Work

Inspired by my good friend Kajsa I thought I'd share with you what my work is like. I currently work at the library in Tomelilla as a Librarian. I have employment there until the 31st of January, then we'll see where I end up. :)

First off, where is Tomelilla?

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A quick and accurate answer is "way off". It takes an hour by bus which is quite far but it's far enough to warrant using the time which I try to do. I read or listen to audio books, sometimes I crochet and sometimes I'm extremely glamorous and sleep with my mouth open, drooling slightly...

This is what the house looks like from the front. I hardly ever see this side though since I enter from the back. It's not only a library but also a hall for art exhibitions, an archive for jazz-music, a tourist agency, a museum and an art-school for children. This makes it a very interesting place to work. There are lots of people around all the time and it becomes easy and natural to work together and play of each others strengths. The people are nice and inspiring though the mentality in the country is different from around here, both in my colleagues and in the people who come to the library. In lack of a good English word they're "bonnigare" in Tomelilla. XD

 

This is my office, where the magic happens, or something. :P My responsibilities are taking care of all the magazines, handling the inter library loans, updating and managing the web-page and then the ordinary librarian jobs such as sitting in the information-desk cleaning the shelves and sorting out old books, reading the lists and deciding what new material is to be bought. I've also become the go to person for making signs of different kinds and I'm now the computer guru as well. And I'm going to start up computer courses for senior citizens this Friday. I'm kinda nervous but I think it will be fine. :)

So I'm quite busy every day but I enjoy it, even though some of my tasks are a bit uniform and become boring in the long run.

A close-up of my desk so you can see how messy it is. But having a desk really makes you feel grown-up doesn't it...
Oh, and isn't the view awesome. XDD

A few images I found on-line to give you a feel of what it looks like inside.
And this is what's in the art exhibition hall right now:

It is quite awesome! (And of course more impressive in real life)


A lot of interesting things happen every day. Because the people who come are different no day it like the other. One day you get to act like a mum trying to solve disputes between children, the next someone gets angry at you because it's not free to borrow books at the library (true story) an yet another day an old dirty man is looking at porn on the computers or someone asking for help in sending in a job application. Becoming a computer consultant is also quite common (at least for me) and a conversational partner for lonely people.

But I won't complain, even if there are a lot of strange events most people who come to the library are in a good mood and grateful for what you do (even if they underestimate what that is and exactly how much we work for their sake...). Very rarely are you yelled at but somehow you're also seen as an all-knowing guru who holds all the answers, which is very flattering but far from true. If you want to read more on the events that go on in a library I recommend "arga bibliotekstanten". She writes in Swedish and manages to capture the frustrations of all library personnel. I find it hilarious but that might just be because I share the experiences.

Hope you had a little fun reading a bit about what I do all day these days. :)
Peace out!

Librarians don't love books

I recently got my masters degree and am now a Master of Arts with specialization in Library and Information science. Sounds impressive doesn't it! Well, it basically means I'm a librarian (a fancy librarian though!). So I've had a few small jobs, a few hours here and there at different libraries when they needed temps. But I recently started my first full-time job! I've now worked there for two weeks and it feels good! :D

While I don't boast abundant experience I've come to a realization with regards to librarians, we don't love books. There are people who treasure books as objects, take care of them, love them, hate on libraries when they throw them away... But as a librarian you adapt books to suit the circumstances all the time. They're stamped, they're stuck full of stickers, they're cut up and reassembled and made to look quite different from their original form. And more than anything, they're lent out to anyone who wants to read them. There are books in the library that are broken, full of stains, smell nasty and who knows what else. If librarians really loved books they would just keep then all and never give them to children to chew on, school students to loose, old people to misplace. Library books are dropped in the bathtub, left out in the rain, forgotten abroad and simply lost. Old unread boos are discarded when they are no longer requested. I myself stamped and sorted out books that are over a hundred years old, without being that bothered by it.

A "real" book lover could never be a librarian, they'd be horrified by what they'd have to do every day and the condition in which they'd find the books. They could probably not stand sending away boxes full of books for recycling. Instead they're the ones who complain and rage when for example Malmö library tossed 30 000 books to create more room for a stage where they could host new activities.

Here we have what librarians find to be most important, the use of the space and the materials in the library. If the book has no use, if no one wants to read it, it serves no purpose and there is no reason to keep it. I'm not going to say librarians hate books, that would be lying but the love lies in the use of the book, not in the object as such. The more people read a book the happier we are. An old tattered volume with stains and a nasty smell is not all bad, it means it's been well-read and it was well invested money to buy it. It still sucks that it smells and is nasty though...
A librarian works for the spreading of culture, mainly through literature but basically in any way that people want it. In the end libraries exist for the people and librarians do what they can to include all and serve in the best way possible. Well, the ones I've been fortunate to work with are like that, though I know to many librarians out there don't seem to care about people, but then they've chosen the wrong profession. Our work will always be aimed at the people and what we do is always geared at how we can change and what we can do to better serve the needs of society in regards to literature, reading, meetings, discussions, digital awareness and literacy, education, fun, necessities and so on and so on. It is a wonderful place to work, especially with a good work-climate and enthusiastic co-workers and people who appreciate the time spent for them.

But my main point is that a librarian doesn't love the book as an object but rather as a means to an end, we love reading and we want people to read, if a few books are broken in the process so be it. The book in itself it not precious, there are more in the store, but the use of the book is precious.