In 1931, Ranganathan first published his blockbuster of the library world, The Five Laws of Library Science. You may laugh, but most librarians still take these laws pretty seriously, albeit with a few parenthetical updates.
Here are the five laws:
- Books Are For Use
- Every Reader His/Her Book
- Every Book Its Reader
- Save The Time Of The Reader
- The Library Is A Growing Organism
While we could have quite a philosophical discussion about whether these laws apply just to books, and how do we define a book anyway, what I want to focus on in this post is #4. One of the core functions of a librarian is to provide reader’s advisory, in layman’s terms, to match readers with books based on their interests, preferences, etc. Providing a shortcut for the reader with helpful, careful suggestions and listening to them to get an idea of what they might like and then being familiar enough with what is available to match them with something they want to read, is to save the time of the reader.
I would like to suggest that if we rewrote these rules for Book Coaches, #4 would be: Save the Time of the Writer. A book coach saves the time of the writer, by giving them a framework so they can write their book with elements such as plot, character, conflict, and more firmly in mind. A book coach helps a writer set goals and manage their writing. A book coach provides feedback along the way, so that the first draft might resemble a 3rd draft; writers can address issues in revisions to make their book the best one the writer can write. Book Coaches help writers tell stories in compelling ways, by providing them with scaffolding to build their skills—cheering them on when they are in the groove and supporting them when they need a professional set of eyes and perhaps a little tough love to move forward.
Writing is not for the faint of heart! But Book Coaches can Save the Time of the Writer and help them on their writing journey.