Young Adults, Librarianship, and Career Awareness

librarean:

I’ve been thinking lately about what librarians can do for teens and young adults to raise awareness of their profession as—well, if not a viable career for everyone, at least a fulfilling option that does in fact involve work beyond checking out books and has an entry in the OOH and everything.

[…]

For now, I’d love to get some more brains to sound off on the issue (as it seems to me) of under-representation/limited awareness: Is it a problem? Does it need to be fixed? Is it just me? Society’s notions of how to go about career planning in general? When did you first become aware of librarianship as a career? Have you had similar experiences?

I worked in libraries on and off through high school and college, but settled first on journalism (until a soul-sucking internship senior year of HS) and then on academia (until I started to question how rigid and demanding that career might be). It was when I went to Africa after college graduation and found myself working in libraries there, without electricity and with bats, that I finally got to thinking that this was enjoyable, meaningful work I might consider.

That said, while it may be that young people don’t know about librarianship as a career, I am routinely floored by the affection people feel right out of the gate toward the field when I tell them I’m a librarian. I’m not sure they think it’s important or prestigious work, or if they even have up-to-date library cards of their own, but for whatever reason, I find a lot of people get excited about the field in a way they don’t when someone says she’s a teacher or a professor or a doctor. Any similar experiences for y’all?

The Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library

thelibrarybug:

Two librarians in Texas are working to create a contemporary bookmobile.  

A creative project with a very pretty site.

What audience do you think would best be served by something like this? I feel like, both in terms of its business model and its website design, it’s seeking to appeal to young 20- and 30-somethings with a bit of disposable income and a commitment to supporting local business and culture.

Anyway, something to keep an eye on.

I helped create a digital repository of academic papers for some professors, was a volunteer-turned “odd jobber”-turned archivist at the Canadian Music Centre, rocked the circulation desk at the music library, schlepped very old books up and down elevators, and had a summer job as an archival assistant dealing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra collection at the City of Toronto archives. I kept very busy on purpose.  —this week’s Five Question Friday interviewee, showing us how to beat the job market odds by making herself valuable and skilled, despite the sobering Forbes piece this week [photo via]
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I helped create a digital repository of academic papers for some professors, was a volunteer-turned “odd jobber”-turned archivist at the Canadian Music Centre, rocked the circulation desk at the music library, schlepped very old books up and down elevators, and had a summer job as an archival assistant dealing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra collection at the City of Toronto archives. I kept very busy on purpose. 

—this week’s Five Question Friday interviewee, showing us how to beat the job market odds by making herself valuable and skilled, despite the sobering Forbes piece this week

[photo via]

Librarianship has, as far as I’m concerned, walked a long way out of its way in a sad, desperate attempt to become something else, something hip, edgy, and shiny that will, ultimately, appeal only to the privileged few who can afford to enjoy it when the for-profit model prevails. It is long past time to come back a short distance correctly, to become, once again, the repository of myth and magic, the sacred shrine of story, the domain of democracy, the labyrinth of legend. -Leigh Anne Vrabel, A Short Distance Correctly

This is some good food for thought for libraries, which these days seem to worry more about becoming cool and hip and all techie without actually doing their core work. This is something a colleague and I have talked about before as well, though we do not have the attention or traffic other more famous Librarianville Bloggers.

Found at the blog All the Birds with Teeth, “Quote That”

From A Short Distance Correctly.

(via clandestinebookworm)

I do think there’s a danger, in situations like at my library, to jump straight into trendy newish technology, like ereaders and self-checkout, when many of our patrons simply aren’t there yet. We need to remember to focus on other libraries with populations like ours, instead of glomming onto whatever the sexiest libraries are trying and leaving our patrons and their needs (a Spanish language collection, GED prep books, computer literacy classes) in the dust.

(via clandestinebookworm)

Kari the MLS student

Excited about the world of libraries.

1. Can you tell us about your current position?

I’m currently a part-time MLS student while working full-time in the marketing department of the digital division of a small children’s educational publisher. About 75% of my job is working with librarians. We publish subscription databases, and I work with librarians and teachers on how they can promote these services to students and integrate them in their library or classroom. The other 25% involves attending conferences, sending emails, and the usual marketing type stuff.

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Granny, the Retirement Community Librarian

My Granny, before her library gig, hanging with my late Gramps.

1. Can you tell us about your current position?
I am a volunteer librarian in a retirement community.  I do mostly circulation  and check books in and out.  I also help get new books ready to go up on the shelves . We try to have somebody on the desk a few hours every day, but the library is open 24/7. 

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