Over the winter break while some of you were sleeping until 2 p.m., librarians and student library workers were busy shifting every single book and video in our entire Truax collection. This was in preparation for an even bigger move — scheduled for early June — to the Gateway, the college’s new grand entrance on Wright Street. All that shifting took the better part of three days and split our collection in two. If you want all the details, stop in. It’s hard to explain unless you’re here to see it.

As Truax Library prepares for the move, we librarians will no doubt have cause to think about just what constitutes a library. We can’t help ourselves. Four semesters in grad school and the very nature of our work trains us to ponder this kind of thing all the time.

Think about it. Students, faculty and staff walk into the library every day. They come with questions – a whole lot of questions. We even keep stats on how many they ask. During the week of February 18-23 for instance, we answered questions, provided help or gave out information a total of 2,503 times. And it’s not as though we have any control over the types of questions we’re asked.  One student may want to know if we have articles about the Canadian Mafia (yes), a faculty member may want to know whether putting an essay on Blackboard would violate copyright (probably not) and another student wants to know where room 324FF is located (go to ‘324F’, exit the side door, and say “candy man” three times in the mirror).

So, yes, we will be wondering if our library is a room, a collection, or a space for student study, learning and discovery. Does it matter that there are librarians there? Some libraries have opened without books. Some libraries are entirely virtual. What essential elements make a library a library and why do we care?

Many librarians enter the field because of a love of books. Don’t get me wrong; books are great. However, so are articles, databases, DVDs and computers.  Long ago however, I fell in love with the very idea of what libraries represent. They are spaces where minds meet learning and where new ideas are discovered. Will I enjoy minds meeting knowledge with a healthy dose of natural light for a change?  I am pretty certain I will.  More importantly though, librarians, books, instructors, databases, videos and screens need someone to learn, someone to teach and someone to serve.  When you need us, we will be there ready to help just as we always have.