We do more than shush

I feel like it can never be stressed enough that libraries (and librarians by association) are more than just book depositories and free internet. We offer information and services you would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. Essentially, we are information kiosks for entire cities. You could come to or all your local library and ask us almost anything. Need to find the post office? How to create a resume? I've even fielded calls asking where the best place in Portland is to go sledding. As a library, this is something anyone can take advantage of. That's what were here for; information.

But we offer so much more in services. We hold the history of Portland's newspaper going back more than 200 year. We are an easy to find source of tax forms. We offer rooms for public use for anything from girl scout meetings to counseling. We do more that just do community service, we technically are a community service. 

Today, I had a gentlemen com in who lives next door to our library. He is legally blind but that doesn't stop him. He had been behind our library the night before, fishing. He had stayed out too long and it had gotten dark, making it even harder for him to see. He had ended up off of what little beaten path there is in the dense foliage behind our library, and ended up falling and could not find his fishing pole. He told me it was valuable, whether he meant monetarily or sentimentally, it doesn't matter. Well, he couldn't find it with it being dark and his lack of vision and wanted me to keep a look out of anyone mentioned it, but he said his son would go look for it when he got home from school. It was only 10 in the morning, so it was going to be a while. I did him one better and offered to go find it for him. He and I went behind the building and after about 5 minutes or more of searching through the wet overgrowth, I was able to find it, alas, without its fly attached. He thanked me, knowing that I went out of my way to help him find something that in no way really concerned our library or my job. 

That above is an example of how libraries can provide services and help that isn't exactly listed anywhere. Librarians, yes, aren't fighting fires, stopping large amounts of crime, or rescuing the injured on a regular basis but we provide the information and facilities to further those people that want to spend their futures doing just that. 

So we aren't just free wi-fi, free movies, free music, free books. We're information attendants, guides, a workspace, a community hub and outreach center. We do more than shush.