Alvin M. Podboy Jr.
Director of Libraries
Baker & Hostetler LLP
Cleveland, OH
For Love of the Game
Law Library Journal Fall, 2001
I have been working in law libraries for thirty-two years. That is a long time; for people in the military or federal government it can be a career. When invited to contribute to this collection, I thought back to the original program at the 2000 AALL Annual Meeting from which it was conceived.1 I thoroughly enjoyed the program and marveled at the career vignettes offered by the participants. In considering what to say about my own career, my first inclination was to identify changes in libraries and service to my patrons and clients as the things that have driven my tenure in the profession. But as I thought about it more deeply, I concluded that the title of a little book—For Love of the Game2—by one of my favorite authors, Michael Shaara, more accurately reflects what has kept me in law librarianship for so long. I truly love what I do.
In 1977, at my library school graduation, I was extremely impressed by the welcome that the president of the Case Western Reserve Library School Alumni Association gave to us newly enrolled members of the association. She said, "I love being a librarian." I thought that was really one of the "neatest" things I had ever heard. To have a job that you truly love has to be one of the things that we should all strive for. I have found that job. I come to work every day looking forward to the challenges—and the game—of librarianship.
My love of libraries started very early in elementary school when I was introduced to the school library and found in it a huge world filled with books. (My favorite book revolved around some children who found and adopted a pet stegosaurus.) The love of libraries continued into my high school days, helped along by the local public librarian who had enough confidence in me to lead me down the road of multiple explorations. In law school I found a still deeper love of libraries and especially law libraries. I worked as student filer, shelver, and night circulation and reference assistant. I learned to love the hunt for legal information. I was surrounded by an extremely supportive library staff at Case Western Reserve University Law School Library—people whom I still call friends after all these years. They supported me in my legal education and taught me to love and respect their field of endeavor. My mentor, Simon Goren, director at Case Western, started my librarian education and continued it until his recent death.3 While he was the individual who introduced me to law librarianship, two other men were also very important in helping me discover my chosen profession. They were my father and my father-in-law. Both were entrepreneurs. My dad was a tavern owner and very successful at his chosen vocation, although it was a job he did not love. He did it simply to provide as best he could for his family. He died young, doing this job he disliked. He was the most supportive member of my family when I changed professions from attorney to librarian. He truly understood my search for something I loved doing. My father-in-law, a barber by trade, loved what he did, and loved the people he worked with and served. And he was extremely good at it. He was a wonderful model for doing something that you love to do and doing it well.
So the easy answer for how I have stayed in this profession for thirty-two years is that I love it. But that is not the whole answer. Why do I love it? First and foremost are the people. I have had the pleasure of working with many outstanding law librarians, both at Baker & Hostetler LLP and on the national scene. Most of my best friends are librarians, either in the Cleveland community, in the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries (ORALL), or in AALL. Other people who nurture my love for librarianship are my coworkers, the attorneys and staff at Baker & Hostetler. They are a wonderfully supportive group of people. They are my clients and my friends. And still others are the lawyers I have met through my work on various bar association committees, the editors I have dealt with from various publications, the professors at law schools, and my friends in the publishing community.
Second, I derive great joy from service. To truly love the profession, a librarian must have a service mentality, must truly enjoy helping others. I enjoy helping everyone with whom I have contact, whether they be my attorney clients, the administration of Baker & Hostetler, the staff, or the firm's clients. I enjoy searching for the answers they seek. I enjoy keeping them up-to-date, watching for material they need to make them better at their jobs. Doing so makes my job a continual puzzle, one that changes and grows every day.
Third, I love the way the profession changes, how it continually redefines itself. What is a librarian? The answer changes with each new technology. It keeps my job new. To do it well, I must embrace the changes as they arrive. This attitude lets me have the eyes of a child and to look at my professional world with wonder every single day. Changing formats and new technology keep me young. I enjoy the challenges change brings—challenges of the budget, challenges of downsizing or upsizing, challenges of collection development and working with the different formats.
Fourth, I love the opportunity my job gives me to teach on a daily basis, one-to-one, every time an attorney or legal assistant enters my office with a problem they have not encountered before. I love passing on knowledge and information. I also love the more formal teaching I do, either through presentations, papers, or as a college professor. This is another part of my job that keeps me young. Not only do I learn more from my students every day than what I impart to them, I find teaching is just plain fun. It's another reason why I love coming to my job every day.
Fifth, I love my work with different professional associations: AALL, ORALL, the Ohio State Bar Association, and the Cleveland Bar Association. Baker & Hostetler has been extremely supportive of these activities and that includes both firm management and my fellow librarians and staff. Working with these groups has deepened my appreciation of the profession because it has expanded the scope of my audience.
Sixth, I love where I work. Baker & Hostetler is an outstanding place to be employed. I work with great people, brilliant people, and very professional people. The firm is truly one of the outstanding law firms in the country, and it gives me an opportunity to do what I love to do.
Last, I love the freedom of law librarianship. I have a wonderful boss who, through his trust and support, has encouraged me to develop myself as a professional. I have a staff that, because of their confidence and their support, allows me the freedom to explore other areas of my professional life.
Librarianship is a profession that meets my needs. As I have said on numerous occasions, I would continue to work as a librarian even if I won the lottery. I am not ashamed to say I love the profession of librarianship.
1. Gateway to Career Renewal: Paths for the Experienced Law Librarian, program presented at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries, Philadelphia (July 18, 2000) (audiotape available from Mobiltape Co.).
2. Michael Shaara, For Love of the Game: A Novel (1991).
3. See Kathleen Carrick & Alvin M. Podboy, Memorial: Simon L. Goren, 92 Law Libr. J. 249, 2000 Law Libr. J. 22.
For More Information About Law Librarianship or the AALL Recruitment Committee, contact committee chair Sarah Mauldin.