From: Jazmine1283 at aol.com <Jazmine1283>
Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 12:12:22 EDT

  Upon the request of several people, I have put together a compilation of responses I received to my School Librarian questions. I hope this is as helpful to you as it has been to me! A Concise Summary: Best: Contact with children and parents and teachers, freedom to choose books, freedom to plan programs. Worst: school politics, need to do much paper work, supervision chit chat Writers/Librarians: Its' a wonderful profession if you like: a. children b. children's books. And I was a writer first. I went into the profession because I wanted to be immersed in children's books. And I do like children. The best parts were, in my opinion, doing story times, opening a book and holding it up and sharing it with young children. It's the best feeling in the world. I enjoyed it every bit as much as the kids. I learned so much about what makes a picture book work! And another thing I enjoyed--equally as much as the fun and excitement of story time--was the quiet hours one could spend reading books reviews and then purchasing the books and building the collection. Imagine having all those journals at one's disposal! Another excellent learning experience. I was fortunate enough to work at a place where I had almost complete control of the book ordering--that's an important thing to know before one accepts a job. Some libraries--larger systems--may have a central ordering person; she would order for the entire system, and the librarians working at a small branch library in that system might have much less a hand in "collection development." Typical day? Oh, that's hard to say. You may have two story times on a given morning and then spend the afternoon filling in at the reference desk, trying to read book reviews, work on your book order. Maybe a school group has planned a visit, so you may give a tour of the children's dept., or bring them into the storytime room and give some booktalks or read some stories--perhaps sharing a film version of the story--very popular. You'll also be busy, while you're at the reference desk, planning programs, writing publicity, developing booklists--maybe even making nametags for the story time kids. (They say don't let them see you doing that in public because it looks so easy and makes you look unprofessional.) You can always have a volunteer do that. But I enjoyed the artsy-ness of it & was never satisfied with my volunteer's attempts. I'd often do it in bed, at home, the night before. You'll probably have to recruit volunteers for your summer reading program and coordinate that. You'll have to hire performers--storytellers, magicians, whatever--and of course supervise the goings-on when there's a program. Sometimes things can get a little testy--a pushy parent might bring her two-year-old for a program intended for older children. You'll need to set limits and learn to say no. Other stressful situations might be kids messing around at the computer--you have to make sure they don't print out 50 copies of Britanny Spears or whoever. You also have to make sure that day care centers call and check with you before dropping by with 25-50 kids unannounced. But it's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful job. I was always a writer & that's why I went into the profession. You'll have to be careful not to over-extend yourself; you'll need to do what you do well & run your department in a way that utilizes your talents and still meets the needs of the community. I thought I had plenty of time to write when I was a librarian, but now that I'm retired--oh, my! This is wonderful! As much as I loved my job, I'm perfectly happy to stay home and write, write, write. The Good and the Bad: I am a school librarian and I love it. I love children's literature, I love working with kids and getting them excited about books. I don't think anyone will tell you that they love all the bureaucracy, politics and paperwork that comes with public schools, but there are wonderful benefits as well (I don't think I can imagine working in the summer... :-) There is no real typical day - I teach some classes, kids come in, I try to lesson plan, organize the library, run programs (like REad Across America, book fairs etc) in the spare minutes. I am lucky enough to have a 1/2 time aide who makes all the difference.

Things to be aware of: Faculty and administrators tend to think of you as staff rather than as another teacher and treat you as such. Fewer and fewer teachers and administrators read anymore, at least not kids stuff so you are a voice in the wilderness. I have fellow librarians who think that kids should only use the internet for research, why worry about books on the shelves. So, be prepared to take on a lot...and public school budgets are tighter and tighter in the library area. Being in a school district that is not replacing librarians as they retire and just spreading the ones left into more schools, I would really research where you are planning to look for a job. In the Milwaukee area, it seems they are only keeping the high school librarians. Whenever districts need to cut expenses, librarians seem on the chopping block more than other teaching positions.
 
                            This is VERY interesting! :) Thanks again to all who commented on their experiences.




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Received on Thu 01 May 2008 11:12:22 AM CDT