MUSINGS: DO YOU SUFFER FROM GLAM ANXIETY?

GLAM Guide | Evelyn Feldman

Librarianship has a term called library anxiety.

Library anxiety refers to a feeling of inadequacy in your research skills, and perhaps the sense that librarians are judging you for your lack of searching abilities. It often leads to a fear of libraries and librarians themselves. It is mostly used in the context of academic libraries, and can be liked to feelings of fear, helplessness, shame, or intimidation. The term was coined in a 1986 article by library science professor Constance Mellon.

Robarts is watching you. Source.

Have you ever talked to someone who declares that they got through their entire post-secondary degree without once using their school's library? This declaration--whether said with pride or shame--is probably related to library anxiety!

We can see how even public libraries can cause similar feelings, although the term "library anxiety" is not commonly used in relation to them. Do you have that one book that you never returned to your local library, and now you're afraid to ever step foot in the library again for fear of being judged? Or maybe you've racked up a lot of late fines, and cringe imagining the look the librarian will give you when you go in to pay them?

A lot has been written about library anxiety, and a big part of librarians' jobs is finding ways to make the library welcoming--for example by introducing fun gamification programs like escape rooms that subtly teach research skills, or by eliminating late fines altogether (although this is a controversial idea). Or, through broader policies like emphasizing the importance of customer service.

The Royal Ontario Museum. Source.

Museum anxiety?

Do we have the same phenomenon in museums? I would say, certainly!

Though again we don't use this term for it, museums can generate similar feelings of fear or helplessness. Art galleries and art museums in particular can create a sense of shame at one's inability to "appreciate" art.

The only mention I could find specifically of "museum anxiety" (that wasn't in the sense of museums helping people with their anxiety--interesting that museums can both help and hurt in this regard!) was in a Museum Hack article, which proposes strategies museums can use to combat the phenomenon.

Museum Hack makes its ideas sound revolutionary, but (as you probably know) museums already spend a lot of time thinking about ways to make their spaces welcoming and inviting, to break away from perceptions of museums being intimidating, overwhelming, elitist, or boring.

The Tate Modern in London. Source.

"Anxiety" as a category of barrier

If museums are already thinking about similar ideas, why write this post?

First, I like bringing to light another challenge shared across Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums. This is yet another area in which we can learn from each other to find strategies to employ.

But I also think that the term itself highlights an important distinction in types of barriers that keep people away. Museum anxiety is different from barriers such as high cost of entrance or physical inaccessibility. "Anxiety" does not just originate from an institution's policies or physical features, though they can be connected, as shown in the often-intimidating library and museum buildings. Instead, it uniquely also comes from within visitors themselves, created by (false) feelings of inadequacy, shame, or judgement, and inaccurate preconceptions of the institutions.

Furthermore, its causes can be hard to combat, because they often originate from characteristics inherent to our institutions. Academic libraries exist for research, and art museums exist to display art, but these very things can cause anxiety that keeps students and visitors away.

But maybe not "anxiety"?

While these ideas are useful to consider, it is also important to think critically about how we use a word like "anxiety," which is a very real mental illness for many people. Overusing the word might risk it losing its impact for those who need it the most. Maybe "GLAM nerves" would be better?

In the end, rather than coining a phrase for our GLAM vocabularies, what is most important are the ideas at work behind the term. Thinking about these ideas can help us better observe areas that might be creating specific barriers, and find strategies to make our spaces, which can be inherently intimidating, feel welcoming, inviting, and accessible.