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Confessions of a Budding Librarian
According to a 2009 report by Chase Consulting, fishing industry workers have the most dangerous jobs in Canada. Although no librarian has ever died while cataloguing or answering a reference question, librarianship carries with it its fair share of perils. Next to paper cuts and falling hard-covers, I would argue that the most serious of these is the many stereotypes associated with the profession.
In early 2008, I applied to the two-year Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) program at the University of British Columbia. This was a life altering decision: never again would I attend a cocktail party of non-librarian folk without encountering the following four questions:
Question: “Well, you don’t look like a librarian…?”
Answer: Umm, thank you. I think.
That being said, I do indeed have ‘librarian glasses’ and wear sensible footwear.
Question: “What do they teach you in library school? The Dewey Decimal system?”
Answer: Yes, amongst other things.
In addition to Dewey, the MLIS program at UBC offers courses on such varied topics as database design, children’s literature, cataloguing, organizational management, instructional skills, and reference services.
Question: “You need a Master’s degree to be a librarian?”
Answer: You bet.
‘Librarian’ is a professional distinction granted to those who have a Master’s degree in Library Studies from an accredited university. This means that not everyone who works in a library is necessarily a librarian: some are library technicians, who have received college training in the more ‘hands-on’ aspects of library work. Regardless of title, all of the employees at WPL are essential for the library to run smoothly.
Question: “Are you going to shush me?”
Answer: At the library? Possibly.
While I would never actually cast a disgruntled shush in a patron’s general direction, I might ask you to use your ‘inside voice’ or take your cell phone outside. I confess this is my least favourite part of the job (darn it, I want you to feel at home in the library!) But the library must be many things to many people. Lively gathering place and quite study space: it’s a tough balance to strike, but public libraries happily try to do it.
Readers, put your mind at ease if you too have asked these questions. No doubt, there was a time when I surely would have done the same. Having had a peek into the life of a (budding) librarian, you can consider yourself well informed the next time you find yourself sipping cocktails with one of us.
Lindsay Tripp
Public Services Coordinator and WPL's summer student from UBC's Library Science program