Who’s Happier? A Google Employee or a Librarian

Libraries and librarians spend a lot of time being worried about or mad at Google. For librarians Google has become synonymous with all that is wrong with the way non-librarians interact with information. Google allows people to be lazy. It gives them information that is quick and dirty, not complete and authoritative. It allows people to bypass libraries and librarians completely.

At the same time, most of us are aware that Google (the search engine) is a useful tool. One that we use all of the time. And more and more we use Google Scholar and Google Books to do the types of searching that we just can’t do anywhere else. (It’s a long sad story to explain why we pay vendors for products that are so much less uesful than what Google provides for free.)

Anyway, to add insult to injury, we now know that people working at Google are also pretty happy, at least according to Forbes magazine. For the 2nd year, Forbes magazine lists Google as the best company to work for. There is a great video on the Forbes Web site that shows an example of why Google is a good place to work. At Google, employees are encouraged to try new things and to work one day a week on a project of their own choosing. The employee in the video started out as an assistant to one of the Google founders but became, on her own initiative, the head of its green technologies group.

Now compare this to how most libraries work. Is there flexibility? Are we encouraged to try new things and to branch out into new areas?

Obviously, not all libraries are the same, but I would say that there are a lot of ways in which libraries can allow for flexibility in work activities. Many librarians have become involved in areas that they never imagined when they were going through library school. Blended librarians are librarians who deal with instructional design. A lot of librarians are more heavily focused on technology and Web design than answering reference questions or cataloging books. Personally, my current job doesn’t even have “librarian” in the title. My focus is on marketing and fundraising for the libraries, so I definitely have the opportunity at my institution to develop new skills and follow new interests.

But, unfortunately, I don’t think that libraries do always take full advantage of some of the Google ideas of being flexible and trying new ideas to get things done. And I think it can make for some burnt-out librarians and library staff. I’ve been in a couple of meetings in the past few weeks in which lower-level librarians and support staff got excited about some idea or some new process but then everyone just says “oh well” because it doesn’t fit into the ideas of the library management team (or the ideas are never even communicated up the chain of command because everyone thinks they know what the response will be).

A lot of research shows that people need meaningful work in order to be happy. It also shows that meaningful work can vary a lot from person to person. I think libraries could probably kill two birds with one stone, create happier employees and encourage more innovation, by taking yet another cue from Google and emulating some of their workplace ideas.