Children Are Not Rational (Thank Goodness!)

Abstract

For more than a decade, I worked mostly with adults in my system’s large, urban Central Library. It was steady and interesting work, and I got very good at identifying and answering intellectually rich reference questions. I knew my sources, and, being an adult myself, I could easily relate to my customers.

Adults were rational. Adults could generally, with guidance, articulate what they were looking for. In the context of our professional relationship of librarian and knowledge-seeker, adults were, more or less, how do you say—sensible.