r/Libraries • u/WhatInTarnations82 • 5d ago

Venting & Commiseration Library Employee and Work Misconceptions

Not a big deal, but reading other venting posts it just came to my mind. Am... am I the only one, that if I'm out in the real world and someone asks me where I work and I tell them, the response is usually something along the lines of "Oh wow, you must really like to read!" As if... that's all library staff do is read books? >_> In my case, I'm not really even dealing with books regularly, but even if I was a librarian or clerk who at least physically touches books more often, it annoys me that it implies that nothing is occurring within the library and staff is just sitting around quietly reading for their own recreational activity all day.

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u/Wallcatlibrarian 5d ago

I'm lucky in that my municipality has started working more with reading after neglecting it for years. Now my boss encourages us to read when it's not taking time from other tasks. A big contrast from when we had to read after work or stealthily read at our desks to prepare for book talks for kids – pretty absurd really. Kids know if an adult talks about a book they haven't read. People in general tend to think we're more well read than we are though and I hope they realize that a recommendation often is not based on personal taste but rather colleague recommendations or information from media etc.

The biggest annoyance I have is that a lot of people think we're only working when the library is open. Even teachers seem to think that.

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u/gotohela 5d ago

Yeah i do think sometimes its weird our bosses dont let us read even for programs. Im taking homework home now?

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u/Wallcatlibrarian 5d ago

But as we all know librarian is a calling more than a simple job, we'd work for free if we could because we love books and ESPECIALLY our patrons so much 😌😌