Why retirees have problems cleaning out the files

Have you ever tried to clean out your storage or files and found out it takes days to go through one drawer or file cabinet or closet? For me, the big mistake is sitting down to read something I wrote 25-30 years ago. I don't know what happens in the offices of retired pastors who preach every Sunday and lead Bible studies or school teachers who saved reams of projects and lesson plans, but it's a nightmare for librarians like me who have attend hundreds of meetings and who had publishing requirements for promotion and tenure and saved all their notes.

For instance, my notes (never published because they were for me) for "The Ohio White House Conferences on Library and Information Services--Literacy," September 27 (1990?) held at the Worthington Holiday Inn. I'm not sure why I attended--it seemed to be for public librarians, and not academic. We live in different worlds and focus on totally different problems and clientele. Ohio doesn't have a "White House" so the title means each state or region was having meetings to funnel information back to the President--George H.W. Bush--information on which any administration rarely acts, but the money would have come from the federal government. My writing style always includes off topic ideas that occur to me, so before I wrote out my notes, I commented on the poor representation of the media at this conference and I blamed my profession, not the media.

"Librarians have been notorious for not being able to market their product. Distilleries put their information on billboards in the inner city and at interstate exchanges. Librarians put notices on bookmarks which can only be picked up in libraries. Cigarette companies give away cigarettes to induce a life time addiction. Librarians give away time and effort registering voters and showing movies in hopes that the user might check out a book. Librarians sponsor National Library Week when for the cost they could probably create one of those phony commercial talk shows for cable television that are on every channel from midnight on. Targeting neighborhoods with direct mail campaigns has sold millions of dollars worth of goods, but when was the last time you received a doorhanger from the library except at levy time? Have you ever received a phone call from a telemarketer interrupting your dinner to ask if your library card in current?

There are millions of literate people who never set foot in a library. They either don't need them, don't like them, or have had bad experiences in them. They join book clubs, subscribe to magazines and newspapers; they visit book stores and book sales, but not libraries. There are also millions of literate people who are non-readers. . .

The largest, single common denominator identifying all librarians is that we are members of that particular cultural group--the readers. We are so chauvinistic we cannot imagine anyone could be happy who doesn't share this common trait. Librarians have created every imaginable network, coalition, association, and service organization to lure people into their libraries, but they haven't been able to keep libraries in the schools, not even with all the dues we pay. We can't even get a librarian appointed as the "Librarian of Congress." [note: that did finally happen under Obama--a 3-fer, Carla Hayden, black, female, librarian]."

And I went on to mention the dropping numbers (30 years ago) for literacy among children, even in families where moms read to them. Then I wrote about the activities at my public library that week for children: 4 programs involving movies, and 3 for Halloween crafts.

I went on and on for pages--have no idea what happened at the conference. This was 8 typed pages, and no information on what resulted from the meeting. There is a printed report listed on Amazon as out of stock, Jan. 1, 1990, and a copy in the OSU library.

Maybe some attitudes have changed in libraries the last 30 years. I'm no longer an insider. If there were two institutions that should have been considered essential during this shut down it was churches and libraries. Both are filled with evangelists for their passion, and both were silenced, submissive and shuttered.