I’m thinking about applying to work in the library next school year or during the summer. It’s an entry-level low paying position (for students) but I’d be doing everything a “real” librarian would do.
Do we have any librarians here on C&F?
Isn’t MarkB a librarian? I remember someone was, anyway.
I have a degree in Library management and was on the job once
As a student worker, I began at Junior High, working in the library, then in High School. Skipped JC, but worked at the Periodical Library at SF State. A good work-study option, yer always dry.
The Periodical Library was an eye-opener. This was before the web so I remember being amazed that there was an American Cleft Palate Journal, for example.
For me ‘The Journal of Applied Rabbit research’ was the eye opener
Q.Why didnt the burglar break into the library?
A.Because he was afraid he would get a long sentence!
Q.How many librarians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A.I dont know, ill have to go and check and get back to you!
Librarians don’t change light bulbs but we can tell you were to go to find that infomation.
MarkB
I have a mate who is a librarian - or was… actually I’d better touch base and see if he still is. Haven’t spoken for a while!
One of the weirdest people I know. A totally excellent bloke, so librarianism can’t be all bad.
Here’s his website. Check out the MP3s to see what kind of music librarians make.
Yes, MarkB works in a library, and used to be a regular in the chat room - might still be, for all I know. He was always coming up with interesting topics of conversation and unusual facts.
I hope you take the job, Cran - aside from it probably being a fairly cushy gig as student jobs go (I spent my first year in the school cafeteria - at least I learned how to properly cut focaccia bread!) it will give you some nice buzzwords that you can put on your resume in the future. Organisational skills, customer service experience, etc.
A friend of mine studied Library Science in uni or something like that - it was the first time I realised that librarians have to come from somewhere. Until then I think I had the vague impression that they sprung fully-formed from encyclopedias or something. Kind of like Athena but with a big sign that said Quiet Please…
I filled out the paperwork today. If I get the job I won’t start until the end of next month (I’m staying on campus over summer). If not, then I’ll just apply again and again until they get tired of me. That’s how I got into college. 
Hi Cranberry, yes I am a librarian. I work in a large public library in a mid size city. To be a recognized as a librarian, you will need a Master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences from an accredited school sanction from by the American Library Association, to be called a librarian and to work as a librarian. I also have two other Master degrees, one in Fine Arts, and the other in Communications (Canadian Telecommunicaitons Regulations and Policy)
Ah yes, shelving miles of books, shelf reading even more miles of books, picking up tonnes of books from the desks, then sorting them to put back on the shelves.
Good luck, hope you get the job.
MarkB
I know the city so I probably know exactly where you work. 
Well, not really. My school is unique in that everything is run by students. Our library is rather large, and it is open from 7:45am until midnight. There is only 1 full time librarian who runs the circulation desk, and she’s only there from 9-5 on weekdays. Everything else at all other times (from shelving books to computer work to answering the phones) is done by students. Since the students have class and other functions to attend, but are required to work at least 10 hours per week, each student usually works 1-3 hours during the morning, day, or night in short shifts. This means that there are around 30 or so students working at the library, and they are called librarians, and they do librarians’ work, even though none of them have a Masters degree like most librarians in the US and Canada do.
Within the library there are various departments too. There’s the circulation desk which is the “main” desk with the most librarians. There’s the reference desk, there’s the special collections (old books and stuff) department and a few other places downstairs that I don’t know the names of, all staffed by students.
All the departments on campus are run that way-- with relatively few “professional” people and a lot of students. The “professionals” in every department are more or less supervisors–the students very literally do everything.
I worked as a librarian in a university music library for three years in college. Fortunately, the people who came in at night were the sorts who already knew the answers to The Big Questions. There were some books to reshelve, and that wasn’t bad, but the part I really, really hated was . . . reshelving sheet music.
The experience paid off in spades, though, as I went on to graduate school with an almost instinctual knowledge of where books hide in libraries, there to discover that people would pay you to do their library research for them!!! They’d pay you even more if you could abstract!
Not only that, but I could reshelve and didn’t cause the librarians any extra work, so they absolutely loved me and would go out of their way to put my searches at the top of the Medline pile . . . and one of them one day actually taught me how to do it myself! And gave me access! And I was IN BUSINESS!!!
So, out of one little college job in the library, I learned skills that not only paid for food and rent in college, but all through grad school, and then enabled me to be self-sufficient later, and even gave me a fall-back occupation as a “research assistant.” I’ve used that to keep from starving more than once. I still use those skills today. Every day. They are the reason I’m successful at what I do.
I always recommend library jobs to students.
Good thing Cran doesn’t read my posts, or hearing me say that would make him run for the motor pool.
Ok, you’ve convinced me. I’m working in the library.
Come to think of it, I’m A+ certified, you’d think they’d let me work on some computers… I might have to inquire down that vein, as well.
… making a list
I’ve been there as well, shelving, checking in, straightening the shelves, repairing stuff, checking in videos (bit of a nightmare - card system, you’d fill up a whole counter with the things), answering questions, hunting down items. Loved it! Even though it’s generally pretty low-paying.
At the Multnomah Co. library they had a quarterly journal about progress on the Sitting Bull Monument. Pretty interesting in 1992. At one college Audio/Video department they had a video documenting how the roller compacted concrete dam 18 miles from my home town would probably fail soon - this guy in the interior gallery was walking around pulling chunks of rock out of the walls! That was about 20 years ago so we’re probably safe for now…NOT!
College library jobs seem to be pretty popular.
My daughter tried to get one this term but wasn’t successful - lots of competition, and they rather understandably give preference to students who’ve got previous experience
I did it in high school, but never applied for a college position - thinking back, I probably would have been better off working regular hours in the library instead of the tutoring center. I agree with Lambchop that knowing how to find (and reshelve) books on my own was a big help, but it can make you a little obsessive - these days, if I’m in a public library and find a book out of place I usually end up taking the time to reshelve it properly.
Sounds like a conspiracy.