Easy Job

Hello,

Last night one of the boys who frequents the library told me that he might like to be a librarian when he grows up. It looks like a nice easy job. He had a new book on hold, but I needed to cover it before I could let him take it home. “Can I watch you cover it?” he asked eagerly.

I let him watch by bringing things out for his view much of the time. In the midst of getting this done I probably helped three other patrons with this or that. He thought it all looked quite easy. If he only knew how much I struggle to get these covers on so they look decent. It is not my strong suit in life. I do not like to wrap presents either. I am happy to stick things in bags. It was a little insulting and complimenting to think that it looked easy.

My boss tells me that someone told her that she did not think the library jobs required much skill. This person thought they could teach someone to do it in two weeks. Both of us have our masters in library science. Not sure that it really needs a master’s degree, but it certainly needs more training than two weeks to do certain parts of the job. I believe you can, in one session, learn how to cover books, and many could do it with more skill than I possess. I do not see the cataloging coming together in quite such a short time. Also the more business parts of the job require more familiarity or training than two weeks. Then there are some people skills to master. To top it off one must be savvy about several types of technology. Admittedly a fair amount of that is learned on the job as it continually gets changed with updates.

It is an easy job in that a mere human being can do the job successfully. I suppose it is a bit overdone, but our staff of five has three library degrees. Because the other two are much younger and have younger degrees, I frequently bow to them.

Paula