Librarians

Librarian...A Low Stress Job?

Jennifer Lee (author of 'The Stress Relief Handbook') thinks that being a librarian is a low-stress job and recommends it as such.
This is number two on my recent list of low stress jobs that are out there. I’ve always found the idea of working in a library pretty appealing and may even wind up doing it myself someday. In fact, when I was a little girl librarian and detective were my top two choices for jobs I wanted to have when I grew up! If you think about it there are definitely similarities between the two careers. I didn’t wind up doing either job but I still understand the appeal of spending my days in the warmth of a library, surrounded by books and people who like to read them.
And what do you all think? I'm sure she'd value your opinions....

Ever met the stern librarian?

Ever met the stern librarian?
I often wonder why all librarians, regardless of their sex, appear so grim? Wouldn’t you think that beneficiaries of possibly the best job in the world, who have access to a wealth of knowledge, should have amiable countenances? But that’s not the case. To cast someone as Charon — the ferryman who carries the souls of the dead to the other world — a casting director only has to find a librarian.
Step into a library, and you are greeted with a “why have you come here?” look by a perpetually dour librarian. Instead of being drawn by a welcoming ambience and the attractive smell of books, you are made uncomfortable by the hostile vibes of the librarian.

What IT Professionals Can Learn from Librarians

What IT Professionals Can Learn from Librarians

If you think about a library, librarians are very techie but also very service oriented. Our librarians are exposed very intentionally, and have been for 15 years, to this intermingling of cultures. I’ve often said our help desk at the university would never be able to work for an uncaring IT help desk in the private sector. ... Librarians listen very well and will do anything to get an answer. The last thing they would say is, “I’m sorry. I’m going to send you a manual.” In libraries, the reference desk is very high on the status. It’s just the opposite in IT organizations. We have movement out of both, both laterally and vertically. It was a grand experiment that’s worked out very well.

Librarian turned drug dealer had 129k in bank account

Librarian turned drug dealer had £129k in bank account
Vast sums of money were paid into the accounts of a former Cambridge taxi driver and librarian turned drug dealer, a court heard.

“During that period the defendant was working as a librarian and then as a taxi driver. This vast sum of money could not possibly come from his line of work.”

Librarian restrained on Austrian Airlines flight

Librarian restrained on Austrian Airlines flight
Passengers had to restrain an Austrian librarian following a mid-air dispute at the weekend.

Customers said that a 32 year-old lunged toward one of the crew members onboard an Austrian Airlines flight from Washington to the company’s base in Vienna, but didn’t make contact. Reports said that he had consumed wine and a sleeping tablet and became upset and aggressive when flight attendants refused to serve him additional alcohol.

BookExpo America Loves Librarians

...and here's the 'official' BEA Librarians blog. Why does BEA love librarians? Hmmm, probably because there are fewer and fewer bookstores around :(. [birdie's request: please support your local bookstores and partner with them whenever possible].

This month's entry includes YA, Middle Grade, Non-Fiction and Fiction favorites and asks librarians...what do YOU like? Check it out.

Work Like a Patron Week

DLK: Here’s a thought – maybe we should create a “Work Like a Patron” week, where we only use the library like our customers do – use your library’s wifi (bonus points for using a Public PC), search using the patron version of your catalog, maybe even sit at those lovely desks in the library. Or hang out in a cafe, accessing all work- and library-related stuff from outside of the building. Use the front door, and see the library through your patrons’ eyes.

Librarian's Web Site About the Metropolitan Opera Taken Down

The tale sounded like Goliath raising his heel to crush a spunky David. The Metropolitan Opera, irked by regular disclosure of its programming, far into the future, on a Web site’s page, asked its operator to cease and desist.

The script might have called for a First Amendment battle, heels dug in, lawyers engaged, acid news releases. Instead, with nary a peep, the Web site’s author — Bradley E. Wilber, a college librarian in upstate New York, film buff and crossword puzzle constructor — graciously agreed to discontinue that page. The Met offered inducements, but he accepted only the promise of opera tickets for his next trip to the city.

“I didn’t want to get into trading a lot of stuff for my compliance,” Mr. Wilber said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “It’s really just a nice gesture.” Mr. Wilber’s opera page on his Web site was called Met Futures and dealt with subject matter that was seemingly obscure to much of the world but to opera fans was like red meat for hungry tigers. Mr. Wilber, 41, managed to sketch out the operas being planned by the Met, their casts and conductors often five or six years into the future. The subject is of passionate interest to opera buffs, who want to know whether their favorite singers are coming back, who is out of favor, what works are being revived from long ago and which operas are receiving new productions. -- Read More

Making Room for Readers

From The Millions, an excellent article by Steve Himmer:

One recent morning, my almost four year old daughter started crying out of the blue. I asked her what was wrong, and she wailed, “I don’t have a library card!” So with a proud paternal bibliophile’s heart swollen in my chest, I strapped her into her car seat and we set off for the library in search of a library card and — at her request — in search of Tintin books like those I’d told her were my favorite stories at the library when I was young.

We went first to the branch library in our end of town, a small, round building with walls almost entirely of glass. All those windows, and the books behind them, make it look pretty inviting, and we parked our car in the lot and I held my daughter’s hand as she skipped to the door, bubbling over with excitement. Unfortunately, it was closed; I’d known municipal budget cuts had reduced the hours of all library branches, but I’d thought that only meant it was closed on Fridays. Instead, it meant this branch — and all others, apart from the main library downtown — were open only a couple of hours four afternoons through the week. No mornings, no evenings, no weekends. -- Read More

When Library Is Not an Action but an Old Building

When “Library” Is Not an Action but an Old Building
"Now,I am sure that libraries are not going to close up shop anytime soon,but I do think that there is cause for concern by those of us who hope to work in this profession for the coming decades. This concern was captured by Rick Anderson in his editorial when he said,“Eventually the term ‘library’ becomes an honorific attached to a building,rather than a meaningful designation for what happens inside it” (p. 290) For us,we offer services that we believe complement each other and provide a range of support for researchers. But,our patrons do not necessarily see it this way. As Anderson also said,“Value that is not valued is not valuable” (p. 289). Obviously,it is on our shoulders to continue to advocate and reinvent libraries to better serve our users. But,frankly,that’s what I feel like I’ve been doing for the last decade."

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