Marshall Public Library participates in national library campaign

“I’m an expert.”

That’s the phrase patrons will be seeing a lot of around Marshall Public Library in Pocatello. The library is participating in the national “Libraries Transform” campaign put on by the American Library Association.

The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness about the benefits and value of both libraries and librarians. All librarians at Marshall wear a badge that says something they’re an expert in.

Eric Suess, the library’s director, said the topic can be library related or not. It can be anything the person is an expert in.

Suess said the idea is to humanize librarians more and show they do more than sit behind a desk or just know books. He thinks it’s a great campaign and he’s excited Marshall is participating.

“We have a lot of people with a whole lot of expertise and this gives us a chance to show the public that in fact there are experts at their fingertips,” Suess said.

Some examples of things librarians at Marshall are experts at are dogs, puzzles, games, authors and even organizational skills.

The tags can be changed so librarians can be an expert in more than one thing.

Suess said don’t be afraid to ask any librarian about their expert tag. He said they’re even learning things from each other.