are you now, or have you ever been, A Librarian?

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There are a lot of librarians on ILX obviously. It seems like a great job. Is it? How does one become one without getting a librarian degree?

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:40 (nineteen years ago) link

You say in the interview:

"Oh yes! I am planning to get a library qualification, I really thought I should get some experience first...this is a great opportunity..." and etc, and hope for the best...I had about 10-15 library assistant interviews before I got anything, and then I was only 2nd choice, but the first person dropped out.

Once I've finished my Information Management MA, I think I will be a qualified Librarian, or maybe I have to get chartered, I'm not sure...I think the MA will be enough.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:50 (nineteen years ago) link

What is your typical working day like? Do you make the big bucks? Is it lonely or the opposite?

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:51 (nineteen years ago) link

It is a great job, you get to help people and find out lots of things, and it's way better than working in an office! The library is a haven for those who don't quite want to stick it to the man.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link

I think I must become a librarian immediately. Me and the man just cannot see eye to eye, it would seem.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:53 (nineteen years ago) link

If you put in a good word for me, maybe I could come and work in your library. I've always liked Ealing. The commute from Northern california would be awful, though.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:54 (nineteen years ago) link

It's FUCKING SHITE.

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link

FUCKING BORING. LONELY. SHIT PAY. SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS WITH NO CAPABILITY FOR LATERAL THOUGHT. PEOPLE WHO LIEK TO CATEGORISE THINGS FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!!!

NB. The people in my direct office/department are not like this, but none of us claims to be a librarian.

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:56 (nineteen years ago) link

I Really REALLY like to categorise things.

I work with a lot of jaded, superior idiots with endless capacity for self-promotion and a hugely inflated opinion of their own worth. Does this sound any better? It does pay handsomely, I should add.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:58 (nineteen years ago) link

What is your typical working day like?

* Check email, delete spam
* Do a few literature searches
* Process article requests
* Open the post, send of articles to people
* Shelve a few books, tidy the shelves, do a bit of cataloguing
* Tea, lunch, biscuits
* Track down obscure document from years ago
* Read the news
* Download some articles
* Read a few articles from Skeptical Enquirer
* Add some stuff to the intranet
* Help someone with a literature search
* Delete old stock

Do you make the big bucks?
Nope :(

Is it lonely or the opposite?
Can be a bit lonely, you need mental reserves or distractions to get through the quiet summer months.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:58 (nineteen years ago) link

It sounds great except for the money part.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 16:58 (nineteen years ago) link

I work in a small library with only one other person, there's a lot of remote access, and we're big on electronic delivery etc.

I'll put in a good word for you adam.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes, please do. A really long and impressive one.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Adam, if you're in the US, you're out of luck. MLS's even take non-professional jobs if the pay is good enough or the job is 'interesting' enough.

I wouldn't do public service in a library, but I guess some people prefer it.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:02 (nineteen years ago) link

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Yes, sort of. I do not have the MLA. adam you can come be a lib. supervisor in the hinterlands of Indiana with me.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link

Which part of IN, jocelyn?

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:06 (nineteen years ago) link

West Lafayette!

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:07 (nineteen years ago) link

The only librarian I know is an ex-Marine. I figure you got to be one rough tough sombitch to do the job. I imagine him putting ink on his knuckles and stamping due dates on the faces of customers.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link

I just found out one of my co-workers, this sweet fourty-something Greek woman, is in the national guard and knows how to kill.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:10 (nineteen years ago) link

My wife used to be a librarian at her university library. I would go and spy on her as she dragged a little book cart around and helped customers at her desk. She made a very beautiful librarian.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 17:10 (nineteen years ago) link

any canadian librarians in this bitch?

― Symplistic (shmuel), Thursday, 16 September 2004 21:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Surely that is some kind of oxymoron.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 September 2004 21:55 (nineteen years ago) link

why?

― Symplistic (shmuel), Thursday, 16 September 2004 22:02 (nineteen years ago) link

My Aunt is a elementary school librarian. She sent me a Harry Potter book for Xmas a few years back.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Thursday, 16 September 2004 22:07 (nineteen years ago) link

adam you need to come work in my library i think theres an opening coming up cos my coworker is determined to fuck up so bad they will fire him and he will get a pay out.. at present i am multitasking: trying to rip a copy protected beenie man cd, warming up the laminating machine and posting to ilx. i have just been mean and stern to a journalist.

