So, I'm a mommy and a sort-of musician, but most of my time is spent masquerading as a...wait for it...librarian! And not just any librarian, but the best kind of librarian, which happens to be the YOUTH SERVICES kind of librarian. I work full-time at a small public library, part of a larger county system, and I focus specifically on older kids (they call them "tweens" these days) and teens. The best part? I absolutely adore what I do!
One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is creating awesome programs to suck my young patrons into the library. I currently host a monthly Minecraft club, science program, and art club, plus a book "discussion" group (I use the term loosely), as well as other miscellaneous good times. These kiddos think they are at the library just to have fun, when in reality they are there to be molded into the next generation of library lovers and supporters. (Cue evil laugh!)
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| Canvas and easel night at our monthly Art Club (hey, why is no one using the easels?) |
And I'm rather obsessed with the other big part of my job, which is maintaining a great kids' and young adult book collection. I get to spend lots and lots of other people's money (though there is never enough of it, really) on sweet new books to share with the community. I even enjoy the "weeding" part, a fancy librarian term for determining what books need to go away in order to present a cleaner collection and to make room for the new stuff.
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| One of my bulletin boards, featuring some popular reads, plus new books on display |
Unfortunately I DO NOT get to read on the job (that's a complete myth that any public librarian will dispel. Time to read at work? Ha! We are much too busy helping people, fixing computers, ordering and ditching books, making cool displays, attending various meetings, doing community outreach, and planning all those awesome programs for your kids!) But when I do read ON MY OWN TIME, which is often, I can always happily justify it as work related research. For my own pleasure (and research, of course) I stick mainly to older juvenile and YA novels, with some non-fiction thrown in there for good measure.
The pay may be crappy and there may be nothing glamorous about it, but I just can't help myself...I'm sort of in love with my job!
