The Metaphor Is the Message

We've all heard the School Library referred to as the "information center" and the librarian as the "information manager." While these metaphors try to breathe dynamism into stagnant images, they may actually do more harm than good to library advocacy efforts.

Even though metaphors don't make literal sense, we know what they mean because they allow us to understand one element of experience in terms of another. They assert that "A" and "B" are the same, or at least very much alike. But while metaphors help us visualize the complex components that comprise people, events, and processes, they don't accurately convey the entirety of what they describe.

Likewise, the information center and information manager metaphors tell us about an important part of libraries and librarians, but they don't describe them fully. Partial understanding leads us to develop ideas that discount or miss valuable pieces of the whole. It's metaphors like these that blind principals and teachers to important parts of the library's role and the librarian's skills.

The information center description emphasizes collection over connection, evoking images of materials and retrieval processes—but not of learning. It neglects and obscures a great deal of what libraries are about and defines the library as outside rather than integral to the classroom. The information manager metaphor poses the same problem. The image bespeaks specialized knowledge and skills, even status, but it doesn't suggest collaborator, teacher, consultant, or partner. It obscures the roles that define quality library media center performance and leadership. Librarianship goes beyond just managing a collection and facilitating others' access to its contents.

Metaphors have real consequences because they shape our perceptions. Faculty members who perceive you as the manager of the information center may turn to you for assistance when searching for information—but don't expect them to look to you when it comes to defining their information needs, or advising them in presenting, interpreting, and applying that information. The terms information center and information manager obscure those parts of your professional role. These images may actually serve to perpetuate old stereotypes. The information center and manager lay claim to a place in schools, but not in schooling. They invite people to say, "Help me find what I want and check it out to me. Then, I'll take it from there."

What, then, might be an appropriate term for the library? The simple truth is that I don't know. Every metaphor is simultaneously illuminating and limiting, which suggests we have a dual task before us. First, we need to resist the imposition of a single metaphor on us by others and resist the temptation to impose one on ourselves. At the same time, we need to promote the use of multiple metaphors whenever the opportunity arises. Trying to describe the library in meaningful terms without the color and impact of a powerful metaphor lessens the impact of our arguments. But any single metaphor will inevitably narrow the library and librarian's role in the minds of other educators—and this can be devastating. It's difficult to contribute if others don't recognize what you have to offer, and impossible to collaborate if others won't collaborate with you.

Perhaps the best course when you hear someone characterize the library or librarian in a certain way is to respond with multiple metaphors, "Oh, yes. It is that, but it's also so much more. It's also a ___." Multiple metaphors expand the image and reduce restrictions. By using a single metaphor, you and your library are likely to be perceived as one dimensional—and, instead of a liberator, the metaphor becomes a limitation.