The Librarian and the Machine

Congratulations to Grace O'Connor from Dublin City University Library, whose blog post received a special mention in the A&SL Blog Post Competition 2026. 

The competition invited library staff and LIS students based in Ireland to submit a blog post exploring how library staff, libraries and information work are portrayed across film, television, literature, art, social media, gaming, news media or other cultural formats.

Still from Desk Set (1957), directed by Walter Lang. Courtesy of 20th Century-Fox via the Everett Collection. 

The year is 2026. You are a librarian and AI is coming for your job.

The year is 2004. You are a librarian and Google is coming for your job.
The year is 1957. You are a librarian and a computer is coming for your job.
Time is a flat circle.

In the romantic comedy Desk Set (1957), directed by Walter Lang, Katharine Hepburn plays Bunny Watson, a reference librarian in the Federal Broadcasting Network. Spencer Tracy plays the inventor of EMERAC (Electromagnetic MEmory and Research Arithmetical Calculator), a computer that could leave Bunny and her colleagues out of a job.

It is a theme familiar to anyone working in libraries. Every few years, a new technology arrives promising to make what we do obsolete. What makes Desk Set interesting is that it manages to be both a warning about technology and, ultimately, an optimistic film about it. More importantly, it is a surprisingly affectionate portrait of librarianship and information work.

“If I didn't work here I'd pay to get in”

The Reference Department in Desk Set is a wonderful place.

It is busy, chaotic and unmistakably feminine. The women shop on their lunch breaks, borrow each other's lipsticks, gossip and tease each other. There is something particularly striking about the contrast between the Reference Department and the organisation around it. Like many real-world libraries, the department is staffed predominantly by women, while the people with overall institutional power are men. At one point Bunny says, “If I didn't work here I'd pay to get in” (Desk Set, 1957).

Bunny initially looks like the classic caricature of the librarian. She is a middle-aged woman, swaddled in cardigans, pens in her hair, and she lives alone. Yet the character is not simply a joke about librarians. Bunny was loosely inspired by Agnes E. Law, a former CBS librarian who established the network's research library (AFI, 2026).

The researchers in the Reference Department aren't passive assistants waiting to be told what to do. They interpret questions, find sources and work out what people are actually asking. As Bunny puts it, “No machine can do our job. Too many cross references” (Desk Set, 1957). The wording may sound quaint now, but the underlying point remains relevant: a reference question is rarely just about retrieving a fact. It requires understanding the question, recognising what the person actually needs, knowing where to look and judging whether the answer makes sense.

Bunny's expertise is accumulated through experience. She knows the organisation, the collection, her colleagues and the people asking the questions. That type of on-the-job learning and real life experience is difficult to automate.

Still from Desk Set (1957, directed by Walter Lang. Courtesy of 20th Century-Fox via IMDB.

The next machine

The computer wasn't the last technology to threaten librarianship.

By 2004, the threat looked rather different. Google was rapidly transforming how people searched for information. A D-Lib Magazine editorial from Bonita Wilson that year noted that anyone could now “type a few words into a Google search bar” and receive thousands of information sources ranked by Google's algorithms. It acknowledged that professional searchers, including reference librarians, might be tempted to worry about this development (Wilson, 2004).

As we know, Google did not make librarians obsolete. The work changed, libraries adapted to the new technology and learned to use it effectively, so it enhanced the work rather than replacing it.

And this is where the comparison between Desk Set and real-world librarianship becomes interesting. The film's stereotype of the librarian as a woman who knows where to find information may now seem dated. But its portrayal of the librarian as an expert, adaptable information professional has aged surprisingly well.

People and machines

Now we have AI.

AI can spit out references, facts, and even whole essays faster than any librarian could. It can answer questions in seconds and produce convincing-looking responses without requiring the user to understand how the information was found.

That makes the question asked in Desk Set feel remarkably contemporary: what happens to the librarian when the machine can do the searching?

Still from Desk Set (1957), directed by Walter Lang. Courtesy of 20th Century-Fox via IMDB.

The answer may lie in what librarians have always done when technology changes.

The profession has survived the card catalogue, the photocopier, the personal computer, the internet and Google. Some technologies have eliminated tasks. Some have changed the skills librarians need. But none has eliminated the underlying need for people who can evaluate information, understand context, exercise professional judgement and respond to what their communities actually need.

Desk Set does not challenge every stereotype about librarians. But it does challenge one of the most persistent stories told about the profession: that when a machine can perform one of our tasks, the librarian becomes obsolete.

EMERAC doesn't destroy the Reference Department. The librarians remain, and (spoiler alert) the machine becomes part of their workplace rather than the end of it.

Perhaps the real lesson of Desk Set is not that librarians will always beat the machines. It is that librarians have always been very good at finding a way to use them.

Time is a flat circle, after all.

Reference List

American Film Institute (2026) AFI Catalog. Available at: https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52153-DESK-SET (Accessed: 28/08/2026).

Desk Set (1957) Directed by Walter Lang. [Feature film]. 20th Century Fox.

Wilson, B. (2004) 'Using the Internet for Searching', D-Lib Magazine, 10(3), Available at: https://www.dlib.org/dlib/march04/03editorial.html (Accessed: 30/08/2024).

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Libfocus Link-out for September 2026

Welcome to the September edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

[image: Kadumago, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons]

The Next Chapter of Open Access Is Stewardship.
Kamran Naim argues in the Katina Magazine that the next chapter of the Open Access movement is about accepting collective responsibility for the infrastructures that make openness sustainable over the long term.

