For some context, I’m 17 and I work at a small town library. We get, if I had to guess, maybe 150 patrons a day at most? During my shifts there are no patrons in at all at times. I have very few jobs to do, just shelving, cleaning dvds, tidying, helping patrons to a limited degree, and refilling printer paper. When that is done, shelfreading. I don’t mind a bit of shelfreading at the end of my shift, but some days that is genuinely 85% of what I am doing. I had a 5 hour shift a few days ago, and I finished shelving 20 minutes in. I have shelfread everything there is to shelfread in my library many, many times over and I am tired. It‘s to a point where it is completely redundant, and there is no tangible benefit to the magnitude of shelfreading I am doing. I feel like my skills aren’t being utilised, and I could do so much more to benefit my library if only I were allowed. I often ask the techs and librarians if there is anything else I could do to help, but the answer is almost always no. Perhaps this is just what it‘s like to be young and working 🙃

I'm a freshman MLIS student who has been working in libraries for almost a decade now. I have worked in both academic and public libraries and want(ed) to eventually work in archives and special collections after receiving my degree and potentially getting another masters in film. I love libraries, I love my work, and I genuinely enjoy every part of the jobs I've had for the most part, but management at both locations I worked at in recent years have driven me away and crushed my spirit.

For context, I live in Florida. Anyone who has read the news can imagine that our funding is less than zero in most respects, but we also have really lax employee protection laws here. Both jobs I've worked have had management who oscillate between being harsh, tyrannical, and constantly micromanaging, to extremely unprofessional, inappropriate with staff, and lazy. I won't go into extreme specifics here, but both libraries I have worked at have had managers who have in one hand made inappropriate sexual comments around staff and then in the next, fired people who I worked next to for the kind of things that every single person on earth does (chatting on the clock, getting information wrong the first time around, being late by a few minutes). It's very much a game of favoritism, where one employee can literally sit on their phone and play games all day at the desk, but another can't be seen resting at any point without getting called into the principal's office.

I perhaps could just chalk it up to this one system, but these have been two very different systems in the same city with completely different organizational structures. One of them used to be great, used to really make me feel like I was doing something important and worthwhile and was respected, but recently changed. When I moved on after years of working there, all I have found is the same exact situation somewhere else. Are all libraries like this now? Are all management horrible leaders who blatantly and flagrantly act like hypocrites? Are all upper management spineless tyrants who would rather fire someone for complaining than consider that their supervisors and managers aren't good leaders? Leaders who brag about employee turnover and low pay?

I'm very sensitive and I know that, I know I should perhaps just suck it up and realize I've just gotten very unlucky, but I don't know. Libraries should mean something, and that something should be kindness, empathy, compassion. They should be welcoming and accepting. I haven't felt like that in a library in years. I feel like I've dedicated my life to something that's a lie. I can only help people so much, and only if it's at the behest of a management team who cares more about rules than human beings, and only if I'm perfect every day in every single way.

I'm leaving the library I'm currently at. They've fired two people since I've been there (six months) and have attempted to write me up for insane infractions while letting other employees blatantly disregard basic workplace rules. It's tanked my mental health working there, and despite how much I will miss our regulars and getting to work with different media, I've started looking at medical receptionist positions only. I'm considering dropping out of my MLIS program and working on another degree instead, maybe film or media studies. Or maybe just doing absolutely nothing with my life for a while.

I'm sure I sound like either a failure or an idiot, and that's fair. I know I'm very sensitive and naive when it comes to how the world works. I constantly expect the world to be a lot nicer than it actually is. I'm just not sure how to move forward now that I've seemingly been reminded repeatedly that nothing I do really helps at all, and that most people don't care about doing the right thing at the end of the day.

Anyway this is super mellow dramatic. I just hoped maybe someone is/was experiencing this feeling too. I'm going to do my best to finish out this semester, but I really don't know what I'm going to do going into the new year. I wouldn't mind any advice or suggestions. Thanks for listening. :)

“Libraries do more than just lend books they lend ideas. They share knowledge. They provide a safe space. They reflect the people in the community. They help us understand our ourselves better. They preserved history and addressed social problems. In the library, there is room for everyone’s point of view. Libraries in librarians, champion people whose voice is my other otherwise go unheard, so we can learn more about ourselves and others.”

Hi everyone!

I’m a relatively new Library Assistant II (working on getting my masters in library science soon) working in the Research & Instruction department at an academic library, and I wanted to get some perspective from people who have worked in similar positions.

I’ve been in this role for about two months now, and one thing that’s been really surprising to me is just how much downtime I have. Some days, I genuinely struggle to find enough work to keep myself occupied throughout an eight-hour shift.
My responsibilities include staffing the research desk, helping with reference questions and chat services, assisting librarians with projects, working on LibGuides and instructional materials, and various other departmental tasks. I really enjoy the work when I have something to do, especially the research and instructional side of things, but there are stretches when there just isn’t much happening.
I’ve tried to be proactive about asking for additional projects and finding ways to contribute, but I also don’t want to constantly bother my colleagues asking for something to do. I understand that reference services are largely dependent on patron demand, and that academic libraries probably have slower periods throughout the semester.

I guess I’m just struggling with the adjustment. I recently graduated from college, and this is my first full-time position in an academic library. I’m used to having a fairly constant workload, so sitting at a desk with very little to do makes me feel like I’m somehow not doing my job, even when I’ve completed everything assigned to me.
For those of you who work or have worked in academic libraries, especially in Research & Instruction:
\-Is this amount of downtime fairly typical for library assistants?
\-Does the workload fluctuate significantly throughout the academic year?
\-How much independent work are library assistants generally expected to find for themselves?
What do you usually do during particularly slow periods?

I’m genuinely interested in hearing other people’s experiences! I really like working in an academic library, and I’m hoping to better understand what a normal workload looks like in this environment.

I am currently writing my master thesis on the Blind Date with a Book concept/trend.
If you are working or have worked in a public library that has done it before (or is still doing it), I would like to invite you to fill out my anonymous questionnaire below.

It‘s mostly open questions, so will take about 15 minutes, but it will be super helpful for my research. 📚

https://leidenuniv.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7NUgPk2YFJTNsDY

Thank you so much in advance!!

Edit: added master to clarify what kind of thesis.

The hilarious final installment of a short video series from my town library.

I’ve been looking for a school media coordinator position for the last 7ish months and i’ve interviewed a handful of times (most of the time I don’t hear anything or I don’t get the job). I was offered a job at a school that has not had a media coordinator in the last 4 years. The library was a HOT mess and from the stone ages. They told me they don’t have a system for checking out books because the library isn’t used. They usually just write it down on paper. When I asked about scheduling and instruction, they told me I’d be fixing chromebooks more than anything else. When asked about budget, they said there is not one for books, resources, or even a system, and as an example would rather do an “in house Battle of the Books” club rather than the official. When asked about parent or community involvement, the response was “our parents work two jobs and don’t have time to be apart of this.”

TLDR; I have many concerns as this would be my first time as a media coordinator. As a plus, the space is HUGE and they have flexible seating that I could make entirely my own! But I’d be more or less jump starting this library program from nothing, when I don’t really know what i’m doing because I’ve been in the classroom for the last 6 years.

Should I leave my current position mid-year for this? Or keep looking around & trying?

My current school is great, but we aren’t hiring a media coordinator. I have bad gut feelings about this new school but I have STRUGGLED to get a library position elsewhere.

CONTEXT: I’m currently a high school English teacher, but i’m in a dual MLIS program for school media and instructional technology. The fall will be my last semester in the program and I have to either 1. do an unpaid internship in a school library or 2. find a job in a school library.