As this section is about the pros and cons, including all the dirty work, I may as well put this out in the open: I have OCD, specifically hand-washing. In all honesty, I’d probably advise similar sufferers not to take public-facing librarian roles on as a career; if you forget about the dustiness of books, decaying paper and leather which stick to your fingers and clothes, it’s still not a clean job. People often hand you their tickets after they’ve been holding them in their mouths (probably “normal” people dislike this too, but I really have to work on my poker face after being handed something with teeth-marks). Books are returned in a whole manner of conditions including- and I’m exceptionally glad that I didn’t open this one- deposited in a bag that had also been used as a pooper-scooper container. Returns bins are often used as rubbish dumps, so books can be covered in the dregs of coffee, chewing gum, lollipop sticks, tissues… the list is endlessly disgusting. It’s not ALL like that, but a good part of teamwork is not vanishing to scrub your hands under the taps for ten minutes at a time, so if you are in a similar position and want to be involved in libraries, think very carefully as to what role you want.
Similarly, if you are misanthropic and introverted, you may wish to reconsider front line work: we deal with people constantly, pleasantly, helpfully. There’s no opportunity to slink off and hide in the corner with just books for your company no matter how much you may want to. There are positions that will allow this: cataloguing, information architecture, conservation and stack management- but this requires specialist knowledge which you will probably only get after your trainee year.
Work is often repetitive and focused- a keen eye for detail is definitely needed! There is probably no way of escaping shelving and revising, a task which quickly becomes the bane of many librarians’ lives, so be prepared to be staring blindly at rows of books as you’ve suddenly forgotten the correct order of the alphabet. Dewey Decimal is worse because the number sequences can be long and unfamiliar. Thankfully we don’t use that system at The London Library (more on that later). Quite often you can be checking the sequences (my section at work is Biography A-E), and find something that has been lost for eons because it ought to live in Fiction or Science and Miscellaneous, etc. More often than not, this is due to “helpful” members re-shelving their own books and not paying close enough attention.
The positives definitely outweigh the negatives, even if this post isn’t exactly portraying that (ah, pessimism!). Days are structured but there’s enough variation so you don’t get bored. There’s often the opportunity to get exceptionally involved in enquiry work to the point you wonder where the day has gone! Whilst in training, you get to experience the different departments (more on that later). There’s the satisfaction of completing something that you’ve been labouring over for some time- that EUREKA! moment; the pleasure of helping people and receiving their smiles. It’s cheesy, but it’s incredibly infectious.
PS, it's a fairly active job, what with all the lifting and shifting and running (sorry, sedately walking) off to find books. So I guess it's cheaper than a gym membership.
Work is often repetitive and focused- a keen eye for detail is definitely needed! There is probably no way of escaping shelving and revising, a task which quickly becomes the bane of many librarians’ lives, so be prepared to be staring blindly at rows of books as you’ve suddenly forgotten the correct order of the alphabet. Dewey Decimal is worse because the number sequences can be long and unfamiliar. Thankfully we don’t use that system at The London Library (more on that later). Quite often you can be checking the sequences (my section at work is Biography A-E), and find something that has been lost for eons because it ought to live in Fiction or Science and Miscellaneous, etc. More often than not, this is due to “helpful” members re-shelving their own books and not paying close enough attention.
The positives definitely outweigh the negatives, even if this post isn’t exactly portraying that (ah, pessimism!). Days are structured but there’s enough variation so you don’t get bored. There’s often the opportunity to get exceptionally involved in enquiry work to the point you wonder where the day has gone! Whilst in training, you get to experience the different departments (more on that later). There’s the satisfaction of completing something that you’ve been labouring over for some time- that EUREKA! moment; the pleasure of helping people and receiving their smiles. It’s cheesy, but it’s incredibly infectious.
PS, it's a fairly active job, what with all the lifting and shifting and running (sorry, sedately walking) off to find books. So I guess it's cheaper than a gym membership.
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