I found this at my local library today! It's perfect!

I have about five years of library experience, quit to be a SAHM when my first baby was born, and now am very slowly chipping away at my MLIS online. What this will look like for me is being out of the workforce for anywhere from 10-20 years (depending on if I would start working when my youngest child starts school or when all my kids are a bit older) and finishing my degree at at slow pace (6-10 years).

I would likely never relocate for a job. Since my husband makes a lot more than I ever could as a librarian, where we live will be a lot more dependent on his job. I know this limits me a lot. I know this may require part-time work to build up more recent experience.

With how this field is, is it worth continuing with this plan? Or do I need to just accept that I will never be competitive with a work history like this and accept paraprofessional jobs forever? It’s discouraging to have a college degree and feel I could never earn more than 40K working full-time. I wanted this MLIS to expand my opportunities, but has anyone ever successfully transitioned into this field after many years of staying home to raise children? Thank you!

When I was in grad school, my family made me a "Library Passport" to collect stamps from various libraries I have visited. Since then, I have collected stamps (and other paraphernalia) from over 40 different libraries both in the United States and abroad. In doing this, I've also created a list of my "Top Libraries to visit"

To start I have:
Library of Congress, Washington DC

New York Public Library - Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

Brooklyn Public Library - Central Branch

Parkway Central Library - Philadelphia

Wilmington Public Library - Wilmington DE

Boston Athenaeum - Boston

Iowa State Law Library - Des Moines, IA

Geisel Library - La Jolla CA

What libraries would you put on this list?

Hello, all!

Last year, I asked this group for library cards from libraries all over the United States to help us with our town's annual holiday event -- we used them as ornaments to decorate a Christmas tree, and it was really well received by patrons and townspeople. We are doing it again!! We hope to get cards from more libraries, if you'd like to help us out. We also set up a lovely display for Library Card Sign-up Month. The town event is December 13, so we'd love to have them by Friday, December 4 at the latest.

If you'd like to participate, our address is:

Library Card Project

c/o Hamlin Public Library

1680 Lake Rd

Hamlin, NY 14464

Please let us know if you'd like a library card in return -- make sure to include a name and address so we'll know where to send it!

If you're not sure whether we have a card from your library/system, I'm including the list below the body of this message.

Thank you so much! We had such fun with this last year.

Olivia Durant

Director, Hamlin Public Library

Heard a patron ask this today.

Hello, I am hoping that someone who is or has recently been enrolled in Penn West's online MLS program can give me a bit of advice on a professor/class. I am interested in taking Dr Harhai's course on Genre Fiction and Readers Advisory but I have seen posts on Rate My Professor stating that she uses AI heavily in the course. I am not a fan of AI for many things but particularly, if I am paying a lot for classes, I don't want to be taught using generative content. If anyone has taken this class, would you mind sharing your experience? Also how was the workload for this course? Hopefully this is okay to post here!

I’m a trustee at my local library. As part of my “homework” for an upcoming meeting, I’m reaching out for ideas.

If you could have any services or programs offered at your local public library, what would you like to see?
What resources, activities, or opportunities would make your library even more valuable to the community?

Thank you in advance for your help and insight!

I just got this in my email from The Onion that they are trying to locate physical copies of a bunch of back issues of the paper. I am sure someone here might have some leads on where to get these. It says they are willing to purchase the issues from anyone that has them. Here's the link for more information and contact: https://theonion.com/archivehunt/

Hello all,

I am a cataloger but I am classed as a library assistant for my county's public library system that provides for 12 branches. I have worked in this position for almost 4 years and I am one of two catalogers; excluding my supervisor who sometimes steps in when we receive a big shipment. This is my first and only role working in a library and I wanted to see if my job duties were normal/expected as I am finding them overwhelming. I work in SC for context.

