Here's a question that isn't meant to be baity, I'm genuinely interested in your takes. 📚
Would you *recommend* being a library professional?
As in not just blithely say you enjoy it and generally want people to pursue it as a career, but influence a specific human being to choose it?
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Would you *recommend* being a library professional?
As in not just blithely say you enjoy it and generally want people to pursue it as a career, but influence a specific human being to choose it?
>>
Comments
Academic libraries are changing - our work is way more by mediated by technology and there is less f2f which was a big part of the pleasure - helping folk & seeing the (1/2)
And from what I hear of UK libraries and the impact of Tory policies on UK libraries - that probably is making them seem less appealing as well.
But it is still one of the best jobs in the world (maybe just slightly less 😂) and those who join the (2/2)
It was the lowest paying job I ever had. I stole toilet paper from work to survive.
I was also constantly the sickest I have ever been in my life. People get diagnosed & sent home, but stock up on books first. Plus kids. And so few of us on staff that I had to work sick.
But yeah…it wasn’t easy.
The result each time was being told, "You won't get in, people hold these jobs till they die".
So while I can't recommend it (never been one) I can suggest the people generally don't want to quit.
Yes. It's because you are always learning, adapting and trying to solve different problems every day, trying to find the right answers, often connecting with those who might have those answers. Serving those answers in a way that can help others achieve great things.
I love librarianship. But I wouldn't recommend it to a young person looking for a career. 📚
My library job is the best job I've ever had and I want to retire here
Other branches (in rougher towns) have higher turnover from staff fleeing for academic libraries or different careers entirely.
Volunteer and see what you think.
Personally: there's no comparison between what a career in academic librarianship has offered me vs my parents' working lives.
I also encouraged community/GR org creation as well though as there are a lot of barriers to entry.
Collections & preservation presents similar challenges.
Would be cool to be a book shepherd though 😊
Low wages
Tough hours (nights/weekends year round)
Student loans
Toxic/inept administration
Consistent need to justify your existence or advanced education to do your job
Dangerous patrons
Violence, neglect, despondency
Patrons and staff trauma dumping
(Which is a real shame because we want good people - and lord knows, DIFFERENT people - into the profession.)
Though I think that nearly all libraries ought to focus on making libraries -
(ps you'd make a FABULOUS Doctor I'm sure...)
Last year one of my niblings, who's soon to start college, asked about being a librarian. I provided my perspective on all the good & bad aspects; basically "recommended" pursuing a dual emphasis (library prep & something complementary I know they'd also like).
But in all honesty, right now pursuing that career seems like opening a blockbuster the day Netflix launched.
Nothing online can ever duplicate the sense of community or discovery that a library can provide, but most don't know that.
I'm instinctively drawn towards recommending librarianship but it's quite a tough industry to go into in 2024, right? Still more people qualifying than retiring I think, and lots of library sectors in the UK & US are being actively threatened in all sorts of ways. 📚
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But there are still people that would accept all that just to be surrounded with books and to share them with others. ->
Not that I don’t enjoy solitude (along with company too), but I’d say librarian roles generally benefit from people who enjoy the opposite-communication & collaboration.
Perhaps some tasks benefit from being happy working individually.
Maybe currently living in a rural environment with a one worker library is influencing me too much hahaha
(Very difficult for you and I to have a serious conversation isn't it? #WhatdoUdoM7)