A librarian's life and times

ln 30 years on the job, Salt Lake City Main Library Director Nancy Tessman has seen libraries go from "warehouses" to "space stations." Trained in the old Dewey Decimal System, she has had to be fast on her feet to keep up with the current high-tech keystrokes and World Wide Web. It has been quite a ride. Now she's retiring, to the applause and adulation of a grateful public.

Tessman served as director of Salt Lake City libraries for 10 years and spent the other 20 doing most tasks on a librarian's job description — from public relations to checking blueprints. Thanks in great part to her work, the American Library Association named her library in Salt Lake City the Library of the Year for 2006.

It is a stunner.

But if the image of libraries has changed, so has the image of the librarian. The dour, finger-wagging matrons of the "Please be quiet" era are long gone now, replaced by men and women who have more in common with systems analysts than security guards. Years ago kids read about Tom Swift and his marvelous machines. Today they operate those machines. And librarians have had to keep up. Tessman has not only kept up but has pushed on the frontier.

Once seen as solemn caretakers of information, today's librarians must be resources for everything from a good hot lunch to the latest, hot comic book. Marian the Librarian from "The Music Man" would never cut it. Things have evolved at lightning speed. Someone should tell the departing librarian there's a book in there somewhere.

Tessman's hands-on, helpful style will be missed, of course. But then she has dutifully trained others to carry on. Besides, she is taking the post of director emeritus. That's good news for all lovers of literature, art and information, but bad news for any grade-schooler or city official out to make mischief.