The Politics of Academic Libraries: Why Librarians Need a Seat at the Decision-Making Table.
Librarian Onyebuchi Ekpolomo recommends on LinkedIn that libraries do not shy away from “politics” and get a seat at the table where it matters.

Libraries and museums should have books, not artificial intelligence.
This opinion piece questions the growing use of AI in museums and libraries, arguing that technology should support, not overshadow, the books, collections and historical evidence at the heart of cultural institutions.

How one library built an Intranet that Staff actually use.
Too many emails, scattered information and disconnected teams are familiar challenges for many libraries. This article looks at how Lake Villa District Library built a staff hub that became a trusted source of information while strengthening workplace culture and collaboration.

Back to school in the age of AI.
Elissa Malespina discusses tools to help guide the conversation about the use of AI among students as the new academic term begins.

Ten simple rules for scholarly blogging.
Catharina Ochsner, Heinz Pampel and Martin Fenner offer practical guidance for those who wish to adopt blogging as a form of scholarly communication.

We’re Using Harvard’s Libraries Wrong.
In this opinion piece for The Harvard Crimson, Emily X. Yu advises students to draw on the expertise of librarians, rather than on AI, when doing their research.

Need a Gun Lock? Ask Your Local Librarian.
Chip Brownlee looks at an initiative in Baltimore that promotes safer firearm storage in this article for The Trace. Johns Hopkins has partnered with Baltimore’s public library system for the project, with the aim to prevent homicide, unintentional injuries, suicide and theft.

Oxford and Springer Nature Update AI Journal Guidelines.
On the back of a global survey of more than 2,600 researchers on AI disclosure practices and policies, OUP updated its guidelines on AI use for authors and editors. It includes what AI use should be disclosed when preparing manuscripts for OUP journals.

A Groupthink We Don’t Talk Much About.
Irving Janis, the Yale psychologist who developed the theory of groupthink from studying foreign policy disasters, found that the groups most vulnerable to it weren’t the incompetent ones. Neil Blair Christensen wonders if the scholarly publishing community are one of those groups.

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Why We Still Need Librarians and DJs in the Age of the Algorithm

In 2015, I wrote a post for Libfocus called Librarians are a lot like DJs. My argument was straightforward enough. Librarians and DJs are both curators. We sort through vast amounts of material, identify what we think has value, and connect people with resources they may never have discovered otherwise. Whether the medium happens to be books, journal articles, archives, podcasts or records, the underlying principle remains much the same. We help people navigate abundance.  

More than a decade later, I find myself returning to that idea, not just as a librarian writing about DJs, but as someone who unexpectedly became a college radio DJ on UCC983FM shortly after I wrote that post.  

Next week, on 10 September, I will start presenting a new show, The Thursday Mixtape, on UCC 98.3FM every Thursday evening from 6pm to 8pm. The programme will also be available afterwards through Mixcloud for anyone who misses the live broadcast and wants to listen back.  

As I've been planning the show, choosing music, and thinking about what I want the show to be, I have found myself reflecting on that 2015 article and wondering whether its central argument might actually be more relevant today than it was then.  

When I wrote that original piece, streaming was already well established. Spotify had been around for a number of years and services such as Deezer and Google Play Music were gaining traction. What has changed since then is the extent to which recommendation algorithms have become the primary means through which many people discover music.  

There is no question that these systems provide value. Most of us have probably experienced the pleasure of finding a new artist through a playlist or radio station generated by a streaming platform. The technology is impressive, and the convenience is undeniable. We have access to more music than any previous generation could ever have imagined.  

Yet I sometimes wonder whether abundance has created a different problem.  

When almost everything is available, how do we decide what deserves our attention?  

The traditional answer was often a trusted intermediary. For previous generations that might have been a local record shop owner, a music journalist, a friend with impeccable taste, or a radio DJ. They performed a filtering function. They listened to lots of music so that we did not have to. They developed informed opinions, championed obscure artists, and occasionally took risks on music that had no obvious commercial appeal.  

The important point is that these recommendations came from people rather than processes.  

Algorithms are remarkably effective at identifying patterns in our existing behaviour. They are good at telling us what listeners with similar habits have also enjoyed. What they typically cannot explain is why a particular piece of music matters to someone. They cannot tell stories. They cannot communicate enthusiasm. They cannot share the emotional connection that often sits behind a recommendation.  

A human curator can and does.  

This is one of the ideas behind The Thursday Mixtape. It would be misleading to describe it as a carefully structured programme. In truth, listeners may find it somewhat chaotic. There is no grand curatorial framework. There are no strict rules. There often will not be an obvious connection between successive tracks.  

You might hear a post-punk classic followed by contemporary folk or cheesy pop single. An electronic track might give way to Americana or classical. Shoegaze could sit beside soul or Chinese throat singing. Indie rock may be followed by new wave, classic rock, jazz, disco or something that fits comfortably into none of those categories.  

From a programming perspective, this may seem slightly reckless.  

The only principle guiding the selection is that I like the songs or music I'm going to play and think it is worth sharing.  

That may sound simplistic, but I would argue that this has always been one of the strengths of good radio. Many of the great DJs were not successful because they adhered rigidly to genre boundaries. They were successful because listeners trusted their judgement. People tuned in not necessarily because they knew what was coming next, but because they didn't.  

That element of surprise mattered greatly to me in my formative music days and I’m hoping to bring some of that to the show. 

