What I Do as a Librarian

I share.

Just like I share the posts from this blog--a sort of diary of how I'm working towards my goals--I want to share who I am. Is it vain? Oh sure. Pretentious? I've heard that. But my love of sharing doesn't come from an egotistical point of view.

I sincerely love someone else learning something new. I sincerely love the reciprocity of experiencing something wonderful together. This can be a movie that I love and now someone else loves so now we celebrate it and bond over it. This can be food, where we test what we ordered and try something new and lovely.

That's why I'm a librarian in my day, a fact I don't often share on this blog. I write about my travels and my film life, which are crucial elements of my goals and life's to-do list.

I'm a librarian, though. When I created the 30's list I added that I was to get a Master's. That Master's is in Library & Information Science. That Master's decision was a wonderful decision, a process I wrote about here.

So let me brief you on what I do. In nutshell what I do can be summed up in two words: service and projects.

Here's a list of what I principally do:

1) I serve on the reference desk. This means if someone wants to find a book I help them find that book. If someone needs help formatting a resume, I help format that resume. If someone needs help, I help.

2) I'm the assistant branch manager. If there are any escalated issues, which cannot be resolved or should not be resolved by staff, I step in.

3) I create programs! This is my favorite part and to me an essential part of the new face of libraries. A lot of people think being a librarian means reading books all the time. I do research in books and online, but I create and teach programs targeting adults and seniors. These are arts & crafts programs such as a painting program where we talk about colors, strokes, and I then help everyone paint their own piece. These are technology programs such as an android class for seniors where we start from how to turn the phone on and off to how to log into wifi.

4) I help create and tackle projects. Sometimes these are branch-specific projects, such as deselection (or weeding) reference materials no longer useful to patrons. Sometimes these are committee-specific projects such as the creation of an updated page on personal finance or the creation of a list of homeless shelters in Metro Atlanta.

That is what I principally do. Of course I still do the basics of librarianship: shelving, picking holds off, counting money, etc.

Do I love it? Yes. I quite love what I do. It is a job that enables good benefits, a stable future, allows me to work on film projects on my off-hours, but more importantly it's fulfilling.

I get to create a program from scratch and watch someone learn something new. I had an elderly woman come in my painting program and later share with me that it was her birthday and she wanted to treat herself. I hold book-a-librarian one-on-one sessions with patrons who want more intimate help. This has led to individuals learning how to type using the QWERTY keypad and even to individuals passing GED subject tests.

I get to help people learning new information. That's an important task. Every community needs a learning space and access to a diversity of information. Information is not just in books or the internet. Information is sometimes a landscape painting you create or drinking different world recipes of coffee. This is a type of information that creates breadth in your experience, whether it sharpens your focus or concentration (painting) or enables you to have a broader worldview of something familiar (coffee).

This is what I do. I share all the information I can get my hands on.