9/11/08

What does a librarian do?

When I tell people that I am a librarian, they go straight for the "I bet you read a lot" blast. Indeed, I read a lot, but I do so on my own time and rarely when I'm actually working at a library. So, what do me and my colleagues do all day long? I'm entering a writing contest, so I'll be brief on this blog. We:
  • do reference, meaning we answer questions.
  • do reader's advisor, meaning we talk books with people and help them select their next read.
  • help people find books, music, periodicals, and movies within our collections.
  • select items to add to the collection.
  • select the books that are old, crappy, irrelevant or completely inaccurate to send them to book heaven.
  • teach classes, anything from computer to literacy classes.
  • run book discussions.
  • order articles and other books from other libraries for people.
  • shh people who forget they're in a library.
  • reunite bad parents with their neglected children.
  • protect the privacy of our patrons by NOT sharing their book selections with anyone.
  • celebrate reading banned books.
  • fight off book challenges like the plague.

I'm missing all kinds of stuff. I haven't even touched on what management does. Haven't talked about grant-writing, library-building, lobbying, promoting stuff, etc. We do a lot, but here's a little taste.

Are there any librarians out there? What do you do that I haven't mentioned?

No comments: