By Elizabeth Caulfield Felt, felt@wsu.edu

Let’s say somebody knows nothing about football, but a friend suggests they go watch a game.  The friend ends up not being able to go, so this newbie goes alone, sits in the bleachers, watches for a while, and tries to “figure out the game.”  Most people in this situation will decide that there are two teams; each team wants the ball and wants to take the ball to the opposite end of the field.  But, a few spectators will not figure this out. They will watch for a few minutes, become bored, decide it is a stupid game and leave.

Of the spectators who figure out the main goal of the game, a few will even be able to discover the intricacies of the game; most importantly, that the team with the ball has four chances to go ten yards, or they lose the ball.   Suddenly, the game is much more interesting, because the spectator can view each play in terms of this short-term goal.  Right away, these people find the game fascinating.

Most spectators will not figure this out on their own. They see that the ball changes hands from time to time, but don’t really understand why. And they don’t understand why the team doesn’t always attempt to go the length of the field.  Some of these spectators, not completely understanding what is going on, will get bored, decide it is a stupid game and leave.

Others will turn to the person beside them and ask for help.  “Why did he just kick the ball to the opposite team?”  A nearby fan might reply, “It was fourth down; he had to punt.”  Now the spectator has a little more information, which doesn’t seem to help at all.  Some persons in this situation decide that this game is just too complicated for them. They feel stupid and dislike football and stay away from it, because it makes them feel like an idiot.

Some spectators will continue to ask questions of nearby fans, until they find someone who realizes that they are a foreigner to the game.  Suddenly, they are getting real help.  The Good Samaritan explains the concept of four downs in ten yards. They explain other concepts, like punt fakes, field goals and pass interferences. The spectators who persist in discovering the intricacies, can now see how interesting the game really is.  There are several possible goals, both short-term and long-term. There are a variety of methods for achieving the goals and clear-cut rules.

Doesn’t learning football seem just like learning the library?  Finding books in the library is similar to the main goal in football. Most people can figure it out on their own.  However, finding journal articles is more like discovering that a team only has four chances to get ten yards.  If the concept of an index isn’t explained, it is almost impossible to discover without help. And, of course, there are the intricacies of government documents, business statistics and varying formats for journals.  In libraries, short  term goals are finding good citations and then locating the articles from the citations. Understanding the content and writing the paper are the long-term goals.

Do you recognize any of your students in the spectators above?  There are the students who, without formal instruction, have an innate understanding of the library and research practices. They are secretly thrilled that something others find difficult is to them easy, and so they LOVE the library.  (There aren’t many of these students, and most of them will become librarians.)

There are those who give up without trying; and there are those who try a little, ask the wrong people, get incomplete advice and give up. These people think libraries are stupid or that they are too stupid for libraries.

Finally, there are those who, through their persistence, learn the library and discover order in what had seemed to be chaos.  Many of them find that research is interesting and sometimes fun. Over time, they learn to like the library and actually enjoy doing research projects.

Having come to the end of my analogy, you are probably expecting excellent advice for turning those who dislike libraries into individuals who love libraries.  I do have a plan.

We, as librarians, can make going to the library as popular as watching football. We just need to take our lessons from how Americans learn to love football: they learn it from their parents. Young children are taught the rules of football by their parents as they sit transfixed by the television on Sunday afternoons.  We must make sure that, in the same way, parents bring their children to the library and teach them the process of research.  They cannot just drop off their kids in the children’s area to browse (albeit successfully) among picture books and young adult fiction. Oh no, we must encourage parents to share the excitement of indexes, controlled vocabulary and LC vs. Dewey.  

In years to come,  Americans all over the country will be spending their Sunday afternoons looking up John Quincy Adams’ Amistad testimony to the Supreme Court, the names of Gladys Knight’s Pips, and the best way to insulate a house.  And why will they be doing this? Because it is FUN!  Because the library is an exciting place to be!

Oh, and when we’re done doing that, would you mind helping me convince my roommate that watching football is an entertaining way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt is a Reference Librarian at the Washington State University, Pullman, WA  99164-5610.  
http://www.wsu.edu/~felt/