The Highs and Lows of a Career in Libraries
After 5 Years, Here Are the Things I’ll Miss Most (and a Few I Won’t!)
After over five years of working in libraries, last month I hung up my badge, shrugged off my cardigan, sheepishly returned my long-overdue books, and bid a tearful farewell to librarian life.
Here, I’m sharing some of the highs and lows of my career in libraries.
Library Highs
Living My Best Bookish Life
It’s cliche, but it’s true, for a bona fide bookworm there are few jobs better than working in a library. I worked as a library assistant in public libraries, which is basically the role people think of when they say ‘librarian’, but without any formal qualifications.
No, I didn’t get to curl up in a chair in the corner of the library and read all day (alas!) But I did get to spend at least part of my working day discussing books with other readers.
I absolutely loved giving and receiving book recommendations as part of my job, especially those times when I was able to recommend something a customer hadn’t heard of and they’d come back a week or two later to tell me they loved it.
Events
Some of the most fun I had working in libraries was when we held events. Whether it was family craft sessions, themed events for Easter, Halloween or Christmas, summer holiday clubs, or hosting live performances!
I mean, in what other job do you get to rock up in fancy dress on the regular, bring in a carved book pumpkin to display on the front desk, teach kids how to hula hoop and watch the local morris dancing troupe perform all as part of the same job role?
Admittedly, there have been moments - usually, somewhere between my 47th and 48th paper plate pumpkin or bunny ear headband. when my fingers are glued together, I have glitter in one eye, and there’s a random child with a snot bubble coming out of their nose tugging at my elbow while across the room, I can see a toddler scrawling felt-tip in a picture book while their doting grandparent scrolls Facebook, oblivious - when yes, I’ve admittedly questioned my life choices.
But on the whole, events - no matter how manic - were a wonderful blur of noise and activity where the library really came alive, and we got to share the space with members of the community that ordinarily wouldn’t step through the doors.
Kids
There’s really nothing quite like that joy on a kid’s face when you tell them they can choose up to 20 (TWENTY!) books to take home, and their little mouth falls open when they realise it’s free. So few things are free these days, and even very young kids realise that. When they sign up and discover they can walk out with as many shiny new books as their wee arms can carry, you can almost see the endless possibilities dawning on them.
I loved it when kids would bring in pictures they’d drawn, inspired by the book they’d just read, or handed in reviews to get a sticker. Listening to reluctant readers enthuse about the latest Beast Quest instalment made my heart glow. Similarly, when I used to run a reading group for the 8-11 age group, there were kids who went from hiding behind their book when I asked if anyone wanted to read aloud to throwing their hands in the air begging for a turn in the space of just a few weeks.
Best of all was when I was able to practice real, in-the-moment, unplanned inclusion. Like when a kid pointed to her cousin and said, ‘Oh, she won’t be able to join in, Miss, because she’s deaf.’ And I re-jigged my story writing workshop and dusted off my rusty BSL skills to ensure that she most definitely could join in! Or when it quickly became apparent that the children who’d rocked up to the story and craft session were far too fidgety to sit still for the length of a chapter book (and far too young to be wielding scissors alone), so it became a rhyme time and colouring session instead.
Challenges
I’m not one of those people who can wholeheartedly say ‘I love a challenge!’ during a job interview and truly mean it.
In all honesty, I much prefer the days when things run smoothly, and I don’t feel like I’m fighting an uphill battle to complete the most mundane tasks. I mean who really enjoys going to war with a printer from the dark ages, and coming away covered in ink with armfuls of crumpled paper? BUT all that said, if I’m faced with a real-life challenge that matters, by god am I determined to overcome it!
Replacing lost bus passes, helping with online job applications, printing out boarding passes, booking train tickets, applying for benefits, bidding on council houses, trying to track down a long lost relative, or discover the year your house was built, or find the name of that one book you read ten years ago that you loved when all you can remember now is that the cover was blue (possibly)…?
Now those were challenges I really could get behind!
Listening
Prior to working in libraries, I was a nurse, and really, the two jobs aren’t as different as you might think.
One key component of both roles is the ability to listen to people. Even if you can’t help, even if you’re not the right person or working in the right service to deal with their inquiry. Even if you’ve heard the story before and you have a million other things you need to do. Being that friendly ear for someone who may not have spoken to a single other person all day, or all week, or even longer, is an incredibly important part of what it means to work on the frontline of public services like libraries and healthcare.
I once stood for a full twenty minutes listening to a man tell me about his planned below-knee amputation scheduled for the following week, and how worried he was about it. Did I mention this was when I was a librarian, not a nurse?
He’d come in to return his books and take out new ones ready for his hospital stay and lengthy rehabilitation. Could I offer him sage words of wisdom about life as an amputee, or explain the technicalities of his upcoming surgery, or offer him any practical support whatsoever? No. But I could be that friendly face that would listen as he voiced his fears, I could empathise with the uncertainty he faced, and I could help him choose books that would be a distraction and comfort to him in the coming weeks.
Some of the most meaningful moments in any job happen in the least earth-shattering of moments when we simply meet the person in front of us where they’re at and listen to what’s on their mind without judgement.
Dream Team
There was no way I could list the highs of my library career without mentioning my brilliant colleagues and some of the incredible teams I’ve been fortunate enough to work in.
When I first started out working in libraries, I imagined all my fellow librarians would be stereotypically bookish types (i.e. like me!) who could probably quote Shakespeare at length on a whim (unlike me), and who would have seemingly endless book recommendations up their sleeves and an intimate knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System.
What I actually found was that yes, some people work in libraries because they love books and are avid readers, but…there are many, many other people who work in libraries for a whole host of other reasons!