This is increasingly rare in an environment where recommendation systems are designed to minimise friction and maximise user engagement. The logic of these systems often nudges us towards music that resembles what we have already heard. As a result, listening can become a highly personalised but sometimes surprisingly narrow, and I would say a lesser, experience.  

Radio, at its best, offers something different.  

It introduces randomness. It introduces risk. It creates opportunities for serendipitous discovery. It exposes listeners to music they might otherwise skip past or never encounter at all.  

As librarians, we understand the value of this process. Libraries are not simply warehouses of information. They are spaces of discovery. A good library catalogue can help users locate material efficiently, but the most memorable discoveries often occur through recommendation, browsing or conversation. Sometimes the book or article that changes your perspective or research is not the one you were searching for. It is the one somebody suggested, displayed, or happened to place in your path.  

Music works in much the same way.  

Back in 2015, I argued that we needed librarians because we were drowning in information and choice. I also suggested that we needed DJs because we were drowning in music. Eleven years later, I think both observations remain true and even more so now. 

The technologies have become more sophisticated. Our access to content has expanded beyond anything we could have imagined. Yet the need for informed, passionate, human recommendation has not disappeared.  

If anything, it has become more important. It is now essential. 

The Thursday Mixtape is a small attempt to contribute to that tradition. For two hours every Thursday evening, I will be sharing songs that I think deserve to be heard. There may be no obvious logic to the sequence. There may be no overarching theme. There may be moments when the playlist appears to have wandered completely off course in to a strange bizarre listening world.  

But that is the point.  

Discovery has always been a little messy.  

And sometimes the best recommendations come not from an algorithm that knows exactly what we want, but from another human being who simply says: "Listen to this." 

 

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Libfocus Link-out for August 2026

Welcome to the August edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

 
As Gov. Healey weighs library bill, readers say: let librarians decide.
In this article for Boston.com, Annie Jonas looks at bill S.2696, which is under consideration by the Governor of Massachusetts this month. The bill would give librarians more power to choose and display books and make it more difficult for books to be pulled from the shelves. Crucially, it would also protect librarians from being penalised due to their collection decisions.

Their Library feature in Clash Magazine.
Ever wondered about the literary influences behind the music? Well look no further than the 'their library' feature in Clash Magazine. Add some strange, funny and inspiring titles to your TBR list with recommendations from NYC group Slow Fiction, Nell Mescal, Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy and more.

Refusal as Instruction: Equipping Patrons to Resist AI, Data Brokers, Big Tech, & More.
A journal article by Hannah Cyrus on technology refusal classes she runs at her library, including
‘Avoiding AI’. Cyrus advocates that libraries as values-driven organizations have a role to play in
facilitating patrons’ rejection of technology, just as much as in their adoption of it.

Pat Donlon obituary: First woman director of a national institution, librarian and academic.
Following the passing of Pat Donlon, the Irish Times looks back on her life as the first woman Director of a national institution, librarian, and her part as one of a remarkable generation of Irish women who were among the first in their families to attend university in the 1960s.

Rethinking Rankings: A Moral Ambition?
Lizzie Gadd examines in her article in the Bibliomagician global university rankings through the lens of meaningful social change. She applies the historian’s Rutger Bregman’s six warning signs that a common practice may be wrong to shortcomings of university rankings.

Reimagining openness in academic libraries: Reflections from ALN conference 2026.
Open Research Librarian Abi Harrison-Henshall and Open Research Specialist Dr Sarah Kneen from the University of Manchester report on the Academic Libraries North 2026 Conference, which asked participants to think beyond Open Access as simply making research free to read. This summary piece raises some important questions currently being discussed in research libraries.

A ‘bananas’ order for 5,000 obscure titles from a bookshop in Galway fuels suspicion.
A wave of mystery bulk book purchases is puzzling European booksellers, with many suspecting the titles are being bought for AI training rather than readers. The trend raises concerns about copyright, publishing ethics, and AI's impact on the book industry.

‘More real than anything you’ll see scrolling’: the radical resurgence of UK fanzines, 50 years after punk.
Fifty years after punk zines like Sniffin’ Glue, DIY music fanzines are enjoying a revival across the UK as fans seek a more personal, tangible alternative to algorithm-driven online culture. From Glasgow to Belfast, creators are using self-published magazines to build communities, document local music scenes and celebrate independent voices.

6 reasons libraries should look beyond the MLS.
Bryn Geffert argues that MLS requirements hinder academic libraries and instead calls for recognising alternative credentials and interdisciplinary expertise in recruitment.

The case for a professional foundation in librarianship.
Responding to Bryn Geffert, Bobbi Newman and Sam Helmick counter that the Master of Library Science and professionally trained librarians remain more essential than ever.

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Artist Una Watters and the Cost of the Marriage Bar on Irish Libraries

Article by Libfocus guest author Holly Meade-Kennedy. Holly works within the Irish academic library sector and is passionate about social justice and EDI. 

During a recent trip to the National Gallery of Ireland, I paused as I walked by a striking painting of a woman walking in the rain, holding an umbrella in front of Trinity College. As I began to read the short blurb that accompanied it, I learned it had been painted by Una Watters, an Irish librarian and artist. ‘Una was forced to retire from her post as a librarian due to the Irish marriage bar in 1945,’ it explained. 

The Irish marriage bar was introduced in the 1920s, requiring female civil service workers to retire from employment once they married (Foley, 2022), anchored by a bedrock of deep enmeshment between religious and civil life. It grew into a pervasive cultural norm across banks, primary teaching, local health boards and the private sector until the civil service requirement was ultimately revoked in 1973.

