Library Outlaw

In library school the instructor of our reference class encouraged us not to answer questions on our own authority. I violated that sacred code twice last week. One fellow asked me to proofread a job letter, and later a middle-aged woman needed help understanding her research paper assignment. In the latter case I don't think I could have done much harm or good, since she was so compulsively garrulous that all I could do was lob occasional nuggets of advice into the rushing stream of gab. And I felt confident proofreading the man's letter since I graded hundreds of student papers in my days as an adjunct professor. I think that, with the future of reference librarianship so tenuous, anything we can do to make ourselves valuable (within reason) is to be commended, for selfish reasons if nothing else.