Most of what you need to know to perform your job you will learn on the job. Sometimes it will be a hard learning experience but you will remember it always. Other times it is the training you get from your employer. And mostly it is getting to know and understanding the nuances of the particular community you serve. Library school can teach you the philosophy and provide you some practical experience but there is nothing like being right in the mix and learning every day.
Remember to maintain balance in your professional and personal life. As a straight-out-of-school graduate whose first job was helping establish a new branch in a community that hadn’t had a library, I was idealistic, gung-ho and enthusiastic about sharing all that the library had to offer. I worked so hard I got sick several times the first two years as a librarian. I hope you will love your career as I have, but learn to pick and choose your projects. Don’t be afraid to say no to a partnering or outreach opportunity or in-house project if you just don’t have the time. Do let those agencies and colleagues know you are open to future collaborations.Sometimes an incident in the library ends badly or you don’t manage it to the best of your ability. You will feel terrible but avoid dwelling on it. Instead, evaluate what happened. What did you do right? What did you do wrong? How would you handle it better? Discuss with your co-workers how they saw it. Make this a learning experience for the future.
Expect the unexpected and do the best you can to provide a positive solution. A trio of 8-year-old boys tore out a page with pictures from one of the sex books in our collection. One of the parents found it in her boy’s room and she and the other parents confronted me with it. I was asked if there were other books like this in the library. I told them the library has books on a lot of topics and, yes, sex is one of them. Mind you, this conversation took place in Spanish and my intermediate skills weren’t fully adequate for this situation. I did offer to have the bilingual manager call them to discuss it and they were agreeable to the idea. Fortunately there was not the high drama I feared but it did throw me for a loop!
Give people a chance to show who they are. Try not to stereotype based on how they look or act. Yes, there are people who will fit the stereotypes but get to know your patrons on an individual basis. Introduce yourself to new kids and learn their names. Be pleased to learn that the tattooed guy all in black is into poetry. Look into a wannabe gangbanger’s eyes and see how young and vulnerable he really is. Welcome the conversation with the girl who never bothered to acknowledge you before but suddenly is telling you how much she likes the “Twilight” books.
Beatriz Pascual Wallace
MLIS Children’s Librarian
The Seattle Public Library