Hi, folks! I was getting off-topic answering library-related questions in an unrelated thread, so here’s one just for that. Feel free to ask me any library-related questions and I’ll either answer from my own experience or see if I can find an answer!
For background, I started working in a large-ish public library in California about five years ago. I started at the “page” level, doing basic grunt work - shelving, and so on. I worked my way up to the circulation desk, then to the paraprofessional level doing technical services and cataloguing work. During this period I was also coming back to higher education as an adult (I’m 33 now) and will graduate with my Master’s in Library & Information Science this May.
I spent the last two years at the public library primarily doing collection development (buying/evaluating/removing books) and reference desk work (answering research questions and finding resources/materials for people.) I also had supervisory/“Librarian in charge” duties. In December I relocated to rural northern Minnesota to take a Librarian position at a Tribal & Community College.
Those are my credentials! I’ve had hands-on experience of pretty much every aspect of public librarianship, I’m educated in the most recent library science stuff, and I’m rapidly getting acquainted with the quirks of academic librarianship. Ask me whatever and I’ll see if I can answer!
I appreciate your work. It’s an honorable profession.
I volunteered at our local ‘very small and poor’ library for over 2 years trying to help them get everything on computer.
The librarian was a retired school librarian and was below her pay grade(as she was working gratis).
She was very smart.
I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t understand the joke… I am a woman, though.
That’s a really good and a really common question! There’s librarians that are really optimistic and forward-thinking about our profession, and librarians that think we’ll all go the way of the dodo sooner rather than later. I don’t have an ironclad answer for you, but here’s some things to consider.
One, the rise of digital information media has eroded the right of the individual (and the library) to “own” information. When you “buy” an ebook you’re not really “buying” it - you’re licensing its use under terms which may be modified in the future. We’re already seeing publishers retroactively altering digital texts after they’ve been “sold” to consumers. Maintaining a physical collection of texts is a very important function, one that libraries are well-positioned to fulfill. (In this way, libraries are becoming more like our sister-institutions, archives.)
Two, librarians are (as it says in the degree) information scientists. We are experts at locating and evaluating information resources. The rise of fake news and alternative facts have made this training even more important, as will the advent of ever-more-sophisticated AI-generated content. We have a userbase on this message board that’s especially well-equipped to locate and evaluate information, but most of our population isn’t. Libraries and librarians can and should promote ourselves as the information-resource-of-last-resort. When people have conflicting sources, when they can’t agree on the facts… That’s something we’re trained to help with. It remains to be seen if we can shift public perception from “the book place” to “the information place,” but lots of us are working very hard to do so. It’s a role that academic libraries already fulfill, for example.
Thank you for your appreciation! I’m afraid neither of my libraries were fortunate enough to have a cat. At my public library, I would have been concerned for the critter’s safety… Lots of kids, lots of rowdy teens, and lots of folks under the influence of various substances. My current library would be a much better fit for a library cat!
I do have my own cat though. His name is Junior and he is Enormous and he is The Best.
No strong opinion. I also love horror/weird fiction and I wasn’t at all upset when they removed Lovecraft’s image/name from awards in that area. I suppose I don’t understand why an award needs to have someone’s name on it in the first place.
Oh gosh! No, I’m afraid I’ve never seen that. My dad and my little sister are both nuts about musicals, though! Wouldn’t surprise me at all if they’d have got the joke right away. I’m afraid I’m not nearly that cute, either… Though I did have a couple regular patrons that were uncomfortably open about their interest in me! Most librarians will have a few horror stories about aggressively flirtatious patrons. I don’t mind flirting, but, ah… Yeah. Librarians seem to be creep-magnets.
To answer @Bullitt’s question, I come from a family of big readers. Both my parents are teachers. I once very conservatively estimated my dad’s personal book collection at around 14,000 volumes, and that was years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 20,000 by now - this in a very modest SoCal bungalow. When I was in elementary school, my mother had to ask my teachers to ensure that I actually went out and played at recess - otherwise I’d spend every spare second in the library.
When life circumstances made it possible for me to switch to part-time work and go back to school, my then-partner told me that the library was hiring. Duck, water, etc! I was initially thinking I’d try for law school, but once I was working in the library I never wanted to leave.
Retired after 41 years of medical librarianship ( I have my MLS). If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been called Marian, I’d have hundreds of nickels.
My question for the Acolyte: Do you have a lot of tattoos and obscure hobbies? I ask because I have had more than one librarian friend, both of whom were heavily inked and were really interesting people! Wondering if that’s par for the course.
Around here, they also provide internet access for people who haven’t got it at home, provide job search materials and help, fill up with schoolchildren between school closing and when parents get home, hold community meetings and how-to classes and readings, and so on. Me, I mostly just take out books. (And, yes, bring them back. Eventually.)
Hah! I do have several tattoos including this one, which is my I’m-an-apostate-trans-librarian tattoo and which got me lots of street cred with my Teen Advisory Council. My hobbies include watching obscure horror movies/reading obscure horror books and painting miniatures.
