Sunday Reflections: Librarians are to Libraries as Companions are to their Doctor

When book people and librarians think of library services in relation to Doctor Who, the first comparison is that the TARDIS is like a library and the librarian and library staff are like the Doctor. I’ve said it, Karen’s said it, everyone else has either said it or thought about it. But what if, instead of the library being the big blue box, the library is actually the Doctor, and the library staff are the Companions?

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I threw you a twist. Think about it for a minute. The Doctor has been around for over 900 years, his personality changes with each regeneration into a completely separate person yet he keeps the memories of the Doctor before. He strives to do good in the Universe, yet can constantly lose his way if not guided. He has the capability to be amazing and brilliant, yet if left to travel alone will fall into depression, funk and worse (we’ve seen it with Doctors 10 and 11, and in older ones as well).

With me so far?

Libraries have been around since the 7th Century with the King of Assyria, up to present day. (Old and growing older). Their personalities change with the communities around them, and with each remodel and reconstruction or new building that they’re moved into, yet they attempt to keep the history of what they’ve done and what their area contains as well as the knowledge they’ve collected (regeneration, anyone?). If you look at a library’s core, their goal is to educate, inform, and entertain (do good) yet if they don’t have strong staff, administration, and support from the community and their city/county they can fall into disrepair and crumble.

See the parallels?

So if libraries are the Doctors, then LIBRARIANS are the Companions.

If you watch a season of Doctor Who (or actually certain episodes, but really, can you watch just one?), you can tell that the Companions have enormous impact on their Doctor. Just from the current reboot (Doctors 9 {Eccleson}, 10 {Tennant}, and 11 {Smith}), you have Rose turning 9 from a Doctor full of hate and anger to one that’s capable of love and forgiveness, and Captain Jack turning into a loveable rogue. 

You have Rose, Jack, Martha, Donna, and River shaping 10 into the brilliance that he is, and knowing that he touches so many lives and does so many things, yet is not entirely the person he thinks he may be, because he still pines for Rose, regrets what happens to Captain Jack and Doctor Donna, and the final confrontation with the Master. 

You have Amelia and Rory and River shaping 11 and facing his death, his wife, his in-laws, and death in a way that hasn’t been explored before. And now we have Clara bringing 11 back from his funk, and having him figure out why she’s the Impossible Girl, and always there.

The Companions are the ones who are shaping and guiding the Doctors’ experiences, and giving them something to breathe and a way to showcase themselves, to make them better than who they are alone- challenging them and expanding on themselves in ways that a Time Lord may not have ever been before.

That’s EXACTLY what librarians should be doing in libraries- shaping and changing and expanding to not just what their communities needs and want, but thinking beyond that, ahead of that. Showing their communities the possibilities that the library could be, and what the possibility the community could be if they back the library. It doesn’t matter that the “traditional” model of a library is about physical books, or that the “new” model is all e-books- it matters whether your community needs, wants, or will want it. We need to be the inspiration and the spark in libraries.

Filed under: Advocacy, Doctor Who