What Not To Say to Librarians

Rachel Rosenberg has been writing since she was a baby—at 13, she was printed alongside celebs and fellow teenagers in Chicken Soup For the Teenage Soul 2. Rachel has a level in Creative Writing from Montreal’s Concordia University; she’s been printed in a couple of completely different anthologies and publications, together with Best Lesbian Love Stories 2008, Little Fiction, Big Truth’s Re/Coded anthology and Broken Pencil journal. She additionally appeared on the Montreal episode of the Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids podcast. Her day job is as a Children’s Librarian, the place she digs singing and dancing with small people.

View All posts by Rachel Rosenberg

Public librarians have a really misunderstood job, I feel. It appears like everybody thinks that they know precisely what our job is as a result of they’ve seen librarians on TV and in motion pictures. There we’re, strolling and shushing. Or sitting and shushing. Shelving and shushing. Shushing elements in fairly often as a result of the cliché is of librarians doing little greater than frowning and telling individuals to be quiet. It hasn’t been that method for a very long time as a result of supporting youngsters and households has lengthy since turn out to be an enormous a part of public library work, and that may embrace internet hosting noisy youngsters’s applications. If something, a part of the job is navigating the differing noise expectations of patrons.

Libraries have modified lots over their many a long time of existence, however the portrayals of our work haven’t. Plus, individuals come to the library and see us sitting on the reference desk and suppose we’re simply hanging out, not a care on the planet. Often, we’re sitting there planning applications that we’ll finally host, creating shows, contacting group companions, and researching new books/motion pictures/popular culture for suggestions. Modern librarians are sometimes required to stability being an data professional with a plethora of different jobs we haven’t been totally skilled in — a few of our duties embrace points of being a social employee, an IT assist employee, a print store worker, a safety guard, and even offering authorities admin assist.

So, whereas it’s completely okay should you don’t know what precisely a librarian does at their job, I recommend staying away from statements that indicate in any other case (e.g., “I’d love to be a librarian, what a peaceful job”).

With that in thoughts, please chorus from saying among the following to your neighbourhood public librarian:

a photo of a Black librarian — Image through Canva Pro

“Your job must be so quiet.” (It could be very usually not. Children’s applications, individuals who communicate loudly, and library incidents can all be every day occurrences.)
“Your job must be so easy.” (It positively isn’t. Read up on what’s happening in libraries proper now.)
“It must be nice to read all day.” (I want I may inform you, however that isn’t my job, so I can’t.)
“I could never do your job. I’d go crazy.” (Strange flex, however okay.)
“You don’t look busy; how about I give you something to do?” (I’m very busy as libraries have a tendency to now make use of much less workers however nonetheless present us with loads of admin and desk time necessities.)
“What do you mean I can’t take things from your desk without asking? My taxes pay for this library.” (My taxes pay for police and hearth stations, however I can’t simply stroll into a hearth station and slide down their pole for enjoyable.)
“What do you mean I can’t eat pizza overtop this stack of books? My taxes pay for this library.” (See prior assertion.)
“I’d love to be a librarian when I retire.” (We have grasp’s levels, so it’s unlikely.)
“Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?” (No additional rationalization wanted, in my view.)
“[Insert literally any comment on a librarian’s appearance].” (Just don’t do it.)
“When do you graduate high school?” (Being a librarian requires a grasp’s diploma. So we seemingly graduated some time in the past.)
“I’m looking for a book I read in the ’80s. It had a red cover and was about a boy on a coming-of-age journey.” (Now, this one, I don’t blame anybody for asking, however right here is the deal: editions change. I could or is probably not ready to discover a picture of a e-book cowl from the ’80s, and it’s robust to discover a e-book by means of a plot as generic as a boy’s coming of age.)
“I don’t need a library card; does anyone now that Google exists?” (Yes, an actual factor mentioned to me a number of instances in my life.)

Some of those are extra comical than irritating, however actually, it’s about displaying respect to somebody once you communicate with them. You don’t want to love libraries as a lot as library workers do, however it will be nice for us to really feel we’re being handled respectfully at work.

For extra perception into what working at a library is like, try The Weird Things Librarians Find in Books and Booksellers and Librarians On the Weirdest Requests They’ve Gotten at Work.