Scottie Cochrane retired as Director of Libraries at Denison in January; when we caught up with her, she had just returned to her row house on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. from a lecture at the Library of Congress. (You can take the librarian out of the library, but…)

1. Describe your experience of first arriving at Doane Library.
I came for my interview in early March and Granville was showing off, with daffodils in blossom (which I learned was *not* typical). The staff was impressive, in contrast to a facility that was overcrowded and dowdy; knowing Ohio’s strong value placed on libraries, I knew it would be a good place to practice.
2. Between technology, and students in general, what has changed more in your years as a librarian?
At Denison specifically, the academic quality of students has increased dramatically. You can tell it in their library usage. Technology, though, is reflected in an equally dramatic decrease in attention spans.
3. What’s your response to the oft-whispered legends that students do, on occasion, graduate without ever having been inside the library building?
Actually, it’s easier now than it was ten years ago, because library resources are available anywhere. My goal is that students know how to find and use those resources. On the other hand, students who go on to do grad work are sometimes surprised to learn, even at very well-known institutions, that the array of online resources they took for granted at Denison are not available there. OhioLINK makes the amazing access possible.
4. Tell us about a “serendipity” incident you’ve had looking for one thing and finding another.
It happens so often I can’t narrow it down! Whether online, or on shelves, it’s part of the work. You have to be careful not to let it distract you.
5. Do you ever hear the books talking to each other after closing time?
No, but my husband (Lou Middleman) does; it might just be Borges whispering to him about “The Library of Babel.”
6. What’s your favorite piece of new technology in library science?
It isn’t a device, or a machine: it’s databases, government and commercial databases. A legislative history is so easy today, and today’s citation indexes eliminate that tiny type, and flipping back and forth between heavy volumes.
7. You’ve done academic work on US Presidential libraries, from Garfield’s here in Ohio to the new Bush Library in Texas – what do presidential libraries have to tell us about libraries in general, or college libraries in particular?
Well, first, they aren’t libraries. They’re archives & museums, part of the National Archives. They should be commended for leading the way in digitization and partnerships for access to primary resources.
8. Is there a favorite book in the Denison collections?
That’s like choosing your favorite child! I won’t do it, and if I did, it would only be my favorite *that* day.
9. And in your own library?
What I could name, right now, is a favorite author: M.F.K. Fisher. A food writer, to be sure, but so much more.
10. Looking into the future for libraries, now that we can put a whole library into our pocket on a thumbdrive or smart phone?
The mission is no different than it’s ever been. You need librarians to teach how to find and then appropriately & ethically use information, let alone to organize & preserve it.
My best dream is that we get rid of those cartoon stereotypes about libraries and librarians. That would be wonderful!