Today I found myself ready to throw a tantrum at work and opted to write my complaints rather than be admitted to a mental health facility.
Really the world should know how stressful the job of a librarian is. This morning my counselor commented on how she has learned a lot about librarian work from the clients she's had over the years and it is not what people generally make it out to be.
Librarians do more than check books in and out to people; although some days (like today)it seems like that is all we ever do (I went to grad school to do what!?). I actually had a jerk of a man accuse me of being lazy because I refused to do a last minute tour so his scout troop could get its library badge in time for the awards ceremony the next day. I wanted to punch him.
There are books to order, not only for your location, but for all the libraries in the library system. Then you have to personally go through every single book, DVD, Cd's, etc., each year to determine if it should be discarded, replaced, forgotten about, and what should be bought to fill gaps in the collection (ie series titles that are missing) for the next fiscal year. My branch holds over 45,000 items.
Then there are weekly story times, Dr Seuss birthdays, National Library Week, Children's Book Week celebrations, and all the other myriad of teen and children's programs offered throughout the year. Not only do we have to find the time to plan them for weeks before they take place, we have to carry them out, which usually involves performing in front of anywhere between 20-150 parents and children. Last year we had a surge in the amount of kids coming to library programs, probably due to the poor economy and the ungodly gas prices last spring and summer. There was also a surge in the number of items checked out and computer usage. All these surges in customer service but no surge or increase in the number of personnel to help them!
Then there are the customers, internal and external. As an assistant manager and children's librarian I get to deal with it all. We have people from all walks of life and all ages coming through our doors. Every single day is challenging. If you're not busy with patrons, then there are the personnel issues. If there aren't the personnel issues, then you're busy with customers and their problems. Usually it is a combination of it all piled up right on your shoulders.
We're expected to do this with a smile on our faces. Day in and day out we are expected to be polite when we are abused: yelled at and cussed at; accused of being rude because we charge patrons for items they obviously damaged and beyond repair (even our automated message reminding people when their items are overdue are called "rude"); and chided for not acting as people's personal secretaries. We have to ask people to watch their language, not to run or jump in the children's area, discuss the computer use policy with people who look at porn on the public computers, listen to people talk about their life problems, threaten to call the police on people who won't leave when they are asked to, listen to complaints about the content of library materials, explain that the item a patron said they turned is no where to be found in the library building regardless of whether they swear on their mother's grave that they turned it in (then it shows up in the book drop a week or two later), babysit kids whose parents believe the library is a safe place or that the staff will keep their kids out of trouble while the parents do online dating or run to the store, babysit adults... (I don't want to get into trouble for expanding on this one), and so on and so forth.
Working with the public is draining and doing it for several years for eight hours plus a day is detrimental to one's health. It must take years off people's lives. I used to think I wanted a job where I could make a difference; a job that means something. Now, I want a job where I sit in a cubicle all day and enter in data; where I can be left alone for a few hours and be allowed to actually get my work done on deadline; where I don't have to talk to a single human being!
Really the world should know how stressful the job of a librarian is. This morning my counselor commented on how she has learned a lot about librarian work from the clients she's had over the years and it is not what people generally make it out to be.
Librarians do more than check books in and out to people; although some days (like today)it seems like that is all we ever do (I went to grad school to do what!?). I actually had a jerk of a man accuse me of being lazy because I refused to do a last minute tour so his scout troop could get its library badge in time for the awards ceremony the next day. I wanted to punch him.
There are books to order, not only for your location, but for all the libraries in the library system. Then you have to personally go through every single book, DVD, Cd's, etc., each year to determine if it should be discarded, replaced, forgotten about, and what should be bought to fill gaps in the collection (ie series titles that are missing) for the next fiscal year. My branch holds over 45,000 items.
Then there are weekly story times, Dr Seuss birthdays, National Library Week, Children's Book Week celebrations, and all the other myriad of teen and children's programs offered throughout the year. Not only do we have to find the time to plan them for weeks before they take place, we have to carry them out, which usually involves performing in front of anywhere between 20-150 parents and children. Last year we had a surge in the amount of kids coming to library programs, probably due to the poor economy and the ungodly gas prices last spring and summer. There was also a surge in the number of items checked out and computer usage. All these surges in customer service but no surge or increase in the number of personnel to help them!
Then there are the customers, internal and external. As an assistant manager and children's librarian I get to deal with it all. We have people from all walks of life and all ages coming through our doors. Every single day is challenging. If you're not busy with patrons, then there are the personnel issues. If there aren't the personnel issues, then you're busy with customers and their problems. Usually it is a combination of it all piled up right on your shoulders.
We're expected to do this with a smile on our faces. Day in and day out we are expected to be polite when we are abused: yelled at and cussed at; accused of being rude because we charge patrons for items they obviously damaged and beyond repair (even our automated message reminding people when their items are overdue are called "rude"); and chided for not acting as people's personal secretaries. We have to ask people to watch their language, not to run or jump in the children's area, discuss the computer use policy with people who look at porn on the public computers, listen to people talk about their life problems, threaten to call the police on people who won't leave when they are asked to, listen to complaints about the content of library materials, explain that the item a patron said they turned is no where to be found in the library building regardless of whether they swear on their mother's grave that they turned it in (then it shows up in the book drop a week or two later), babysit kids whose parents believe the library is a safe place or that the staff will keep their kids out of trouble while the parents do online dating or run to the store, babysit adults... (I don't want to get into trouble for expanding on this one), and so on and so forth.
Working with the public is draining and doing it for several years for eight hours plus a day is detrimental to one's health. It must take years off people's lives. I used to think I wanted a job where I could make a difference; a job that means something. Now, I want a job where I sit in a cubicle all day and enter in data; where I can be left alone for a few hours and be allowed to actually get my work done on deadline; where I don't have to talk to a single human being!
1 comments:
Christy said...
ooohh, I've always respected librarians. And even more so after living with you! You should've told the scout man that the tour took way to long for the amount of time you had and he had to schedule it with enough time in advance to do so. Then when he got gruffy and said, "how long can it take!! it's a library" you just sweetly smile back and say, "you'll find out at the tour!!" :):):):)
I love libraries and I love librarians. Especially when they are named dmai AND I need to request Sabrina, the Teenage Witch for our library. Can you believe they don't have it yet? (haha)