Hope is a Librarian's Word, Too

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this is week 2 of training and i'm feeling really confident that i'm going to be a good at my job when i finally get a chance to actually do it.

so far i've come across a weary children's librarian, who still has plenty of good in her, but is really short with customers, mainly the adults. i see what she's been through with stupid customers (young and old) destroying books and other library materials, parents dropping their kids off like the library is daycare and kids acting like the children's section is the set of american gladiators.

i wonder if i will ever take on that weariness. i return to my days at borders and am trying to remember how i felt the last few months there: was i more weary of the growing corporate atmosphere/waning family feel, or was i tired of dealing with unappreciative customers?

another factoid that i've picked up recently, is that in the southern region of l.a. county, the libraries and librarians are more appreciated by their users, where as in the west region they are used, but often don't receive the necessary support or rarely hear a word of thanks from the local users. so, even though i have to drive the extra mileage to work, i think i'm going to be much happier in the south, than dealing with entitled yuppies and their brats. i should keep my mouth shut, because i may end up transferring up there one day.

i've also come across a children's librarian who is insecure. she constantly is apologizing for almost everything, from accidentally bumping into me to asking me to help her with storytime. that's what i'm there to do! why apologize? her insecurities trickle down into her work tasks, she is not confident about what she does for the kids, even though they and their parents are appreciative. i feel bad because when i came in and worked with some of the kid volunteers, they said that they would start splitting their time to come to my library so they can work with me because i'm "awesome."

i briefly met another children's librarian who was really nice, but hated doing storytime. are you serious? on a more positive note, i've seen another children's librarian lead a storytime that drew a crowd of 60 kids, most of which sat through the stories then participated in the following craft. that's pretty awesome.

i'm still really excited about this job and everything i'm going to have to do. i will be the first children's librarian assigned to the graham library in a long time, if ever. that means a lot of work carving out a space in the current milieu.

so far, when i go to work i feel uber-confident. although my language is cleaned up, i pretty much treat the kids that i've worked with so far the same as everyone else, which has always been my policy in working with people. i get to play with babies and then send them home, i get to color and come up with different arts and crafts projects, i get to sing songs and read children's books. life ain't bad.

hopefully the confidence, excitement and hope will continue into next week and beyond, when i'm finally working in my library.
unitl then...

Day 1: Librarian Training

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the day flew by surprisingly fast. i spent most of my time shadowing the children's librarian at the branch that i'm training at. i was also surprised to learn that she's about as cynical as i am, which was a good and a bad thing. good because the atmosphere was very similar to when i was working at the bookstore. i felt right at home. we exchanged stories about all the crazy regulars we've come across and i got to meet some of them, too. it was a bad thing because although i'm sure she's an excellent children's librarian, she's not exactly the kind of librarian i want to be. she did the least amount of work as possible and what she did do, it seemed as if it was half-assed.

i feel awful saying this about her, especially since she actually wanted to work with kids and focused her education on it. i'd like to think that she started off like i am, wanting to be a great children's librarian, but after experiencing the crazies, the unattended kids, the asshole teenagers, the smooshing of m&m's into picture books and the non-participant parents she's developed a fairly negative attitude. i don't want that and hope i don't get it.

the community library manager (CLM, aka branch manager) is the opposite. she gave me a children's pep talk, telling me about her experience. like me, she went into librarianship wanting to work with adults, but kind of slipped, fell and and landed into children's services. she learned to love it and preaches that she thinks its the best way to start off in the profession, a widely held belief.

we'll see where i land when i finally get to work in my library and meet my kids along with their parents and neighbors.

i'm ready for day two.

Librarian Movies

I've been slowly compiling a list of movies that were made for librarians/archivists/information choreographers to enjoy. i'm only including movies that i've actually seen so its an ongoing list...

PARTY GIRL- the librarian's classic. its like casablanca, or gone with the wind for us.

DESK SET- in the same league as party girl. translates easily into modern terms: why you need a reference librarian even though google is a nifty tool.

EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED- definitely an archivist's flick. there's some preservation issues that can be discussed afterwards!

THE GUN IN BETTY LOU'S HANDBAG- very little appearance of a library in this flick, but great if you're going into library outreach/community service/public relations.

IT-**shudder** librarian horror...two words:flying books.

THE MUMMY-you know she's no librarian if she knocks down shelves and who has stacks that tip over that easily...please.

ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE- the awful librarian stereotype

JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO- not the best depiction of librarian life.

SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION- the dream of every librarian, including the prison libs, is to be able to make someone's life a little better with a book, or maybe a little opera duet.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY-one benefit of being a librarian: there's a library in most american cities, in this case, far away from your lunatic of a husband.

THE STATION AGENT-ultimate customer/patron service

AMERICAN SPLENDOR-so he's a file clerk. there's still organization, reference service and weeding. close enough.

WIDE AWAKE- a documentary about a guy who is an insomniac. what's libraryesque about it is that he's got a very big, neatly organized collection of old photos and films. then he's just got drawers of stuff e.g. round things. its great.



by the way...
a great reference is http://emp.byui.edu/raishm/films/agroup.html