Well, I am in for a ride.
As of March of this year, I've been working at the main branch of a public library. By the time I started getting paid to show up all the time, I'd made friends with quite a few of the librarians and wrestled through what I would consider a good chunk of the collection, considering I am a social young person living in a surprisingly affordable urban city.
That being said, I don't get paid much and I only work part-time. Regardless, the four hours a day on various shifts and extra hours on a technology implementation project have given me a surprisingly good inside view of the benefits, challenges, and excitements of working in a library.
I'm heading off to graduate school in about a month to mingle with other librarian hopefuls and it will certainly be a fascinating spectrum of insight. I came to the decision to pursue my MLS independent of the arguments of current librarians but have since listened to their stories of experiences of frustrations and exultations. I have witnessed the floundering attempts of my library to implement new technologies and marveled at the surprising redundancies that employees who have been here a long time accept as part and parcel of the job.
I want to change that. Yes, I want to host story times and short story competitions. Teach computer skills classes and help kids with research projects. But I also want to change the way that many libraries function. Originally, libraries worked because the patrons were trustworthy and empowered to return the books they borrowed for the benefit of neighbors that they saw frequently. Today libraries serve a transformed clientele and must anticipate their needs and actions accordingly.
Libraries are not money-making institutions. But they don't have to be money-losing businesses.
We'll see how I do on that score. Long time out, but the journey has to begin somewhere.
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