And here’s yet another entry in the Career Romance for Young Moderns series. I swear I can’t get enough of these. This one is even older than the previous ones I read, with a copyright date of 1956. So much of the library training was reminiscent of the historical things I was taught in library school. Not things I was taught to do, mind you, just things I was taught as “this is the way it used to be.” And clearly the way it used to be (at least in the idealized world of this career series) was the the librarian was all knowing, bringing good to the community (sounds good so far, right?), and knows better than anyone else. And that’s where I thought all the librarian characters in this book came off sounding so condescending and superior. From all I’ve read and learned, though, I don’t think that this book is inaccurate about library training or the role of the librarian back then.
The plot summary is that Nancy gets a job running the county bookmobile, despite a lack of training. The county librarian has grave doubts about this, but hires Nancy anyway because there’s no one else to do it and Nancy is a cheerful young go-getter who knows how to drive a truck. So Nancy suits up in ski pants and jacket and begins driving “Big Mike” out to rural one and two room schoolhouses to bring joy and books to the poor isolated children and their teachers and parents. After a few months and some grave mistakes (not knowing how to tell a story) Nancy realizes what a fool’s errand it was to attempt to do this job without proper library training. When she tearfully confesses this to Mrs. Archer, the county librarian, that good lady rather condescendingly agrees with Nancy and makes it sound as if she was just waiting for Nancy to realize her shortcomings. This from the person who hired her!! Read the rest of this entry »