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 16 September 2004 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm a library assistant now, not a shelver and it's really nontiring! I don't think I'll ever bother getting another job, this'll do. I've always wanted one of those jobs where you go on the internet.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 16 September 2004 23:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Still happily a library assistant. I have achieved a sane kind of balance.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 16 September 2004 23:16 (nineteen years ago) link

I think I wanna become a librarian too! Since we're apparently SOL cause we live in the US, me and adam should stick it to the man and open up an independent library. It'd start with a cart of books on the street, but just you wait and see.
I don't know how we'd actually make money, but we'll let our accountants worry about that.

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 16 September 2004 23:17 (nineteen years ago) link

I get so many free withdrawn books.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Thursday, 16 September 2004 23:20 (nineteen years ago) link

haha! do you get to choose what gets withdrawn?

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 16 September 2004 23:29 (nineteen years ago) link

i might go and withdraw something right now.

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 16 September 2004 23:31 (nineteen years ago) link

from the stuff that hasn't been accessioned yet

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 16 September 2004 23:37 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't get to choose :( but I do recommend they withdraw stuff and sometimes they listen! I really like sitting down with a whole pile of books and withdrawing them and crossing out the barcode and stamping them with WITHDRAWN, I like it even more than stack transfer.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:06 (nineteen years ago) link

What did you withdraw?

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:07 (nineteen years ago) link

o god yes withdraw is better than stack transfer. but visiting the stack is nice. in the days before computers i used to have to amend all the added entries cards in the card cat when items were sent to stack...or just rip them out when withdrawn!

i withdrew a cd called africa never stand still.

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:09 (nineteen years ago) link

I never thought about library work. How hard would it be to get into here in Aust without any specific training? My mum was a librarians assistant at my high school and she never had any certs or degrees. I should ask her how she got into it. Working in a school library would be kinda cool.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:13 (nineteen years ago) link

lib ass work you don't need quals but its pretty frustrating i think (ie lib work is very heirarchical and you can't move up too far) although i know some lib ass's who practically run the library they still have bosses who treat them like shit.

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah that seems to be common, the boss being an asshole. Mum had a minor freakout/breakdown and quit her librarian asst job due to her rather insane witch-woman boss who totally had it in for her for no reason. I couldnt handle a job with one person to answer to who rode my back like that. I've *had* such a job and it killed me.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I could see myself going to school to be a librarian.
It seems like the perfect "day-job".
Are there any well-known musicians who are librarians during the day?
Would it be hard to get vacation time for touring, etc?
I think it would look rad on a press release bio.
"Aaron, lead guitar, is a librarian by day..."

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:28 (nineteen years ago) link

weren't the tuggers on librarian?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 17 September 2004 00:33 (nineteen years ago) link

I work at a big library (I'm not a librarian, though--I won't front); one of the best things about the job is watching the parade of eccentrics who pass by and deciding which one I'm going to end up as.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Friday, 17 September 2004 01:11 (nineteen years ago) link

i had an interview at my uni library last week. cheeky buggers said they'd get back to me within the week and they haven't! i reckon i'm a shoo in though.

― gem (trisk), Friday, 17 September 2004 01:41 (nineteen years ago) link

I buy stuff - books and films and CDs. I like it quite a bit, and there are no crazies here. I'm much relieved to find that, because the last two libraries were full of lunatics.

I could tell you a few stories about bad, bad managers in big libraries. Like the dept. head who chewed out my boss for 'spending too much money on her kitchen floor tiles' - this was supposed to be indicative of her lack of fiscal prudence.

Once people get out of big academic libraries, they tell a lot of horror stories about the politics therein. In one case, the place was violating every employment law on the books.

We have a lot of artists, writers and musicians working here.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Blimey! My library was busy today, I was trying to listen to big and rich but I kept having to hlep people out!

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link

is there a lot of sexing in the dumbwaiters?

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:29 (nineteen years ago) link

I've never been sure, but what is a dumbwaiter?

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:30 (nineteen years ago) link

I would like to join Oops and Adam's independent library, please.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:53 (nineteen years ago) link

(Librarianism actually makes a lot of sense for me. The parts of my job now that I enjoy the most are the fact-checking/research, and I'd get to do that without all of the annoying deadlines and publishing constraints!)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link

dumbwaiters are the little elevators that help you move your carts of reshelves from floor to floor.

i was a part-time library assistant in university at the biology-forestry library. reshelving the bound periodicals (enormous half-year volumes of 'nature' etc) was okay, but the regular books were awful because the whole library only used a couple tens-digits of the dewey and there were lots of unpleasant digits to the right of the decimal...

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 17 September 2004 16:58 (nineteen years ago) link

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