Trust is fundamental to so much of what libraries do. I think it is one of the main reasons that people like libraries. Fostering a trusting environment should be considered in all library decisions from building remodels to lending new materials. Ultimately, librarians and administrators need to look at themselves as part of the community that they are serving instead of being separate from it. Essentially librarianship is about building relationships and opening a dialogues.
I think this is true for how we engage and interact with coworkers. Personally, I know that I need to bring more trust to the table or maybe I need to realize that my coworkers do indeed trust me!
I was listening to an episode of Freakonmics Radio about hitchhiking. I have hitchhiked in Scotland and Ireland. All of my experiences hitchhiking were very positive. I would not have been able to get to the outskirts of Skye or the coast of Torridon if it wasn’t for hitching a ride. It also allowed me to interact with locals. I couldn’t imagine hitchhiking in America mainly because our infrastructure and highway system does not lend itself to hitching.
Anyway, hitchhiking requires a great deal of trust. Statistician, Bill James, feels that hitchhiking should be reinvigorated:
Yes, I do. And the reason I do is that we have a better society when we can trust one another. And wherever and whenever there’s an evaporation of systems based on trust I think there’s a loss to society. I also think that one evaporation of trust in society tends to feed another, and that we would have a better society if we could, rather than promoting fear and working to reduce the places where terrible things happen, if we could promote trust and work on building societies in which people are more trustworthy. I think we’re all better off in a million different ways if and when we can do that.”