Dear Listmates:
"The heart has its reasons which reason cannot know" (Rousseau). I feel the
same way about librarianship. It is a sharing, caring profession and I feel
a real kinship with the thousands of others out there willing to help others
- even the newbies like myself I understand the feeling of isolation of
Diana, in her "small rural county law library" in Oregon. Being in Guam, in
the Western Pacific (7,000 miles west of Hawaii), isolation is real and
resources not always readily available. Power outages are frequent and calls
to mainland (18 time zones away) are expensive - even "toll-free" calls on
800 numbers costs 60 cents a minute! E-mail on AOL costs over $300 a month.
It's great that I can get help from colleagues thousands of miles away.
When I needed a certain Missouri jury instruction, I received help from two
librarians in the Midwest and finally received the instructions from the
Center for State Courts in Virginia, which I had never heard of before. I try
to help others who have questions about the laws in the Pacific territories.
I've learned a lot from the listserv. I think our great strength is in our
diversity which should unite rather than divide.
After practicing law in Guam and California for 23 years I retired and
returned to Guam to be law librarian for the Guam Territorial Law Library.
My library skill are really rusty. I received my J.D. and M.L.S. in 1973.
While going to law school and library school (same campus - UC Berkeley) I
noticed the great difference between the law students and the library
students (please excuse the stereotypes) - that's why I enjoyed my library
school experience more.
In many ways these stereotypes continue in the two professions. It cracks
me up when I read the comments about the "greedy publishers" when I consider
that as librarians we, directly or indirectly, serve the greediest profession
around. I know .... I've been there, done that. I got tired of the drudgery
of billing and trying to squeeze every last expense from the client.
(Charging for CD ROM usage - that's a new one.) Unfortunately the lawyer
jokes were getting too real for me. At least we don't have Jay Leno beating
up on us every night. Now I revel in helping patrons and colleagues without
charge and getting help from colleagues and fellow listmates (I like that
term) who truly know the meaning of "professional courtesy".
We are all seated at this great feast with a vast cornucopia of gastronomic
delights - from French, Cantonese, Cajun, New England, kosher, etc. The
table setting included several forks, chopsticks, and an implement (is there
a name for it?) for holding the escargot. Do we enjoy the meal or do we
cautiously watch to see which fork the others are using (lurking on the
list). Let's enjoy the meal and help other do the same. We have come full
circle in this discussion with Jim Miles message that "We will all be better
off if we try to give each other the benefit of the doubt and assume that
each other has good intentions rather than the opposite."
Thanks for reading - I just wanted to express my gratitude regarding this
list and share my feelings of camaraderie with this profession. When
people write and say "this list is just great" I think they mean that this
is a great group of people. I am pleased to be part of this group.
Cordially....Alan E. Dear
___________________________________________________________
Alan E. Dear, Director, Guam Territororial Law Library, 141 San Ramon Road,
Agana, Guam, 96910. Phone 011-671-477-7623; fax 011-671-472-1246; e-mail
aldear@aol.com. Guam "where America's day begins" is in the Western Pacific
just above the equator, just west of the international date line. We are 18
hours ahead of P.S.T. We are a tax-exempt, non-profit educational
corporation.
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