"The Mission" by Molz and Dain

There were so many aptly quoted people in this article that cemented arguments or points that it seemed like a treasure trove of opinions about libraries and their missions and methods. One such quote I thought was correct the more I thought about it was that of Berelson, who talked about the disparity between the professed mission and the actual work of libraries. Though not yet a library student myself, it seems to me just as a prospective student that there are some jobs in the library that have very little to do with lofty goals and everything to do with boring details. And Berelson is right in including the analogy of a lawyer’s mission and work, because I think most professions end up falling short of their missions and getting bogged down in the details of their profession.

One part of the history of libraries that I wasn’t aware of was the creation of the “information and referral” centers in the 1970s. I thought this was a very unique idea, and it seemed to me like a really simple solution to the problem of actually living up to the free information objective as well as supplying what the public demands.

The whole argument about McLibraries was completely new to me but not the larger idea of McEverything. While I deplore the McDonaldization of everything in America, the characteristics that seem to be associated with McLibraries were not the same as those I associated with McDonaldization. I thought that phenomenon was the creation of a boring sameness and low quality in everything no matter where one goes geographically. What some people objected to in the library argument, however, seems to be simply efficiency, not the sameness and low quality that I had associated with the McDonald phenomenon term. I really do not understand the problem with supplying what is demanded for a library, especially since it is true that those paying for a service in tax dollars should be getting what they want for their money. Of course, one must acknowledge that this priority is best for community libraries. Archival and research libraries should strive instead to provide as much of the written knowledge of humanity as they can get their hands on simply for preservation.