The Tools of Engagement

Language has always fascinated me. Most times, I'm honored to be held in the thrall of words, but on occasion, I've been backhanded by bit of linguistic irony...and it smarts. The language of social networking repeatedly stings me. I wince when I hear "myspace" and I shudder to hear folk proclaiming the roll of "friends" collected on their page. I despair when I imagine a generation or two (or more) for whom the terminology of social networking holds no satirical bite.

The language purist in me roils at the sloppy labelling; we've no lack of appropriate words to describe online connections and connectors. In virtual as in physical realms, we encounter colleagues, acquaintances, onlookers, as well as friends and assorted loved ones. Why lump sundry gradations of social encounter together, and strain a word's utility with imprecision? Friendship, for me, has a degree of exclusivity, founded on a particular, intense, and mutually perceived symbiosis.

It's all about engagement, an intimate process, whether writ large or small. Engagement happens when we experience that moment of revealed symbiosis. Here is a writer who has penned what I have felt. Here is a painter who creates what I have seen. Here is a partner who acts on what I believe. Here is a librarian who hears what I seek, who finds what I need. The task of engagement is far more basic than deciding whether to create a library MySpace account. The challenge for libraries lies in learning to engage the public. The prudent library (and librarian) perfects the capacity and skill to engage the on-hand customer in genuine interchange, before casting about for the illusive virtual passerby.