Progressive librarians raise questions about librarianship

Traditionally, librarians have worked to maintain a neutral stance, but progressive librarians are questioning just how important this is. When interacting with people, Harger says, neutrality is still valuable. When it comes to resources like time, space and money, however, neutrality isn’t as high a priority as the quality of the resource. Progressive librarians are rethinking how acquisitions happen, and why.

Also, when conducting classes for students and faculty, progressive librarians might guide them toward cross-disciplinary research. For example, they might encourage business-ethics students to also seek sources on environmental issues, instead of simply guiding them to the business databases.

Similarly, progressive librarians might also provide researchers who visit them with different perspectives for their situation. They might seek ways to be more actively involved in the research process, by engaging researchers with different ideas or suggestions for additional types of sources they might use.

To cite the example above, they might direct a business-ethics researcher to business databases, but also suggest a number of sources from other fields, including environmental sciences

"They might ask questions or make suggestions that could cause the researchers to think a little more deeply, or from the perspective of what the purpose of the research was going to be," says Harger.

In short, progressive librarians constantly explore [ways] to use their skills to interact with people differently and help them engage with material in new, deeper or more interdisciplinary ways to reach new conclusions. They look at everything they do and ask how they can engage people more effectively with it.

"Librarians take great pride in being the people who are at the intersection of knowledge and the questions people have," says Harger. "What we have standing behind us is the knowledge of all humanity, and yet we haven’t used it in a way in which we’ve changed our actions."