Cataloging: -Copy catalog and original catalog books, DVDs, BCDs, Tonie Boxes, Adventure packs, Reference materials (less so but still), etc. -Unbox, receive, and process new materials that come in. -Process local author books and repair damaged items. Processing entails: adding spine tape to soft covers, adding mylar covers to hardbacks that need it, barcodes, RFID, property stamp, branch location sticker under barcode, "NEW" sticker on spine if it came out within the current year, date sticker on the inside back cover, location tag inside book, add new items to a "NEW" record set to bulk change their collections to NEW in the ILS, and finally, check items in and put in courier for pickup. -When we receive new shipments, we are to stop what we are doing to immediately unpack and then receive everything. If anything is on hold we catalog and process that material, typically the same day. Every year at least, there has been a collection change. Most recent has been splitting up our science fiction into SF and Fantasy. We had to go through each branches collection and either call in each title or send them spine labels and label protectors and email them which books were to be changed. This was a relatively small collection consisting of about 1,500 books in total. We have done much larger though. (Still expected to do all of these previous tasks throughout the day though).

My job title is that of library assistant so I am expected to know all of their duties as well. I have to know how to check in/check out items to patrons, look things up, know our databases, help patrons on the computer and with printing or faxing, creating library cards, answering phones, updating patron records, etc. The Tech Services department is situated inside of a research type public library so I also have to know how to use the microfilm machine, audio converter, VHS to DVD converter, reel to reel machine, digital photo scanner, and a film/slides converter. There is only one librarian on the desk so if they call out, have to travel for meetings, take lunch, I have to stop what I'm doing and assist anyone who may come in. Sometimes it's actually patrons but many times it will be delivery people coming in to drop stuff off but since we are in a different room we can't see and have to go out on the floor to make sure no one is in need of assistance. If there are patrons who need help, you are expected to help and stay on the desk until they leave which is understandable but I am unable to work on my cataloging as the ref desk is not set up for our equipment.

"Other duties as assigned" - Drive courier workers to fleet (30 minutes each way) when needed/ drive the box truck or 16' courier van to or from fleet for maintenance. - Sub at one of our 12 branches if they are under staffed. This may be a small branch where I would be left alone for a part of the day or at least for an hour due to lunch. - Volun-told to set up and decorate for library events and clean up after all other library employees leave. - Take trash to recycling. - Deliver or pick up items, usually furniture or holiday decorations, from storage. - Be in videos/pictures for library whether I really wanted to or not. This used to happen a lot and I was even helping film and edit them for a while. - The most overwhelming so far has been helping each branch prepare for renovations. We and some of our admin go to a branch (all small so far but I've heard that we will also be doing our large locations 🙃) and pull every.single.item... off their book shelves, including the actual shelves. We remove everything from their office, break space, and anything in their storage closet that isn't maintenance. We pack every.single.item. into a box and when we run out we of boxed we pack book carts. We also have to move all of those boxes to a safe area somewhere in the library. We have to clean everything and disassemble all the computers and phones. After it is renovated we have to put every.SINGLE.item back and discard items not "fit" to be in their collection anymore. More cleaning and reassembling. Did I mention that we had to remain open during all of this as well? Any patron that walked in, someone was expected to immediately stop what they were doing and assist.

With everything that might happen in a day, from covering the reference desk and helping patrons to cleaning out libraries, I find it very difficult to complete my cataloging duties as we are expected to have cataloged a certain amount each day. I am falling far below my goal of 25 or more books each day. It's typically around 15 but I've managed to get up to 20-23 some days. We are expected to keep track of how long and how much we have done that day. Such as how many stickers we added and how long that took or how many times we got up to assist patrons, how long we assisted, and what we assisted with, etc. It doesn't help that my coworker and I have to share an Excell spreadsheet to input what we did that day/month that shows all of our data in the cells and in a barchart at the bottom. I constantly skip breaks to try and "catch up" to my coworker who seems to just instantly finish tasks.

For barely $34,000 (which tbf has increased from my starting salary of $28,000) a year I am feeling completely exhausted. I'm struggling to focus on my classes for my MLIS (last semester though!) and also be able to take care of myself and pets, while also making time for hobbies and friends. I'm debating switching careers as I cannot financially support myself on this salary and would love to be able to. Unfortunately, I've been told by multiple different coworkers that obtaining my MLIS would not result in a pay raise as my position technically doesn't require it.