It may be because they love meeting and talking to people, because they want to be part of the community, because they’re methodical and organised, because the hours fit in with their other commitments, because it’s a secure income, because it’s local enough to not need a car to get to work. Or maybe even because they used to work in Parks and Leisure, but got shunted over to Library Services during a restructure, and gradually came to love the job (or were close enough to retirement to not care much either way!) (Yes, that's a real thing that happened to lots of my colleagues!)
There are a million reasons people work in libraries and - you may find this shocking, I know I certainly did when I found out - some people who work in libraries don’t even read????? Like, not even magazines!!!
But one thing was true of almost everyone I worked alongside in my five years in libraries: they were good people doing their best in what, at times, can be a wonderful and difficult job.
Library Lows
It’s Almost Never Chocolate (IYKYK)
‘Excuse me, I just thought you should know that there’s a brown stain on that computer chair…’
Words no librarian wants to hear.
A word of advice for any budding librarians out there- you may hope with every fibre of your being that it’s chocolate. It almost never is.
Unless that is...you happen to be tidying up the general fiction shelves after a busy Saturday and see a shiny purple wrapper protruding from the top of a Danielle Steel hardback, and think to yourself, ‘Surely not?’ In that case, yes, it really will be chocolate. A full bar, in fact, still in its wrapper, albeit slightly squashed from being used as a makeshift bookmark!
Other lowlights included finding a takeaway container of fried chicken (bones and all) shoved behind a shelving unit. Hand-in-hand with the stacks of books that were returned with greasy covers like they’d spent their three-week loan period in a chip pan.
I’m also not exaggerating when I say that during my career in libraries, I encountered as many bodily fluids as I dealt with during my nursing career! (Only without the benefit of full PPE and wipe-clean surfaces!)
‘I Pay Your Wages’
There will always be one customer who truly believes that because they have, at one time or another, paid taxes, you - a council employee, and obvious pleb - are now their personal servant.
After all, if they pay your wages, you should absolutely, 100% fix the self-service machine RIGHT NOW. Never mind that you don’t have a single tool on your person or mechanical qualification on your CV, or that the IT department has already identified the issue with said machine and is in fact, sending someone (qualified) out to sort it tomorrow. No. It’s your job! Jump to it! This instant!
See also: the expectation that you will wipe unreturned, eye-wateringly expensive medical textbooks off their library account because they’re absolutely sure they definitely did, maybe, perhaps, return them at some point, right????
Another startling one I personally encountered was a man who felt that as a council employee who didn’t ‘look busy’ (I was walking across the library floor at the time with a pile of books in my arms to shelve), I should be able to sit with his (mortified) teenage son and personally tutor him through his GCSEs. For free. Every Saturday???
I mean, at some point you’ve got to give people points for trying, right?!
Creche Life
You’ve heard of thug life, but only a chosen few working in public libraries know about Creche Life.
Picture toddlers running towards automatic doors that lead straight out onto the main road. Babies ripping pages out of books or chowing down on them, sicking up a little on the pages in the process. A pre-schooler in top-to-toe Boden throwing (organic) crisps in the air before stomping them into the alphabet rug, despite his mum’s gentle refrains. A harassed looking mum asking, oh-so-casually as she passes by the front desk if I can ‘keep an eye on’ her (five) children while she ‘nips’ to Asda.
By the time I started out in libraries, I’d been a neonatal nurse for six years and had two kids of my own so nothing the tiny patrons threw at me (sometimes quite literally) fazed me much, but interestingly ‘keep other people’s children alive’ never actually featured in any of my official job descriptions. An oversight, perhaps?
Actual Abuse
People are surprised to hear abuse happens in libraries and often seem reluctant to believe it. After all, aren’t they just quaint, quiet sanctuaries full of bookworms who wouldn’t say boo to a goose? Erm, no, actually.
As with any frontline job, working in libraries involves the general public who are, as it turns out, an unpredictable bunch!
I personally experienced more verbal abuse during my five years working in libraries than I did during my three years as a student nurse and six years as a frontline nurse combined.
I’ve been sworn at, had books thrown at me, had teenagers (and adults) deliberately knock books from shelves onto the floor or kick over chairs in a strop. I’ve had to break up both verbal and physical fights between patrons. I’ve seen furniture thrown around, and even turned up to work at a library where the windows were smashed in. On one particularly scary shift, there was a stabbing outside a chicken shop three doors down and we were instructed to lock the doors.
Libraries are a community space where people from all walks of life come together and are exposed to different cultures, rule sets and expectations as well as being a place where people come into contact with others that they might not necessarily get along with. Just because a physical space is filled with books doesn’t automatically mean everyone will see it as sacred or find it a calming environment, as much as you (and I) may wish that were the case!
Once a Library Assistant, Always a Library Assistant
In conclusion, it’s been a wild ride - far wilder in fact than I ever expected when I first took the job - but it’s also been wonderful.
When you’ve trained as a nurse, regardless of whether you continue to work as a nurse until retirement, decide it’s not for you after all, or take a new career path along the way, there’s always some small part of you that remains a nurse, even if you’re no longer registered or practising. It’s an intrinsic, intangible thing you carry with you always, and I firmly believe the same is true for those of us who are lucky enough to have worked in libraries too.
Even if you leave your library job, and life takes you in a different direction, your inner librarian remains.
Whether you find yourself organising your living room bookcase alphabetically, or hold the Dewey Decimal System in your head for the rest of your years. Whether you find yourself wanting to talk to strangers on public transport about the book they're reading, or missing the decisive thump of a rubber stamp. Maybe you’ll one day hanker for the rush of power you used to get from announcing the library will be closing in five minutes, jangling the keys in your hand as you stride between the rows of shelves.
However it gets you, I feel certain it stays with you, as indelible as the date stamp inside a library book cover.