Before I had even made it home that evening, I began furiously Googling Una Watters. As a teacher currently working in an academic library, I felt acutely aware that it could have been my career that needed to be sacrificed, had I been born just a few decades earlier. I had thought I had stumbled upon a famous painter I had somehow never heard of, expecting to find hundreds of articles, possibly some podcasts and certainly listings of other exhibitions where I could see more of her work. In reality, the results were frustratingly sparse. While a few online articles documented Una’s life, they fell far short of the extensive record an artist of her talent deserves. 

Image from Pexels.com

Yet even with an academic library catalogue at my fingertips, the search results were starkly blank: a frustrating reminder that collective memory often fails some of the most talented and brilliant women. But who better to be tasked with finding information buried deeply than those of us who work in libraries? In the Avengers universe, this is my form of superpower.

Born Una McDonnell in 1918, she grew up in Finglas and entered Dublin’s public library service in the late 1930s. Dual identity seems to be a theme of Una’s life, as by day she was a library clerk working in the Capel Street and Phibsborough branches, and by night she was a student at the National College of Art and Design. Due to ill health, she never had the chance to complete her studies, but clearly what she had learned and the innate talent she possessed was more than enough to allow her to create some incredible works of art.

In 1945, Una was forced to resign from her job as a librarian when she met her husband Eugene Watters. Looking back, we can clearly identify the devastating historical drain of female intellect and institutional memory the marriage bar caused within Irish libraries. Our profession missed out on intelligent, creative, interesting women, like Una, who had so much to give. It should give us pause to consider just how different our libraries and public services might look today without the enforcement of the marriage bar.

Think, for instance, of Henriette Avram, who invented machine-readable cataloguing (MARC) in the 1960s. This became the international language of information, allowing libraries anywhere in the world to instantly share cataloguing data, paving the way for the automation of libraries and setting the stage for the modern internet search systems we use today. Without Henriette Avram, the global library network as we know it today would not exist. If Henriette had been a married woman in Ireland, the world may not have MARC records today. How many Irish Henriette Avrams did we legally cast aside? What standard, what system or what creative breakthrough did Irish libraries lose forever simply because a brilliant woman decided to get married?

Though the State took her library job, it couldn’t strip away her archivist’s instinct, and Una found a new way to catalogue history. With her free time, Una created incredible works of art with a unique modernist style, using elements of Cubism and Futurism to depict figures in interesting, angular forms. She used her art to document social change in paintings like Cappagh Road (1960). This painting documents a vanished era when community life was lived out on the street. It captures a time when neighbours congregated on corners without phones to distract them from conversing with one another and the local shop was the true centre point of the estate.

Una’s untimely death occurred in 1965 when she was just 47 years old, and Eugene subsequently gifted her paintings to family and friends. It was that same year Una had won an Arts Council competition to design the official emblem for the 1916 Rising Golden Jubilee, known as the Sword of Light. The logo was used on badges, stamps and even Dublin buses. The £100 prize cheque arrived in the post on the morning of Una’s funeral, once again symbolising that Una’s life was sadly marked by an undeserved series of ‘almosts’.

Because Una’s work was hung in the dining rooms and kitchens of her loved ones around Ireland, she was eclipsed from Irish public memory. However, in 2022, Una’s niece Sheila Smith endeavoured to become a new keeper of her memory. Using the 1966 catalogue from the memorial exhibition Eugene had held in her honour before dispersing her paintings, Sheila, partnering with writer Mary Morrissy, began tracking down the missing canvases. They ultimately located most of her original 37 paintings, culminating in the 2022 retrospective exhibition in Dublin’s United Arts Club aptly titled ‘Una Watters: Into the Light’.
Serendipitously, one place where her work remained visible to the public throughout that time was Phibsborough Library where Una had once worked. She had gifted her painting ‘The Four Masters’ to the library in 1959. There is a profound irony here: a woman whose own legacy faded into the shadows had painted a masterpiece celebrating the Franciscan friars who were the ultimate keepers of Irish memory. Una left a physical anchor of her talent in the custody of information-keepers, ensuring that the library would guard her memory until we were ready to discover it again.

Una’s story brings to mind the many women who stayed in the shadows, with their genius and creativity halted because of restrictions like the Irish Marriage Bar. Librarians have the skills and passion to discover, share and celebrate information and stories that were once forgotten or even buried. Our priority must be to champion those who have been pushed to the margins or left off the shelves entirely.

References:

Foley, D. (2022). ‘Their proper place’: women, work and the marriage bar in independent Ireland, c. 1924–1973. Social History, 47(1), 60–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2022.2009692
Mary Morrissy ‘Una Watters Publications’ 2022 https://unawattersartist.com/publications/ 

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Janeway 1.8 & 1.9 Showcase

Janeway'll be hosting a showcase of the new features introduced in Janeway 1.8 and 1.9 soon, to which you are all invited.

 

 

When: Wednesday 26 August, 15:30–16:30 (UK time)
Where: Microsoft Teams — link below.

 

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/397743722693089?p=zFlqBcWf4TAdEv87cS
Meeting ID: 397 743 722 693 089
Passcode: Xo2k6zQ6

This session is particularly aimed at press managers and editors, as several of the changes affect journal and press configuration, contact handling, and styling -- but anyone is welcome.