I actually really enjoy cataloging and would like to stay in it but I cannot support myself, animals, or interests with this salary if I were to move out of my families home. Are these normal duties for catalogers and is the pay better elsewhere? I was told that I shouldn't go into libraries to get rich and I knew and accepted that. I thought I'd be able to support myself at the very least however...

https://youtu.be/vYZQ6HwS8Mo?is=7ZI7NLJK-3eAH4N4

Hi, I'm Seth! I love books and I've worked in libraries for years. I thought people in this group might be interested in my passion project, 'Loaners,' an animated comedy about misfits working in a public library, and the absurdities of their daily lives.

I wrote and produced, and it was brilliantly animated by Marcus Guio and his team. If you’re a fan of The Simpsons, that was my biggest influence.

Here’s the trailer! You can find the whole episode on YouTube by searching, “Loaners Pilot.” If you like it, please share and subscribe. Thanks!

I am in month 2 of my new role as a school librarian, and it is one of the hardest jobs I have ever had. I still feel very overwhelmed and still make mistakes. I also had no idea how political everything seems to be even at the school district level. Please tell me it gets easier?

I do not want to go into too much detail because my library is unique, and I do not want to announce to others that I am struggling, but just teaching seemed a lot easier and had less continuous drama. I did not expect this job to be easy, but I am surprised at just how much harder it is.

I also feel like for some teachers, I have gone from being a colleague to a villain overnight because I am only able to offer some of the services they want. Example:. I do chromebook exchange hours instead of all day student chromebook exchange, so I have time to teach library lessons, handle textbooks, and otherwise run the library. This makes me a villian who is trying to block student access to materials according to those teachers, but they are the same teachers who would be mad if I could not teach thier classes library lessons, or had to interrupt those to help all the kids with chromebook issues.

Any advice would be helpful.

I recently got a promotion of sorts where I went from public services at a large library to youth services at the smallest branch in the system. Because I'm the only youth staff member here, I've been told I have complete control of the kids' section.

One change I've been considering is putting our leveled readers in order by level rather than author.

Pros: Easier to choose books based on child's level, looks nicer on the shelf (imo)

Cons: Levels are not consistent between publishers, change annoys my coworkers for awhile

Can I get some advice from more experienced youth staff before I put in the effort to making this change? How do your patrons prefer it?

Hopefully this is allowed—first time poster. I work in the children’s/teen department at a busy downtown library and am in charge of creating our monthly displays for each age group. Obviously this month we have three display showcasing banned books, so I’ve been compiling and reviewing a lot of title lists. Tonight I started watching the new Carrie (Stephen King) series adaptation set in present time. No spoilers, but when Carrie visits the school library they make a point to zero in on the stack of books she pulls—every single one is a well-known banned book. I appreciated this little detail so much and thought this sub would be the perfect place to share it :) happy banned book week everyone

Hello, r/Libraries - I'm an occasional patron of my local library, but also an occasional book donor. One of my favorite publishers often offers special freebies for pre-ordering his books, obviously to push his numbers up, but it's a great way for us fans to get some otherwise unobtainable goodies!

Generally, I donate the extra copies to my local library, but I'm wondering if it's annoying for them to receive several of the same book? Would it be more appropriate of me to visit others nearby or are they perfectly capable and happy to swap them for another library's extras? I'm assuming there's a program for libraries to trade excess copies amongst themselves?

Just wanting to be helpful without causing someone more work, looking for the best way to do that. Enlighten me, please?

Thank you,

Not lying this is the damage - yes the wee bit 🤭we are members of a consortium of 100 suburban libraries and a few are extremely finicky. That’s it! Not a vent just sharing. Have a happy day everyone!

I'm a librarian in a small town, we get about 30-40 teens in the library every day after school. Normally I am all for this, but these particular teens spend their entire time here being as disruptive as possible. It's gotten to the point where their quieter peers don't like to come into the library anymore, and we had a teen tell us she feels unsafe coming here with them around. We have had incidents of them harassing their peers, adult patrons, and staff. They also film patrons who stand up for themselves. We have even had an incident where they followed a patron out of the library to continue harassing them in the street.

