so misunderstood! library day in the life

in light of the campaign of ignorance taking place in toronto these days, we were discussing in the staff room yesterday the public (mis)perceptions of librarians, techs and the work that we do. being library day in the life week i think i have the perfect opportunity to respond to a couple of these misconceptions:

misconception 1: “it must be great to work at the library. don’t you just sit around and read books all day?”

this week i worked 29 hours, during which time i:

answered approximately 80 reference and information questions,

this includes things like teaching ipad users to access ebooks through the library, helping readers of all ages find novels they will enjoy, researching information on the valley light rail proposal, explaining how to assess a website for authority, and, of course, pointing out the bathroom.

interacted with approximately 200 kids coming in for summer reading club,

that means a friendly talk, encouraging words about their reading, excitement about which sticker they are picking next, and even posing for a photo with one of the colouring contest winners.

developed and delivered a half-hour family storytime program,

that means finding new books we haven’t read recently and which are appropriate for storytime, writing up and presenting a fractured version of the billy goats gruff with puppets, tying the stories and activities back into literacy skills and kindergarten readiness, and then controlling a room of 50 kids for half an hour.

and i also organised for a mad science event, did printer troubleshooting, kept track of statistics, made new signage for the world languages collection, reordered hundreds of books (“shelf reading”), and shifted the entire picture book collection (more than 1000 books). not to mention the countless other mundanities of any job (i.e., email).

yes, it is great to work at the library. no, i don’t get to sit around reading all day. most of what i read is for work, and i often do that in my own, unpaid, time.

misconception 2: “you went to school for this? really?!?”

to be a librarian you need to have a master’s degree in library and/or information science. i am a library technician; i went to university for two years and dropped about $12,000 just on tuition and books for the privilege of my job. i was taught classification and cataloguing so i can retrieve the books you come looking for, i took computer science courses to be proficient enough in technology to deal with ILS software (which runs the library) and so i can teach you computers and tech, and i studied ‘the reference interview’ so i could help you find what you are looking for. in addition to this i took classes in children’s literature and literacy so i can help your children prepare to learn to read — which will help determine how successful they will be in life.

the point here is not just that i went to school for this job, but that i devoted a full-time 24 months to preparing myself to start this job. i am constantly learning new things so i can better help you. check out some of the other library day in a life bloggers, and read about the complex and widely various tasks we perform in the library — this isn’t the sort of work you can just ‘google’ into existence.

i suspect that those who comment on the obsolescence of libraries probably haven’t stepped into a library for quite some time. when i get asked, somewhat rhetorically, whether i don’t agree that libraries are a dead and unnecessary institution, i feel like asking whether the internet also made doctors unnecessary since we now have Web MD? watching MIT lectures online doesn’t make me a physicist anymore than Web MD makes you a doctor.

libraries don’t claim to be the world of knowledge and information — that is just another misconception. libraries, and library workers, are here to help you learn to access and navigate your own way in the world of information. and really, if google is so smart then how come i am still helping 20+ people a day in my one branch, and at my one desk?

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