Highlights include:

• A new Accessibility page for journals and presses (not repositories), including:
  • A living VPAT
  • The ability to add or link your own accessibility statement at journal or press level
• Alt text support
• Content management system draft/published settings, and how these relate to sitemaps, and the WCAG "Multiple Ways" success criterion
• Discontinuation of the OLH, Material, and Clean themes, with a move to the Clarity theme
• New contact manager
• Large images are not pixellated or skewed any more
  • You can control journal publishing status, including a "test" status

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Libfocus Link-out for July 2026

Welcome to the July edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

‘Open season’ on scholars’ rights if Elsevier loses Meta fight.
Jack Grove reports in the Times Higher Education that if Meta wins its AI scraping case, academics could lose control over how their work is used - leading to the surprising sight of many researchers siding with Elsevier to defend author rights.

If the Library Is the Heart of the University, Then Treat It Like One.
In his blog post, the Librarian, Educator, and Consultant Trevor A. Dawes argues that the success of academic libraries in achieving seamless access to information is also a problem when they become invisible.

Human Books, Real Stories: Creating Space for Empathy at the Human Library in DCU.
This practice-based article by Eilís O'Neill and Gwendolyn O'Connor looks at two Human Library events held in DCU in 2024 and 2026. Teams across the university came together to deliver the events, where volunteers took part as human 'Books'. They shared their experiences of prejudice or stigma with community members or 'Readers' who borrowed them for open conversations, with the aim of breaking down stereotypes and encouraging empathy.

Cut, Paste, Print: How UBC Library is making space for zine culture across both campuses.
Anna Moorhouse from the University of British Columbia describes how the teams in UBC's libraries are using zines to promote the library, connect with students and highlight their collections. The annual UBCO Library zine promotes library services, collaboration with faculty on zine projects aids discovery of their special collections, and staff have delivered workshops on incorporating zine-making into undergraduate courses.

University Libraries are essential in the age of AI.
Interesting response from the Ontario Council of University Libraries to a recent AI task force report, affirming the critical role libraries can play in preparing students and researchers for the age of AI.

Taking the Pulse: a National Survey on Generative AI in Libraries.
Western Region Section of the Library Association of Ireland in partnership with the UCD iSchool have launched a national survey exploring the use, perception, and impact of Gen AI across the Irish library sector.

Archiving with AI.
Matt Enis discusses how Special Collections and Archives grapple with how to manage projects involving AI responsibly, as AI companies offer libraries funding for digitisation projects.

Not just books - how renting a sewing machine from the library can improve democracy.
Erike Benke for the BBC looks at how Finland's libraries are increasingly being valued not by how many books they lend, but how they help societies function.

Refusal as Instruction: Equipping Patrons to Resist AI, Data Brokers, Big Tech, & More.
Hannah Cyrus explores how library workers can align technology use and instruction in library settings with library values, through championing the refusal of technologies that conflict with values like privacy and intellectual freedom.

AI makes foundational knowledge more important than ever.
Manu Kapur argues that "employers will need those who can reason – not only with AI but, more importantly, against it".

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Beyond the Library: Some thoughts on Retirement

Guest post from Helen Fallon Helen retired as Deputy Librarian at Maynooth University in 2022. 

Introduction
Retirement is a new stage of life which all library staff will eventually encounter.  It’s a major transition, comparable to leaving home to go to university or moving to a new country and requires as much or perhaps more planning than working - no job is as flexible and unregulated. At work you have a clearly defined role. That is no longer the case in retirement and it can be quite daunting to begin anew.

Most people are living longer and if you retire at 65 there is a good change you will have at least 15 or maybe 20 years where you can still be quite active.  You can view retirement as a new dawn, a time to reinvent or fine-tune yourself according to a template of your own making.

Four years ago, in 2022, I retired from a career in librarianship that spanned over forty years. This blog post distils some of my experiences, reflections and suggestions. It doesn’t refer to financial planning for retirement, something which is crucial to do, long before your retirement date arrives.

Preparing for retirement
You have given service to others for a long period of time. Now is the time to focus on yourself, to do things you have always wanted to do. Explore options. Don’t immediately rush into commitments without taking some time to consider what you want to do, in both the short term (first year) and in the long term (5 years). If you take on commitments very quickly, you risk filling your time up meeting other people’s needs. Plan your retirement in such a way as to ensure your world is broadening rather than narrowing. Having completed your contribution to work, it’s time to enlarge your contribution to your personal life, and to develop interests and activities that appeal to you.

Task 1: 
Make a list of things you would like to do or do more of, but don’t have time for at the moment. Be as specific as possible.  Date the list and save it. It can be helpful to look back on this when you retire. Your interests may have changed, but there is value in thinking about it and actually writing down some things you would like to do if you had more time. 

I recommend Dr Maureen Gaffney’s book Your One Wild and Precious Life, particularly the Late Adulthood section. I found the book very interesting, particularly the different needs of people in relation to structure. A psychologist, she relates the need for structure in retirement back to childhood, and what is termed attachment style. A person with insecure attachment style (possibly a parent is absent or unable to provide for their needs) will need a more structured approach to retirement, than a person who has experience security in childhood.  She suggests you don’t view retirement as a completely blank canvas but equally don’t plan to fill the hours from 9 to 5, from Monday to Friday. It’s likely you may spend a good lot of the first year catching up with people, celebrating your retirement and maybe doing some travel you didn’t have time for before. But then you have to ask yourself – what am I going to do for the rest of my life?