I've been working with teens for the last 5 years and have never seen anything like this. I'm at my absolute wits end here. Any suggestions for what to do to stop this behaviour would be great. I really hate resorting to kicking them out but that's where we're at. Any suggestions for getting their peers back into the library would also be much appreciated!!

tldr: i accepted a PT offer at job A for a library clerk position and now the hr is doing the reference check.
but i was just given a job offer for another PT library clerk at job B position for a higher starting step pay.

i honestly want to take job B’s offer bc they pay more but i feel like it’s a bad look.

should i just decline job B respectfully since i already signed job A’s job offer letter?
or is it common for people to take back a job offer after signing the letter due to a higher pay elsewhere?

i feel bad that i want to take job B’s offer but please any advice?

thank you!

EDIT: also the job is at two public city libraries.

Hi r/Libraries!

It's been about a year since the first Creepy Caller Census. I am glad that so many people have found use and validation in this tool. So many of us have experienced inappropriate and unacceptable patron phone calls.

Some of you may have noticed that updates have stopped. That's on me. The original post was fueled by frustration and a need to Do Something About the Thing. But frustration isn't an emotion that I can sustain for long. Pretty quickly, responding to reports began to chip away at my love for this field and my ability to see the best parts of our complicated and vulnerable patrons. So I put the census aside for a time, always intending to return.

Imagine my surprise this summer when work colleagues started talking about the Creepy Caller Census panel at ALA! Reading the article in American Libraries Magazine gave me the boost I needed to turn back to this work. But I want to do it right this time. Sustainably. Strategically.

So, what is next?

• The panelists at ALA wisely identified that Reddit is an imperfect platform. Too ephemeral, too dependant on one person, and not to any established standard of record keeping.
• I have since connected with a group of talented librarians interested in migrating the census to another platform. We're in early stages, but I'm excited for the possibilities.
• If you have suggestions or ideas for an alternative platform or reporting model, please do share in the comments.
• In the meanwhile, please continue to send me DMs and tag me in comments when you have a creepy caller to report! I continue to read every single one. A second annual Census will be posted with these updates in December.

Fundamentally, this project is my response to a terrible reality of public-facing work. But the following steps need to be grounded in shared community and genuine love. Love for all public workers, as we deserve respect and dignity in the workplace. Love for the profession, because so many capitalist systems want to grind us down and exploit us out of existence. Love for ourselves, to fuel advocacy and hold up our boundaries. In the words of inspirational Hugo-nominated author Chuck Tingle, (my heart's unofficial patron saint of this project), "Love is Real."

If you are struggling, angry, frustrated, I see you. If your work with the public traumatized you, I see you. If your workplace doesn't protect or support you, I see you. Reach out to each other and find support, online or at a panel or in your workplace. Continue to teach each other how to recognize unacceptable behavior and call it out. Make use of this resource we are developing together.

If you're someone whose actions and behavior have appeared in these reports, I hope that you find a more appropriate and alternative venue, but I see you. Maybe someday we'll have a resource list for you too.

Hi all! After working as a librarian assistant for three years, and loving it, I was surprise-promoted to makerspace Coordinator. The problem? I went from working at a busy urban main branch where I got to help people constantly, to a nearly dead side-branch that I’m now expected to revitalize with makerspace programming.

I honestly don’t know what to do. It’s somehow both boring and overwhelming. Sometimes we see as few as five patrons a day and they rarely need assistance with anything. I try to busy myself with learning the machines (a cricut, podcasting equipment, a photography studio, and a digital drawing tablet with Photoshop) But after just a couple of hours each day my brain feels fried.

The other makerspace coordinators have tried to help me, but even my new manager can tell my moral is low. What the heck do I do?

The display i just did☺️ I am very happy with how it turned out

Hey all,

I'm taking an online, multiple choice test next week for a library page position. It sounds like most of what they're testing is likely common sense and/or transferable soft skills, but I'm not sure how domain-specific some parts might be. They talk about things like knowledge of library systems, principles and processes for providing customer/patron services, ability to interact respectfully/courteously, read/follow written instructions, listen and elicit info, plan/organize/complete work, maintain filing and tracking, use computerized data systems, sort/file alphabetically, numerically and chronologically, etc.

I imagine reviewing Dewey and/or LOC classification isn't a bad idea, but it doesn't sound like that's the main focus of the test. I do have a master's degree, by the way, but not in library science. The minimum qualification for the position is a HS diploma.

Would appreciate any thoughts on specific things I may want to review. Thanks!