Vox reader Alexia Cherry asks: I work in a public library and I think a lot of the talk about libraries is generally ignorant of what librarians actually do. Many people I interact with are shocked that you need to have a master’s degree to be considered a professional, and many people are unaware of the variety of jobs available in libraries.
People really find librarians strangely mysterious! In August, Western Illinois University has closed its entire library faculty And at the same time stressed that the university would still have “adequate coverage in the library”. The school seemed to be operating under the belief that librarians were mere warmongers who existed to check books in and out, and that they only had master’s degrees to artificially jack up their wages. Anyone, this line of thinking goes, can run a library without much work. They just need to know how to scan barcodes.
But then, libraries are generally underrated, perhaps because they are such radical institutions. The truth is that if you tried to invent public libraries today, the right would never let you get away with it – giving the public so many things for free and subsidizing them with taxes, imagine that. How many more places have we left where a person can go and spend hours and still not expect to buy anything?
Perhaps on a subconscious level, we tend to culturally devalue libraries by preventing them from reaching their full potential. If we pretend they’re weird federally subsidized bookstores, we don’t need to worry about how they’re vast warehouses full of knowledge, available to walk-ins staffed by professionals highly trained in sorting, extracting, and storing that knowledge. .
What do librarians actually do?
Let’s take a brief look at what libraries need and how librarians serve those needs.
All libraries, from public to academic to corporate, need to be cataloged so that anyone can know what books they have, where each type of book is, and what those books are useful for. In library science, Cataloging It has its own highly arcane specialty, closer to coding than anything else, and requires careful technical training. Catalogers describe each significant aspect of a book, then categorize each aspect so that it is searchable. To do this, you not only need to learn multiple classification methods, but you also need to be trained in how to describe a book you may not have read, which parts of it are most important, and which sections will take precedence over others depending on your library. Classification again for. A cataloger must judge whether to code in spoilers (do you classify a spy novel as “double agent” even though it has a big twist at the end?) and how low you should put the subdivision.
Cataloging is such a rigorous and precise form of information processing that it is one of the librarian’s most profitable skill sets in the information age. Some librarians, after graduate school, go on to work in corporate archives, where they catalog and store information about company history for internal use. (Not a particularly glamorous job, but the private sector tends to pay better than the public.) Fresh library school graduates can use the same skill set to process papers in historical archives, but there they also need to know how to handle fragile. How to repair books at the end of their lifespan without damaging ancient documents and potentially.
All libraries also need acquisitions specialists, who face heavy scrutiny in our book-ban age. D Acquisition Division A library is responsible for deciding where the collection holes are and how to fill them Whether it’s a good idea to bring in a book full of inaccuracies — say, a book on creationism — if patrons request it, or whether it’s worth putting out a book on a controversial topic — say, they make the call. teen sex ed — if patrons protest against it.
Most libraries need research specialists who can help patrons find out how to access what they are trying to find. If you’re trying to flesh out your family tree, a research librarian can usually tell you which newspaper archives to consult and get access to those archives for free. If you’re trying to write an academic paper, a research librarian can walk you through the process of finding which databases best serve your specialty and how to navigate them.
How are public libraries different?
Public libraries also need all these specialties, and more. Most public libraries have a mandate to serve the communities in which they are located, and therefore provide many more resources than many people are likely aware exist.
Public libraries in areas with a large immigrant population will often offer Free ESL and citizenship classes. Many libraries help connect patrons with social workers, food banks, public health and legal resources. Many others will allow things to be tested, such as patrons cooking equipment, musical instruments, board gameand even the seed.
Because public librarians are one of the remaining third places that do not charge money, librarians find themselves working as de facto social workers for homeless people—in addition to being literal social workers. Many libraries are now staffed. Many libraries train their staff to use Narcan To revive people from opiate overdoses. some offer Hygiene kits and clean clothes for the homeless. Despite the low pay, public librarians can expect everything. The average salary in the New York public library system is about $52,000 per yearunder Estimated cost of living in New York at $69,000.
A library is both a large, complex piece of technology designed to store and organize information and a physical space that exists to serve its community in any way it can. Those who work there go through a great deal of training for both – even if their labor is often invisible to those of us who reap its benefits.
