LIS: Location, Idea and Story

Dear Fellow,

I was at the University of Jos Library on Tuesday, 6th February 2024. The librarian in charge of the Digital Library called me from one of the students’ cubicles. He had left me at his desk to attend to the students. I strained to hear what he had to say, but he needed me to come over. Approaching the cubicle, he pointed at me and said, “Talk to him. He is a writer. He has even written about this library.”

That was the first time I met Benjamin, Timothy, and Franklyn. Three of them are freshers at the university, all students of medicine and surgery. School or education always features in my conversations with people lately. Like my friend Lengdung, I can easily recall what a person is studying than his name. So, after knowing your name, the next question I may ask is what level are you in school, what you are studying and where. I am that way probably because of my workplace Campus Missions and Leadership Initiative (CMLi). But I was that way before I started working there, in January this year. Knowing that these guys are enrolled for the programme I applied for in 2017 got me a bit more interested in a conversation with them.

They were at the library that day to figure out their way around Amazon KDP, and other means of earning an income via the internet. They said they didn’t know much, but were set to find answers on YouTube no matter how long it would take them to get what they wanted. At the time, they had just finished semester’s exams.

I mean, how often do you find such? Students from the medical sciences go out of their field of study to learn. These are first-year students for that matter. One terrible mindset I had graduating secondary school was that if I became a medical doctor everything about my life would revolve around medicine—including my hobbies. Perhaps that was why I wasn’t sure medicine and surgery was for me. I think my personality fought the idea—I realise that I am quite an adventurous person who loves to see art in everything. If committing to medicine will mean living medicine only, I thought, I cannot do other things outside of it. Well, that was what I knew.

I shared this perspective with them to emphasise the popular notion that students of medical sciences don’t have the time to do other things outside of their field of study. They laughed it off. They argued they wouldn’t be at the library if that were true. What’s more, they said they deliberately stayed back in Jos to explore opportunities. And resumption was less than a month away from the day we met.

I shared all I knew about the craft of writing and resources too, showing them several YouTube channels to subscribe to, newsletters, websites, and blogs. Of course, we talked about my book The University Library, and they asked several questions about it. In the end, we exchanged contacts and still talk.

Now, this is just one out of nearly a dozen similar stories I’ve had at the University of Jos Library since the release of my book in July 2023. I jokingly said to my friends that I may write a sequel. Or maybe run a series for these stories.

Each chapter in my book was like a gift unpacked after every visit to the library during the period I was writing it. I never visited the library with the expectation of finding a story; each time I visited during the writing period, I only realised I was given a story on my way home after school. All I needed to do was unpack the gift I was given.

Image source: Giammarco Boscaro, Unsplash

Till this moment, I am marvelled at how it happens—a location birthing an idea which evolves into a story that continues to be told. What story? That the library is not just where books are kept, but also a place where people meet and interact. Even the books are extensions of their respective authors.

Well, you do not have to be a writer to find your fascination at the library like I did. When next you visit a library, I hope you find a story.

Your LetterMan,

Tongjal, W. N.

PS: LIS in the University of Jos stands for Library and Information Science, a field of study that trains librarians and information scientists.