Another reason I love my field and the people in it

Librarianship is part of a professional field - the field of information - and while we have the ALA code of ethics it is often up to librarians themselves to to determine their level of professionalism.  In any field this is a balance, but working at a large, liberal, academic library, there is a certain level of freedom in this area.  However, professionalism comes with balance.  In an attempt for a somewhat comical post today, I'll tell my story of how I balanced professionalism.  But the story goes beyond that; it speaks to the good of librarians, the people who use libraries, and the amazing atmosphere of U of M and Ann Arbor in general. 
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On this past beautiful Wednesday evening, I was participating in my recreational women's soccer league as I do every Monday and Wednesday in the spring, summer and fall.  Three quarters of the way through the game, the unexpected happened.  With my toe planted in hopes of scoring our team's first goal, a completely legal side check sent my quad to the left and my shin to the right, with my body immediately withering to the ground in black-out pain.  Having played soccer for 12 years as a teenager, then taking a several year break before picking it up last spring, I was finally feeling strong and good on the field.  So ironically this knee injury would happen now.

However, the irony continued.  I not only live near one of the best research hospitals in the nation, but my primary care physician works in that hospital.  And not only would I try to get an appointment with her that next morning, but I was already scheduled to be in the hospital that next morning at 9:00 sharp - for a website consultation for my job.  Now, while my job is partially instructional technology, we don't often make office calls.  It just so happened that I needed to be at the hospital that following morning, so I decided I would still do the website consult as long as it didn't overlap with an open doctors appointment.  All of my friends thought I was crazy.  "Why are you going to a work meeting - your knee is the size of a grapefruit?"  "Everyone will understand if you cancel..."  I agreed with them, but seriously, if I didn't already have to be at the hospital, I wouldn't have gone to the consult!

So I went.  On the way to the meeting, I called for a doctors appointment.  They had an opening at 9:30 am.   Perfect; it was 8:35.  I got to the hospital, where apparently you can just grab a wheelchair if needed, hopped into a seat, asked the volunteer where I could find the location of my consult, as he cheerfully wheeled me up.  The appointment went just as planned and the woman I was working with even offered me coffee and a  ride to my doctors appointment right down the hall.  She really stood out as a person who was willing to help someone else out and helped me balance that work and life stuff that inevitably happens. 

There was no good reason not for me to go to my consult; it was at the hospital where I needed a doctors appointment.  But I wouldn't have been able to do both the work consult and the doctors appointment without good people.  I know librarians are good people - wanting and willing to work with others when they need something - but this story is really telling of the people who use our services.  This woman went out of her way to make me comfortable and help ME out, when - while it may have looked like I needed it - I could have been OK on my own.  The people at the hospital were all so kind and helpful - making lighthearted jokes and offering to help.  OK, so helping is their job, but the joking and caring tones are not in their job description. 
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This all goes to saying that we learn things every day - I am learning what it's like to be less able.  But the moral of my story is that it is wonderful to be a part of a city and University setting where people use their resources and their privilege for good.  UM is such a large - yet small - community where what goes around comes around.  Over the last two days, I've experienced that first hand, and couldn't be more grateful.