Practice your retirement
Try to prioritise non-work-related meaningful activities before you retire. Allowing these activities to take up more space in your life will ease the transition.  I’m interested in relearning the Irish language. A few years before I retired Maynooth University offered Irish classes at lunchtime to staff. I did this for two years and got my school Irish to a reasonable level. Since retiring I’ve done two courses with Conradh na Gaeilge and gone to the Gaeltacht. I think it helped that I had undertaken the refresher at lunchtime with work. 

Task 2
Write down the answer to these questions.

• How do you find meaning at work?
• How much of your identity is tied up with work? (Identity doesn’t remain fixed but changes as your life develops).
• What roles do you play in your life?

Finding Purpose in retirement
Identify a passion/something you have a real interest in. 

If you don’t have anything specific try a few different things.  Look back on your childhood, was there anything you wanted to do/be?

 I’d been writing down the years, a mixture of academic and creative writing.  I made a decision to focus on creative writing after retirement. I’ve also decided to focus on poetry, and the occasional blog post and memoir article.

What are your priorities? Chances are you have been part of a three-year strategic plan at work. For that activities had to be prioritised. Priorities were in line with organisational values. For your retirement your priorities need to be in line with your personal values, and goals will have a different focus to work, with perhaps less emphasis on outcomes. The book Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler, while not specifically related to retirement is very good on goal setting and identifying your values and the key areas in your life. Susan Reid’s Re-Visioning Retirement: A Workbook provides detailed writing activities to help align retirement with vision, values and purpose.

Volunteering
Across our career we learn to manage ourselves, including dealing with difficult situations and working as part of a team to provide service to our library communities and increasingly beyond. We leave the formal world of work with an excellent skillset and a strong service ethic, both of which would be very valuable in the voluntary sector. Age Action co-ordinates training on using iPhones/tablets etc and they often look for volunteers to deliver training in libraries. Failte Isteach is well established, again through the library network, as a space for conversational English with new communities and they look for volunteers to facilitate groups. Library staff have skills in sourcing information which is extremely valuable in lots of different contexts.

Consider whether you want to make a regular commitment or a once off effort. I don’t want a regular commitment to be in a particular place, as I like to be free to travel. I’ve been involved in fundraising for books and stationery for a prison library in Malawi, where a relative served as chaplain.  I’ve worked in Africa and enjoyed this project and the fact that it is time limited. I’ve also done occasional sessions with different groups on writing poetry.

Health
Prioritise your health and wellbeing. Hopefully you are in a reasonably good place health wise. Keep active. I swim and walk most days. I also find gardening very good for my wellbeing, and enjoy spending time with family, relatives and friends. I don’t have the energy I had ten years ago, but my enthusiasm hasn’t waned. I now accept I have to pace myself and not take on too much. Chances are you will have friends of a similar age to you. I try to limit health-related discussions when I meet up with friends. The reality is we are all growing older and health issues arise. It’s important to be positive and enjoy the present time. In his book Retirement: the Psychology of Reinvention, Kenneth Shultz writes “the most contented people tend to be those who value what’s good in their day-to-day experiences, rather than fixating on the signs of aging…wellbeing depends partly on staying positive and finding joy in small things.”

Making Connections
In his book Flourish Martin Seligman identifies three things necessary for wellbeing – connection, engagement and sense of purpose. The workplace is a community. When you retire you still need to have a sense of community. While I’m in the Maynooth University retirement group, and enjoy meeting former colleagues through this, and occasional attendance at events in the Library, I think it is important to develop new networks and friendships. Otherwise, you risk having tired conversations about the past.

I miss the intellectual stimulation of working in a university. It was a very exciting place to work, with lots going on. I attend courses from the Irish Writer’s Centre and online from time to time and also attend poetry readings, do historic walking tours of Dublin and other events. I’m meeting new people who share my interests and from that I get some of the stimulation I used get from work. When I was working there were always people to have a coffee and a chat with. In retirement I have to schedule meetings for coffee and lunch so there is more planning involved.

Task 3
What transitions have you experienced in your life?
How have you built connection into your life?


Conclusion
The good grounding in information technology and social media I got throughout my career has been of immense value to me. I can keep up to date with events locally and nationally and participate in face-to-face events and online. There’s a fabulous range of podcasts and it’s possible to learn a lot free of charge.  Going forward I really want to keep those skills up to date.

Planning for retirement is vitally important. It’s good to spend some time exploring and indulging yourself the first year, possibly travelling and meeting up with people to celebrate your new freedom, then settling down to a flexible routine and to retired life in the second year and beyond. Try something new rather than sticking with the things you feel comfortable with. It’s important to be growing and learning at all stages of life.

In autumn 2026 four years will have passed since I left the library world. It’s been an interesting time and something I still appreciate is enjoying the weekend and knowing I don’t have to get up and go to work on Monday morning.

Some websites I find useful.
The Irish Writer’s Centre. 
https://irishwriterscentre.ie/ 

The Munster Literature Centre 
https://munsterlit.ie/ 

Poetry Ireland 
https://www.poetryireland.ie/ 

The Museum of Literature Ireland has a wide range of exhibitions and events and a nice café.
www.moli.ie 

The National Library of Ireland mailing list is really useful for the broad range of events (both in person in Kildare Street and online) and they are all free of charge. 
https://www.nli.ie/ 

Public libraries run writing and reading clubs and they are free.  I’ve signed up for the mailing lists for my local library and neighbouring libraries in Kildare.

Royal Irish Academy (interesting guest lectures)
https://www.ria.ie/library/ 

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Building a Library Without Walls: Rethinking Library Systems Through an Argentine Community Library in Ireland

This guest post is by Nadina Yedid, Assistant Librarian with Children's Health Ireland.

