2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

Pushing Boundaries? Well, duh …
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BEST PRACTICES 2012
By Bob Farina, MSLIS, Entrepreneur, Minor Potentate of Logogrammatic Research &
Analysis, Data Wrangler, etc.
Drawing by Robert Farina
Though this may not come as a shock to many of my professional colleagues, I believe
that librarians are indeed all about pushing boundaries. Some of us have revolutionary
thoughts that we only ink to paper in the hopes that some young Turk just coming along
will seize upon those ideas and put them into practice. In the spirit of ‘carpe diem’ others
wind up leaving a path of doom and destruction in their wake (e.g., Mao Tse-tung). But
for most, a well-reasoned evolutionary approach working hand-in-hand with colleagues
and committees toward a shared goal is just the ticket for a quiet, careful work life that is
rich, rewarding and personally satisfying. Thank you Melville.
In the end, who gets to the finish line first - or best? Wrong question, I think. We are
librarians because we have a unique basic thirst for knowledge and understanding that we
think is important to share with others. Some of us hope that our endeavors will be