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Post by xenomaniac on Apr 17, 2007 20:00:58 GMT
Have you ever worked in a Library?
I'm just curious cause it seems like you all have. Am I missing out? My contract is up soon, maybe a career change is in order!
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Post by Cherubic on Apr 17, 2007 20:16:48 GMT
It's great. You get two tea breaks a day, a badge, everyone treats you as if you invented the computer because you're young, old people flirt with you, you dress up as a bear to teach reading, you sing 'Wind the bobbin up' and read Maisy books out loud even though you're introverted.
Do it!
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Post by Rad on Apr 17, 2007 20:19:27 GMT
I worked saturdays and odd other shifts in libraries in grimsby and cleethorpes 95-98. I loved it. the two main branch libraries I worked at have subsequently closed. not sure if that was connected to my departure or not.
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Post by Ugly Netty on Apr 17, 2007 20:47:41 GMT
Being a library assistant is actually my dream job (not an actual librarian with a degree). However, where I live, the council only ever have part time posts, and only very occasionally, which only pay about £6500, which no one can live on. I had one interview and that was it, so I'm incredibly jealous of everyone else on here that has managed to do it as a temp/student job, because it seems that here, they just don't do that.
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Post by Bungle on Apr 17, 2007 20:49:54 GMT
Yes, I still do, part time, while studying. It's fucking great - piss easy, well paid (for what it is), constant unrestricted access to the internet, you have the final word on disciplining people who break the rules and the number of breaks are outrageous. I worked full time for a few weeks last summer and used to be given three hours a day off. Three hours! It's usually 'just' two but it was slow...
I also reckon I'm in a few old ladies' wills. Plus, as a University librarian, there is a gym right next door increasing the number of fitties, while there's a pub the other side, where I will sometimes have a drink immediately before or after work. And if you go clubbing and someone recognises you they often buy you a drink or flirt you've been nice.
I'm going to really miss it when it's all over!
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Post by lowculture.co.uk on Apr 17, 2007 22:28:04 GMT
No, but I did about three months of Librarianship as part of my degree.
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Post by David on Apr 18, 2007 0:44:04 GMT
Oh. Yes. I did!
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Post by [james] on Apr 18, 2007 2:20:30 GMT
I was a Saturday assistant for three years and it was brilliant. I got paid £7.51 an hour to sit at a computer; it's pretty much a dream job for any slightly uncool teenager. Plus at Christmas people would always give us many tins of chocolates (and one old man gave us a fruit basket.)
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Lisa
Su Pollard
Campaigning for the ghostly return of Toby - always my favourite serial killer
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Post by Lisa on Apr 18, 2007 7:55:15 GMT
I've always wanted to. I have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of books in my lounge. They're categorised by genre and then alphabetically (unless from the same publishers as that's more aesthetically pleasing). My friends humour me with this - when anyone borrows anything they need to sign for them in the notebook so I can keep track. Just a litttle insight for you all there! I'm so jealous of all the real librarians! and the people who work in Waterstones / Borders etc for that matter too.
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Post by jode* on Apr 18, 2007 8:19:05 GMT
I've never worked in a library.
But I worked in Ottakar's for a few months and it was awesome, so I still do that thing where I straighten and tidy up books in book shops/libraries.
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Post by jetsetwilly on Apr 18, 2007 8:27:43 GMT
I was library monitor in school - does that count?
Working in a library would be a dream for me too. I've also got alphabetised bookshelves all along one room of my house - though I don't break it down by genre, because I like having JK Rowling up against Salman Rushdie.
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Lisa
Su Pollard
Campaigning for the ghostly return of Toby - always my favourite serial killer
Posts: 454
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Post by Lisa on Apr 18, 2007 8:43:06 GMT
It is behind my Salman Rushdie books that I hide the Barbara Taylor Bradfords!
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Post by polyannapolyfilla on Apr 18, 2007 8:45:49 GMT
I worked in a library in the summer between A-Levels and university. It was great - I worked afternoons (i.e lie-in) but still got a tea break. Sit in front of a computer (i.e the internet) and read all afternoon. Then we used to go to the pub and get smashed. But still get a lie-in the next day.
When I graduated I was bereft of a job so went back to the same borough (though in a different more countrified library). The biscuits at Christmas were great - lasted right through to March. And weeding books was also good - I used to get first pick at ancient rarities such as Bill Oddies humourous guide to bird-watching and Eric Sykes' short stories.
I then ended up back at the same one I'd worked at 4 years previous, and everyone was the same. I had to process new books (sitting in the office listening to xfm and reading the internet all afternoon).
I then got put on the stock team, and had the power of helping to open a new library and allocating books. Woo-ee. This meant more sitting at a computer, playing on the interweb, taking a lunch break whenever I fancied (a true sign of power?).
Working in so many interlinked libraries over so many years meant the gossip I heard used to propel me through the morning without having to lift a finger. By which time it was a tea break.
I hated shelving non-fiction though. The numbers used to piss me right off. Except biographies, as I used to look at the pictures.
