My early experiences don’t translate well to today’s libraries but some of the early lessons included:<\/p>\n
Teamsters drive trucks, they don’t unload them.\u00a0 One week into my first job after library school, the Director and I got to unload the 18-wheeler delivering new shelving to the small town [pop. 10,000] library I worked at because there was no one else do to it.\u00a0 We then got to put it together.<\/p>\n
Cows are no help in changing tires… the first spring [1973] I made the rounds to country schools promoting the summer reading program I had a flat tire on a country [read: unpaved] road.\u00a0 While the cows in the adjoining field came over to watch, they were no help in changing the tire.\u00a0 Fortunately, the owner’s manual of my VW bug (1967, a classic year) had excellent directions and my library training had directed me to research my options so I was able to make it to the school in time for the assembly.<\/p>\n
One of the things they don’t teach is how to move furniture.\u00a0 Children’s people really need to insist that everything has wheels… we will be moving it forever.<\/p>\n
When you are buying a car, take along a template of the puppet stage or any other largish library equipment you may end up hauling.\u00a0 I drive a Camry because my puppet stage won’t fit in a Corolla.<\/p>\n
Keep a small tool box…screwdrivers, pliers, hammer, nails, etc. in your desk.\u00a0 Over the years they will prove very useful [and make you popular with others in the library who want to hang a picture or make a quick fix].<\/p>\n
A quality luggage cart [with big wheels] is invaluable when toting books etc. for displays, book talks, etc.\u00a0 Saves your back and your steps.\u00a0 Take your own rolling desk chair to exhibits & displays.\u00a0 You can roll in boxes of materials on it.\u00a0 Raise it high so standing up is easier and if you are a person of size, you can trust it to hold you… some rental chairs are very flimsy.<\/p>\n
Give out stickers to the kids you talk to at an exhibit.\u00a0 Save the backing paper and you can get a rough idea of the numbers.\u00a0 Plus, if the children have stickers, you have already talked to their adult.<\/p>\n
Your children’s areas need lots of electrical outlets and they also should be safety outlets.\u00a0 Report worn out ones and insist they get repaired.\u00a0 It’s a safety issue.<\/p>\n
Anitra Steele
\nChildren’s Services Manager
\nMid-Continent Public Library
\nIndependence, MO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My early experiences don’t translate well to today’s libraries but some of the early lessons included: Teamsters drive trucks, they don’t unload them.\u00a0 One week into my first job after library school, the Director and I got to unload the 18-wheeler delivering new shelving to the small town [pop. 10,000] library I worked at because there was no one else do to it.\u00a0 We then got to put it together. Cows are no help in changing tires… the first spring [1973] I made the rounds to country schools promoting the summer reading program I had a flat tire on a country [read: unpaved] road.\u00a0 While the cows in the adjoining field came over to watch, they were no help in changing the tire.\u00a0 Fortunately, the owner’s manual of my VW bug (1967, a classic year) had excellent directions and my library training had directed me to research my options so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-what-i-wasnt-taught-in-library-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}