Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Profession From a Book I’d Love to Try

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Old, worn out books sitting on a wooden shelf I can’t count the number of books I’ve read about libraries and the librarians who work there.

Being a librarian seems like an amazing job to me, especially if I could work behind the scenes repairing and preserving books and other manuscripts for future generations to enjoy.

I was once fortunate enough to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the book repair offices at a Toronto library. it’s amazing to see what the folks there are capable of doing for books whose bindings are coming loose or whose pages have grown fragile with age. They have so many tricks up their sleeves not only to repair current damage but to help prevent it in the future.

If the job market for this profession were better, I’d be quite interested in going back to school for it.

19 Comments

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19 Responses to Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Profession From a Book I’d Love to Try

  1. I never thought about being a librarian. I’ve tried to get a job shelving books at our library, but the pandemic hit and they had to lay off workers. Huh. Good one. I’m glad you brought that up.

    • Thanks! Yeah, shelving books would be another fun library job. I applied to do that a couple of times, too, but never heard back. Maybe someday it will happen for both of us.

  2. It may vary depending on the library, but my job as a librarian has little to do with books! The children’s staff are mostly focused on programs and helping kids/teens with computers; the reference staff are jack of all trades; in my town we’re essentially the oil of the social services machine, because many agencies and businesses have found it expedient to cut personal services and tell people to do things online. When much of the population isn’t computer savvy, though, that means…”go to the library!” Circulation is the only department that actually gets to work with books — even in reference few people are interested in our NF collection, just our computers and fax/scan services.

    One profession I’m always curious about is journalism — pre social media, anyway. I was attracted to it in high school but didn’t have any social skills. Now I’m perfectly comfortable chatting with strangers, but journalism has imploded as an industry!

    • Yes, Toronto’s libraries have librarians who have similar roles! I didn’t realize you spent so much time helping people use computers, scanners, and fax machines, though. That’s kind of cool.

      How big is the town you live in?

      And I was interested in Journalism, too. It’s too bad that industry is almost totally dead. I hope it comes back.

      • Selma is 18,000 people, but many of our patrons come throughout the county and surrounding area: several neighboring counties are almost wholly rural and can’t support a library with any meaningful services. (Marion’s library, for instance, was only open for 6 hours four days a week….before corona!)

        • Wow! I’m glad your library is still going strong for all of those folks.

          • It helps to not rely on city funding — we’re largely supported through an independent foundation, with some memorial trusts also contributing, and some federal/state grants covering the remainder. It’s helped to make us more stable than most.

  3. I mentioned it in my answer, but I’m going to repeat my recommendation for A Sorcery of Thorns here, because… well… Magical libraries, and a librarian who has to team up with a sorcerer to maybe save the world… (and it was really, really good!)

    Oh, um, right. My answer is here! Thanks for dropping by earlier.

  4. Oh, I totally agree with Michael. A librarian in a magical Library. Perfect. Good choices of yours too. Thanks for sharing. Here’s mine. https://www.tenastetler.com/a-profession-from-a-book-id-love-to-try-lsrs-blogging-challenge/

  5. Oops, thought I’d commented here. A little late. Teaching English and History the school librarian was a truly great lifeline. I always made sure we were on good terms. All I had to do was tell them what we would be researching and they’d have it ready for them when we got there. That way they didn’t have to clean up a mess after each period.

  6. Kri

    Ohhh I would so want to be a librarian too cause BOOKS. I used to work at a printing shop and that was fun!! I left for better opportunities of course but the smell of fresh glue on books or cardstock. The smell of a fresh printed item – I loved it

  7. I like the idea of being a librarian, but I think the customers would drive me mad.

  8. I worked at a library for a semester in college. I liked it. I did a lot of shelf-reading (making sure the books were in the right order) and checking in books. It’d be a good job. Maybe someday I’ll volunteer at my library.

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