
What Do Public Library Workers Do? (2011) - Mz
https://laurensmith.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/what-do-public-librarians-and-library-staff-do/
======
vanderZwan
When I was teaching at Malmö University, one of the professors once shared
that he had noticed one constant across all universities he had attended: on
average, the librarians are the most helpful, cooperative members of
supporting staff, whereas IT people are the most antagonistic, least helpful
people. With just one year of working experience there I already knew exactly
what he meant.

What we were puzzled by is what causes the difference. One reason could be
some kind of selection bias for the kind of work. Another could be that in
both cases the "base person" is nice in principle and that it's the work that
brings out these personality differences. In that case it would be nice if one
could transport "environmental fixes" from the library work floor to IT
somehow.

~~~
jacobolus
All the public library librarians I know are amazing. All the university
librarians I know are amazing.

For whatever reason though, all the secondary school librarians I ever
interacted with (admittedly, a small sample) were the worst kind of petty
bureaucrats, who seemed to revel in being deliberately unhelpful, usually for
some kind of pedantic trivial reason.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Because of their clientele? They deal with double-talking rules-lawyers all
day long. Develop a thick skin and zero tolerance, or they don't last long.

------
RobertKerans
My mother works as a library assistant. From conversations with her and her
colleagues, and from what I gather applies nationwide, to add to that list: \-
dealing with reapplying for job every six months or so. \- providing security
support and lookout for councillors/MPs holding surgeries (this being
particularly relevant post-Jo Cox). \- dealing with a working environment that
physically shrinks year on year, but still has the same amount of custom. \-
cutting staff numbers to one for smaller libraries means doing all the work on
the list, just with zero support (again, custom still the same level)

~~~
RobertKerans
On the flip side, these resources are used disproportionately by the poorest,
so, y'know, screw em. Replace several cheap staff with a few expensive
managers and some technology that isn't remotely as useful and off we go.

~~~
sciurus
Yep. This comment at metafilter has been discussed here before, I think, but
it's worth linking again:

[http://www.metafilter.com/112698/California-
Dreamin#4183210](http://www.metafilter.com/112698/California-Dreamin#4183210)

~~~
mr_potato_face
Thank you for linking this. The main article being discussed made me think
"okay, so administrivia, book stuff, etc. Actually doesn't sound so bad". This
link, however, made me realize how emotionally draining the library can be for
everyone involved.

~~~
w__m
another fun fact: librarians make change. For example, librarian in Warsaw -
450$ a month. 520$ is somehow considered a "very good pay".

------
edtechdev
They do a lot of coding, too: [http://code4lib.org/](http://code4lib.org/)

Drupal's popular with some libraries, too:
[https://groups.drupal.org/libraries/resources](https://groups.drupal.org/libraries/resources)

------
Endy
We clean up after the crap everyone leaves behind. And through it all, we try
to help people and tea h them. We're forced to be janitors, curators,
researchers, academics, negotiators, and entertainment all in one. It's
thankless as hell.

And I wouldn't change one iota of it.

------
minikites
They've also been serious about privacy and security for longer than you
think:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoia_Horn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoia_Horn)

------
philipps
I founded a non-profit that organizes learning circles for people to learn
together. We used to focus on online circles, but found that we mainly reached
people who were already fairly well educated. 18 months ago we switched to
exclusively working with public libraries to host our learning circles, and we
couldn't be happier with the results. We now see about 65% first time online
learners, most are without a college degree, and even homeless people have
joined. And working with the librarians has been awesome. Public libraries for
the win!

~~~
Mz
Good job! Check this out and see if you want to add it to your toolbox for
your homeless participants:

[http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/](http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/)

------
Spooky23
They do a lot. Having a kid really enhanced my appreciation for libraries and
librarians. They fill vital teaching roles, host enrichment programs, help
with study groups and teach kids about research.

My local library system has stuff like maker events, guest sessions with 3D
printers and all sorts of activities. It's an invaluable resource.

~~~
Relys
I wish more libraries would turn into hacker/maker spaces. :/

~~~
ocdtrekkie
It's all about budget. My local library is in a relatively affluent town, so
they've got kinda a startup space vibe they're trying to build, and obviously
they've stepped up the computer lab offerings quite a bit. Another nice perk
for the movie buffs among us, is that they buy 25+ copies of new movies, and
checkouts are free. While the hold list means you'll wait on those titles a
few months... I haven't paid to rent a movie going on ten years now.

I actually worked for four years at the library, and I absolutely appreciate
the heck out of it.

------
laurensmith
Oh! I put this post together :)

~~~
Mz
Welcome to HN. :)

~~~
laurensmith
Thank you! :)

------
kllvql
This appears to be another scalability vs human intervention argument that
occurs commonly in public and private enterprises. I think much of this
community favors the scalability side, but forgets that humans are available
to provide better solutions in almost all areas that are currently available
to computers.

------
Jaruzel
Probably off-topic, but all I'm going to say is, if you are even slightly bit
geeky, find and marry a Librarian. You won't be sorry[1]. IT minds, and
Librarian minds are very compatible as both disciplines are all about the
expansion of knowledge. The endless discussions on every topic are forever
energising!

[1] Yes, I'm being subjective. YMMV of course, but we're over 18 years in, and
still totally happy.

------
buro9
Hey, I know Lauren, I'll ask her to register in case anyone has questions.