There’s a saying that goes, “They didn’t know it was impossible, so they did it”. This is the story of how I met an extraordinary group of people, who didn’t know it was impossible to build a library without a reading room, a storage space, or an LMS. So, we did it.

How it started

It was mid-2025 when I received a WhatsApp message from a colleague from my home country (Argentina). It was a link to an article in a local newspaper that read “A group of Rosarinos (i.e. from the city of Rosario in Argentina) created the first library of Argentine literature in Ireland” . The article explained that the founders of the project had come together out of a shared love of literature, but also as a way to recreate spaces they had in Argentina, to gather as a community, and to provide one of the things most migrants leave behind when we move: our books, in our native language. The article introduced some of the people behind the project, the idea that moved it, and had a few photos of the people building the project. But that was all. Saying I was intrigued is an understatement. Where was this library? What were the opening hours? Could I go visit? Was there an OPAC? And above all, were all these people from the photos Argentine librarians living in Ireland like me? I did some research and was able to find an Instagram account that I started to follow. I wanted to reach out, ask if they needed any help, but I worried that I might not have much to contribute. Surely there were other librarians in the group - and most likely better than myself. 

A few months passed with no news, and suddenly, a post: Book Club - Saturday October 18th - Charleville Mall Library. 

I attended the Book Club with the secret mission of finding out more about this library. To my surprise - or maybe not? - there were over 20 people taking part in the activity. The session included a round of presentations, throughout which I managed to keep my cover intact, without disclosing my secret librarian identity. By the end of the round I had realised none of the organisers or attendees had claimed to be a librarian. Were they also keeping their identity a secret? Or maybe there were no librarians in this library? I began to suspect, maybe this was a different kind of library than the ones I knew before. By the end of the session, the meeting gave way to informal chatter within the attendees. I had so far gathered only very vague information about the library, so I took a more direct method of research and started asking straight: “But where is the library? Where do you keep the books? What books do you have?” That is how I found out the library “Biblioteca María Elena Walsh” does not have a physical location. The books are donations from the community and authors, and they are stored in the houses of the people behind the project. They had an Excel file with around 200 book titles, and they wanted to build a catalogue, but none of them were librarians and they didn’t know how to do it. That was the moment when I let my guard down and revealed my true identity. When I told one of the organisers I was a librarian she was delighted to discover there was a library professional among us. I was immediately invited to join the project.

Building “The System”: the challenges

When I joined the first meeting of the group they were concerned about having a system that would allow them to share the books that were available through the library and lend them to other members of the Argentine/Spanish-speakers community in Ireland. The idea behind it was simple: there were people who hold books, and there were people who wanted to read books, they just needed a way to connect them. Since the library didn’t have a physical space for patrons to browse the shelves, they needed a way to let the community know which books were available. And since the library didn’t have a reading room, they needed their patrons to be able to borrow the books and read them at home. So essentially, an OPAC and a circulation module. 

By the time I got to them, some of the members had made enquiries with local librarians known to them. They were told, of course, that they needed an LMS, and were recommended to find out more about Koha. The group was divided between those who wanted to implement a more traditional library management system from the outset, this meant getting Koha installed on a server, catalogue the books properly, and manage all loans in the circulation module. Others felt that might take a moment, and it was better to just circulate the Excel file with the book titles, and have another Excel file to register loans and returns. I myself had mixed feelings. On the one hand, as a librarian, I felt it was my obligation to tell them “how things should be done the right way”, but on the other hand, I was afraid that if we waited to have everything perfect to launch it, we would end up not doing it at all.

Installing Koha presented a few problems: first and foremost, I didn’t have the technical expertise to implement it. Although I had worked with the system before, it had always been as a cataloguer, with a system already installed and parameters set by Interleaf. Hiring someone to do the job would have involved costs that the library, at that time, could not afford. Then, there was the problem of cataloguing the books in MARC format. Since the books were scattered across different homes, it would have been impossible for me to access all 200 volumes to catalogue them with the item in hand. So, this needed to be a collective work, where each “book holder” could enter the data of the books they stored. However, the idea of teaching a group of people with no prior library training how to catalogue a book in MARC format was out of the question. So, I began to wonder, perhaps Koha wasn’t the right solution? Maybe a library that is different to all the libraries I knew before required a different system to the ones I had used in the past.

All the books in the library were donations, so there was no real need for an acquisitions module. All materials were monographs, so no serials module required. All the borrowers would be end users, so no need for an ILL module either. The collection itself was composed mostly by widely renowned books that would almost certainly be available for copy cataloguing in many other catalogues or… platforms? It suddenly felt obvious.

Building “The System”: the solution

We live in an era in which almost all social activities are mediated by digital platforms. There are platforms to travel, platforms to meet people, platforms to share your photos, your videos, your research, and more. There is a platform for almost anything you might want. There had to be a platform to share your collection of books. I did some research and discovered there is actually more than one, but among them was one that seemed to have pretty much what we needed: LibraryThing.

LibraryThing  is a lightweight, web-based cataloguing platform that allows users to create and manage bibliographic records online. It can be thought of as something similar to Goodreads, but with a stronger focus on bibliographic metadata and structured cataloguing rather than on sharing opinions and reviews. Once you’ve created your account you can start adding books to ‘Your Library’ by copy cataloguing, importing records, or creating original records. The platform also links to a feature called “TinyCat”  that turns your LibraryThing catalogue into a library OPAC and provides a small circulation system for loans. It allows for institutional accounts, which, depending on their size and type can pay as little as €3 per month. 

