor Septemeber 11, 2004 The Athens Messenger

Libraries are scary. Librarians are the smartest people in the world and demand the utmost respect. They and their ivory tower libraries with hundreds or even thousands of books are intimidating. Life is easier, simpler, less complex, if you never go into one. The people there are reading stuff and getting smarter and smarter so they can be like the librarians. Librarians are in charge, in control, ready with needed information in any crisis. There are reference librarians, music librarians, law librarians, medical librarians, art librarians, cataloging librarians, archive librarians, preservation librarians, librarians who are really special on all subjects imaginable. My God, it must be scary and possibly some form of punishment to go to the library.

I am a very slow reader. When working in a scary library as a student at Texas Christian University, I shelved books day after day in the huge, intimidating reference room with thousands of important looking books. Some were big, some were small, some were in multi-volume sets. For the first year I never opened any of them. I had big textbooks to conquer that would take a lot of time. I had no time for books I was just being paid by the hour to shelve.

Eventually I got to know the librarians at the reference desk. I began to listen in on how they were able to answer any conceivable question. I noticed how they used the books behind the desk and out in the reference area to look up hundreds of facts. I was in awe. I would never be that smart. Why did they even let me into college? I graduated from a rural high school and many of my college classmates had come from really nice prep schools. I had no idea what a prep school was at the time, just that the students from them seemed to know more than I did and were well ahead of me as far as reading the classics of American and European authors I had only heard of.

Sometimes I caught the librarians laughing. Once they invited me to a student appreciation day. They brought food for all of us that worked at the library. We sat with them and chatted. Wow, they seemed to be normal people. I was still leery for quite some time. Eventually I had to learn about those library books. I began to ask librarians questions. They actually seemed to like helping students. I found a wealth of information with their help for papers I had to write on the arts, religion, history, science; and the classics by authors such as Twain, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, and Faulkner. Wow. The actual works were wonderful; but the research articles I learned to find in the library were of great interest to me. I began spending a lot of time in the library collecting information. As a slow reader I also learned to love non-fiction books that had an index. YES!

When I wrote my own book a couple of years ago, Women in Medicine: An Encyclopedia, I made sure it had an index. I wanted a work to help others find some of the answers to the questions they might have about some of the great women who have served as physicians, nurses, researchers, and leaders. For librarians to find answers to questions, a resource must be available on the topic. I saw a need and filled a void. It is a good feeling.

My early loathe and fear of libraries have been long gone. I read novels of interest no matter how long it takes me because along the journey I know I will cry, laugh, and be inspired. My interest in finding answers for others is still intense; and my appreciation of books, libraries, and librarians will forever be great. Whenever puzzled, go to a library and ask a librarian.

Laura Windsor is a health sciences librarian at Ohio University.