If you can get a librarian job, go for it, its well cushy - however, it willl invariably be filled with 55+ year old women as managers who have worked there for years and are incredibly bitter and complacent and will take whatever they can from its cushiness. Which is why, as a scale 2/3, I was often left managing an entire libary every Saturday (a scale 6 job) because said scale 6 was too busy reading german websites and drinking tea. grrr.
My library rant is hereby over.
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boxedjoy
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Post by boxedjoy on Apr 18, 2007 9:02:25 GMT
I worked volunteered in a charity shop that was a book specialist, does that count? It was fantastic. I got to price the books and if anyone donated anything I wanted I was allowed to take it and read it before selling it.
One of my friends is a librarian at my university. She absolutely adores her job.
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Post by polyannapolyfilla on Apr 18, 2007 9:16:29 GMT
Oh wait! one other bonus - letting cute guys (bashful, forgetful, scruffy - like they've got really important things to think about rather than whether they'd returned Tintin in Tibet) off their fines so you'd seem like the nice librarian. The ultimate power.
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Post by Nurse Dunkley on Apr 18, 2007 10:16:26 GMT
No, but I really want to. I have to get a job over the summer holidays as I've never actually had one and my CV is rather bare, so maybe I'll try for one. Although I think I'd prefer a book shop.
We had The Worst Librarian In The World in our Sixth Form library. She was really, ridiculously loud and we'd always hear her bitching about teachers, students and her troubled home life. You couldn't get any work done but it was like listening to a rather good radio soap. The best things I ever heard her say were "KEV SAYS THAT IF I DON'T TRY IVF HE'LL LEAVE ME", and "EILEEN, ARE YOU STILL PASSING BLOOD?".
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Post by Cherubic on Apr 18, 2007 19:19:32 GMT
Oh wait! one other bonus - letting cute guys (bashful, forgetful, scruffy - like they've got really important things to think about rather than whether they'd returned Tintin in Tibet) off their fines so you'd seem like the nice librarian. The ultimate power. That is a good power.
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Post by Adrian on Apr 19, 2007 17:17:19 GMT
I have worked in a bookshop. I want to work in a library when I get to age 50, and stay there until I graciously retire hopefully with the present of a carriage clock (or a cybercarriageclock, as it will be 2040).
A
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Post by Steven on Apr 19, 2007 21:56:13 GMT
I worked in a library during my A levels and the first couple of years of university, and it was ace. Still one of the better jobs I've had in my life because the people were so interesting and I spent all day surrounded by books. I was very happy.
It does mean that I get irrationally annoyed whenever you see libraries on TV that are deathly silent and where you get "shhhh!"ed if you raise your voice above a hoarse whisper, because mine was nothing like that. It was full of clamour, and half of that was just the staff.
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Post by Muinimula on Apr 19, 2007 22:40:37 GMT
I worked in the school library (various break-times and lunch-times) from year 7 to year 11 - does that count? And at the end of each term, we closed the library for one lunch-time and had a party with music and nibbles.
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Post by [james] on Apr 20, 2007 13:30:22 GMT
I have worked in a bookshop. I want to work in a library when I get to age 50, and stay there until I graciously retire hopefully with the present of a carriage clock (or a cybercarriageclock, as it will be 2040). I got a sandwich maker and a stainless steel fondue set when I left so keep your fingers crossed!
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jem
Su Pollard
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Post by jem on Apr 20, 2007 14:12:24 GMT
I worked in a library at the age of 16 while at School and then during my first couple of years at uni. They've become a but too commercial since my day whith their dvd's and computer courses. There was a nice cold dark basement to hide in when I had a hangover.
Although... I would say working in a museum was even more fun.
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Post by polyannapolyfilla on Apr 20, 2007 14:50:21 GMT
I have worked in a bookshop. I want to work in a library when I get to age 50, and stay there until I graciously retire hopefully with the present of a carriage clock (or a cybercarriageclock, as it will be 2040). I got a sandwich maker and a stainless steel fondue set when I left so keep your fingers crossed! A big box of smelly stuff from Lush and a Thornton's Easter Egg with my name on it. The decadence! There's something about libraries and food thats bad for you. They go hand in hand. (I also got a leaving card from everyone except for the one library I worked in that I hated who pointedly didn't sign it)
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Post by thelovelykate on Apr 20, 2007 14:55:05 GMT
Aww, it's lush reading this thread! I love how a lot of things that happen in my library appear to be universal library truths. I work in the Central Library in Bristol which is great because it is in a really lovely old building. It is in fact 100 years old - I know this because on my second day here it was our centenary and most of the staff came to work in period costume. Throughout the day our library band (oh yes, we have our own band!) performed songs from the last 100 years in the cafe area.
A tip for all you wannabe library workers - try and get some experience, be it bookshop or (horror!) volunteering. It is really hard to get in without relevant experience, much more so than in any other job I've done. Also talk up your computer skills. Most libraries (even little branches) have public access PCs and all the library management (book issuing, fines etc....) is done on a computer system as well.
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Post by Bungle on Apr 20, 2007 15:29:51 GMT
Cafe area - evil! It's the bane of my life, the bloody coffee shop. No, you cannot take that in to the main library - get away!
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