I presented the idea to the rest of the group and we decided this system would do for the moment, at least until we have figured out whether we needed Koha or not. I recorded a short training video on how to add a book to our library. LibraryThing allows users to copy catalogue from many different institutions, such as the Library of Congress or the British Library. The sources from which you want to allow copy cataloguing can be edited, and we were able to add the Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno (the National Library of Argentina). This library produces a lot of MARC records readily available through Z39.50 protocol, and it’s one of the most robust and reliable sources of records for Argentine literature.

 

Figure 1. Adding records through copy cataloguing

A few books from the library could not be found for copy cataloguing. Especially, donations from self-published authors, that didn’t have a bibliographic record available in other libraries. In those cases, we added the records manually, using a structured, field‑based metadata form rather than MARC records. The interface presents a simplified, metadata‑driven form for manual data entry that is very intuitive and only requires minor explanations for those who have not received library training. Again, the fields for manual entry can be customised to meet the needs of the collection.

 

Figure 2. Part of the template to manually input a record in LibraryThing

Once the collection has been built, you can either direct your patrons to your LibraryThing account, where they can see a full list of your holdings, including circulation information, for a more browseable experience. Or you can point them to your TinyCat site, for a more search-oriented experience.

 

Figure 3. View of the full collection list, with lending information

Figure 4. View of the search interface of TinyCat 

The “TinyCat” feature also enables a small circulation module which allowed us to create our own Patrons database. As expressed in the Privacy and TOS  LibraryThing is assumed to be in the position of data processor, and the institutions in the position of data controller, managing the data of their data subjects. So, it is the institution’s responsibility to ensure GDPR compliance for their data subjects, including collecting consent, managing consent-revocation, enabling access, etc. In our case, we did this by requesting all of our patrons who wanted to be registered in the library to complete a Google Form. The form included consent and adherence to the Maria Elena Walsh Library policies and regulations.

Once the patrons database starts to be built up, books can be checked out, returned, placed on hold, or other custom status. Preferences can be set for lending times, automatic emails to be sent to borrowers at the time of borrowing a book, reminders of coming due dates, and overdue items. The feature includes an option for patrons self-check in/out of books, and a patron interface with username and password access, although these options have not been used by our library yet. The system also facilitates reports to monitor activity by books and patrons. The only downside we have noticed is that the system does not seem to allow for reservation of books that are currently on loan. It appears the books can have only one status, either they are checked out, or reserved, but can’t be both checked out to one patron and reserved to another. Yet, for us, this is a small detail in comparison with the great benefits it offers.

 

Figure 5. General view of the TinyCat admin page

How it’s going

LibraryThing provided the catalogue and the circulation module, but we still needed a procedure. We created a website, bibliowalsh.org, where users could be pointed to find all the relevant information they needed to borrow books from the library - and to see the other many projects and activities the library is involved in. The website included links to a “how to borrow books” page, the library regulations, the catalogue, and the registration form.

The procedure is simple: anybody over 18 years old can register with the library for free. To do so they must complete the form available on the website and tick that they agree to the library policies and regulations. Library regulations can be found on the website, but are also hyperlinked on the registration form, for full transparency. After registering, the person receives a confirmation email, and can start borrowing books. Loans are for free; each patron can borrow one book at the same time - for now at least. They can keep it for 30 days and renew their loan for another 15 days. There are no fines for late returns, as the library works as a collaborative project and we expect to have the respect from all of our users. After registering, the person can visit our catalogue, choose from the database the book they would like to read, and email us to coordinate a collection time and location. Books can be collected from the library member who is housing the book, or can be brought to one of the library’s activities in town.

The launching of the lending system was marked with an Open Mic Night at the end of April. Since then - less than two months ago - we’ve had over 30 people signed up to register with the library. We have lent 8 books, to 7 different borrowers, and we expect to reach more and more people as word-of-mouth spreads. We have also received more donations, and we are about to reach the 290 books. Seeing these results, I can’t help but wonder: would we be in the same place if we had implemented Koha?

Final reflection

A library without walls poses a challenge to our traditional ideas of what a library is. It is possible that if I had come across this project while it was still just “an idea” I would have dismissed it myself, thinking “it is impossible”. But I think that, in this particular case, the fact that they started without a librarian on the team may actually have been what made the project possible. Simply because there was no one there to tell them this couldn’t be done. By the time I joined the team the project was already ongoing, they needed solutions, not criticism. This put me in a place where I had to rethink my own knowledge about how library services are built. What level of bibliographic quality is good enough? When does accessibility matter more than perfection? Which library tasks can be democratised? What is the role of librarians in community-led projects? My learning from this project is that traditional library systems are not always the best solution for grassroots libraries. Community needs and resources should shape library systems, rather than the other way around. And above all, as in most aspects of life, we need to be flexible - perhaps not an easy task for a librarian.

Looking back, I think the most important lesson is that libraries are built by communities before they are built by systems. Catalogues, circulation modules, and policies are important, but they are only meaningful when they support a genuine community need. In our case, technology did not create the library; it simply helped a community that already existed to share its books more effectively. The real foundation was a group of people determined to create a space for books, language, and community, even without the resources that libraries are traditionally expected to have.

As one of the latest Instagram posts from the Biblioteca María Elena Walsh says: “We are still growing, between books, gatherings, and the will to share. This is only the beginning… Subscribe.”

Figure 6. Instagram post from Biblioteca María Elena Walsh

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