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Gatekeeping
Jan. 3rd, 2009 02:00 pmI'm in an odd position lately: I've "made it" as a librarian, in that I have finished my MLIS and found professional, titled work in my field. I suppose I could then worry about publishing, career advancement, etc, but the truth is that my complete goal as far as librarianship is: work with kids, share stuff with them.
I'm not interested in being a force within the field, so I have, as they say, arrived.
The gate context on that side: when I was entering library school, in library school, and looking for work, professional librarians seemed like "gatekeepers" to me. I perceived them as having knowledge that I did not have, and having access to things that I wanted. I felt that I had to treat them in a certain way so that I would be "let in" to a room full of stuff I wanted.
This was silly, really. Looking back, I can see that the librarians themselves never saw it that way (as I don't see it that way now). From the other side, it looks more like a bunch of points that do or don't connect, rather than anything with a gate in it.
The reason I'm thinking about this is, of course, that I'm at a place in the writer-arc that is very similar to where I was in re librarianship 4 or 5 years ago. The tendency is to then think of published writers, agents, editors, and all other full-on professionals in the field as gatekeepers to some kind of room that you have to be let in to.
Reflecting on my experiences as a librarian and would-be librarian, I strongly suspect that this just isn't so. There's just a bunch of points that get connected or don't get connected, rather than any gate that needs to be passed through.
This has amused me greatly as I fail to finish various essays and applications that I need to write. The whole concept of gatekeeping is a lot easier to understand when you can look at it from both sides at once, and I think that perhaps the fact that librarianship is a closely related field (at least in terms of: we all work with books) to publishing helps to gain perspective.
I'm not interested in being a force within the field, so I have, as they say, arrived.
The gate context on that side: when I was entering library school, in library school, and looking for work, professional librarians seemed like "gatekeepers" to me. I perceived them as having knowledge that I did not have, and having access to things that I wanted. I felt that I had to treat them in a certain way so that I would be "let in" to a room full of stuff I wanted.
This was silly, really. Looking back, I can see that the librarians themselves never saw it that way (as I don't see it that way now). From the other side, it looks more like a bunch of points that do or don't connect, rather than anything with a gate in it.
The reason I'm thinking about this is, of course, that I'm at a place in the writer-arc that is very similar to where I was in re librarianship 4 or 5 years ago. The tendency is to then think of published writers, agents, editors, and all other full-on professionals in the field as gatekeepers to some kind of room that you have to be let in to.
Reflecting on my experiences as a librarian and would-be librarian, I strongly suspect that this just isn't so. There's just a bunch of points that get connected or don't get connected, rather than any gate that needs to be passed through.
This has amused me greatly as I fail to finish various essays and applications that I need to write. The whole concept of gatekeeping is a lot easier to understand when you can look at it from both sides at once, and I think that perhaps the fact that librarianship is a closely related field (at least in terms of: we all work with books) to publishing helps to gain perspective.
