King in His Castle by Tobe Ezegbu

An interview with Robert McKenna, head librarian of Griffith College Dublin.

by Tobe Ezegbu

Iam seated at the library at Griffith College Dublin, researching for an essay. I do not exactly fit the profile of someone who visits the library often, but here I am. Assignment submissions are building up and I am running in the last lap. Desperate times, I guess. I am surrounded by deafening silence. I expected more people at the library, being just a little after noon on a Tuesday, but it is just the occasional visitor walking in and out. Suddenly, the sound of persistent movement comes from behind me. Feet shuffling, inaudible muttering, hums and what sounds like books sliding in and out of shelves.

I look back, and there he is. Clean shaven head, glasses partially masking the intense gaze in his eyes as he flicks through the pages of the book in his hands. He continues pacing around the library, rearranging books. He then pauses, looks around with a proud demeanour. This couldn’t be a frequent visitor, no.

He seems too knowledgeable and attached to the library. Then, a young woman walks in and confirms his identity. A final level Journalism student asking for recommendation materials to use for an assignment. His name is Robert McKenna, Head Librarian at Griffith College, Dublin. Intrigued by what I had seen, I was overcome by the compulsion to be invited into his world.

Why books?

For me, it is about a connection to different kinds of information in different places. It is not about being a specialist, but being someone who connects different people and ideas. It has always been the idea of a semantic network. I have always wanted to connect subjects and people. Inside Griffith College Library. Photo by Alice Tauleigne

What qualities should one possess to get a job as a librarian?

The thing about it is, there are a lot of different jobs under that term. For example, there are people who work in catalog and classification, where you need to be very methodical, pedantic and picky, and maybe very literal as well. It is that bifurcation, the split in the profession. The useful skills for a Librarian are Structured Query Language, good with databases, a bit of python programming and data, but these are not me (chuckles), I am the person at the inquiry end.

For people like me, I would say it is like being a teacher. Also, being interested in a wide range of topics. To give an example, the other

day, I was doing a Business Information class for fashion students and I had to go and “be interesting”, or be very boring if I’m not (laughs). You need to be interested, willing to take on a new subject and learn “ the language of that a bit. I am not an expert in any of the subjects, but I know what people are talking about in most of the subjects that we teach in college.

Some readers claim that the experience of reading physical books trumps that of reading online. Is this true and why is this? and I am going back and forth. So, that is the reason that works for me. But the thing about readership surveys, though, is that they are not static. How people read changes. People come in and Up until Saint Anselm of Milan, think ‘Oh, I want this’, but he was known as a genius about that might not really 500CE because he could read be what they should be looking for. Our job is to without moving his lips! Nobody had thought about reading without moving their lips, so how help them look for bet- people read changed. When they ter things, show them invented books in the 1400s, they ways to look tried to make them look as much as things done in scriptoriums by monks.

For me, definitely. Readership surveys tend to suggest that people have better attention from a printed book. And I know certainly for me, if I am reading an academic book, I will much prefer a printed book because I usually have three, four, five places in the book

“When we make eBooks now, you will see that “this page was intentionally left blank,” so what we have now is a book that Apple will describe as a skeuomorphic design. It is a contemporary technological product that has a design aes-

thetic from the previous. That is why you have, what looks like, a notebook on a computer.

How we will adapt to fully electronic texts has not actually played out yet. So, definitely, for most people, the physical book works better for retention. That kind of electronic product works really well for novels, but I do not think it works well for books.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the library and its users?

I want to stress that there are both negative and positive things about it. The positive is it has given us a bigger focus on electronic access and remote access. They give us a better equality of access to materials for people who cannot travel and also people whose first language is not English, an electronic text is better because they can translate it or have it read by a screen reader if they have sight problems. It gives better equity of access and allows multi-module access for people with special needs.

We have also added some remote services. On the negative side, obviously, a lot of learners do not have great spaces for studying so they rely on the library. It is open now and we do not have huge numbers. We are not overfull even with the limit because people are worried about coming in because they do not want to be wearing a mask for four hours sitting and studying.

How has the availability of these books online affected the culture of the library?

I think the online discovery and access to books is a less communal activity. It has less collegiality, less of a community aspect to it. To me it is a loss; people assume that libraries are all about staying quiet.

There are quiet spaces in the library, but there are other spaces where people engage in more social activities. So, I think the social, community aspect of discovery and learning has taken a hit with online books and with COVID as well. Do visitors usually know exactly what they want, or do you have to assist them in making their choices?

No, but often they think they do (laughs). People come in and think “Oh, I want this,” but that might not really be what they should be looking for. Our job is to help them look for better things, show them ways to look. If you were looking for a newspaper article, the first thing you would normally do is just go to Google, right? That is not a great way to do it, I can show you a much better way to do it in which the data structure is better.

On a lighter note, if there was a massive fire in the library and you had to save only one book, what would it be?

I am going to pick one that other people would not: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. It is a memoir of her father committing suicide and it is comic, but it is intensely literary. Each chapter is structured around and based on another book.

Composed, approachable, knowledgeable and with a surprising sense of humour, Robert Mckenna is a man who understands and is proud of his craft. There are quite a few college – based librarians in Dublin 8, and Mckenna puts them in a good light. The Librarian – indeed, a king in his castle built with knowledge.

From editor team: In case you are wondering where is the photo of Robert, unfortunately, we don’t have any. We sincerely apology about that, the latest COVID-19 restriction had made it difficult. However, you can always find Robert at Griffith College Library and talk to the man in person.