Though the public side of my job involves helping children find books, running storytimes and book groups, and generally being a welcoming face in the children’s room, there are hidden aspects of my job that take up a lot of time and seem worth mentioning here once in a while.
There’s the event planner part of my job description – coordinating volunteers and resources and figuring out how to run an ice cream party for over four hundred, or working with Lisa to plan a tie dye party for an as-yet-undisclosed number of drop-in attendees. Event planning seems to be most intense when an outdoor event is involved, because that requires much studying of weather forecasts and weather radar and sweating over whether to postpone or go for it. So far it seems as though rain has been a factor in every single outdoor event I’ve planned, and believe me, it’s a challenge to know what decision to make: rain date or original date. This year we went for the original date for the ice cream social, and it worked out well – cloudy but no rain, and tons of rain on the two rain dates. The tie dye party was a tougher call (I’m writing this Wednesday night, with no knowledge of how Thursday’s weather will turn out): the tie dye event was scheduled for 3:00 PM on Wednesday, and the morning was beautiful and sunny. “Oh no,” I stressed, “Maybe I shouldn’t have moved the program to the rain date…” But then the heavens opened up at 2:30, complete with booming thunder, and I felt much better. We’ll see how Thursday’s weather pans out.
Another hidden part of my job is the shopping. Sometimes, especially in the summer, I feel like a professional shopper. Popcorn and water for movie nights, ice cream and toppings for the ice cream social, craft supplies for storytimes, tie dying supplies for (yup) tie dying, bagels and juice and cream cheese for book groups, felt for my storytimes (always bought with my own money, that felt) – the list goes on and on. It’s really hard to keep track of time that I spend shopping for supplies, so I usually chalk all that shopping up to being a good person and don’t bother putting those shopping hours on my time sheet. I like to tell myself that the good karma will keep me going for a while.
Another hidden aspect of my job is the time I spend making feltboard stories for my storytimes. As I’ve written here ad-nauseum, I spend my own money for the felt I use and use my own time to make the feltboard figures, so that those feltboard figures belong to me free and clear. Which is all good, but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that making those figures takes a lot of time and creative energy. And my storytimes are WAY better for those figures.
Also in my free, unpublic time: book group prep. It’s impossible to read a book at the library when I’m on duty, so I don’t even try anymore. All that prep is done at home on the weekends, which is why I insist on picking a lot of new books for the book groups (keeps me up to date on what’s being published, and keeps me interested).
And then there’s something hidden that goes on while I’m at working: book ordering. I’ve come to realize that most of the library’s patrons don’t know that I order every single book that’s placed in the children’s room. And ordering books requires careful reading of reviews and meticulous tracking of series so that we’re never missing the next great series installment. It’s really hard to read reviews while I’m sitting at the main children’s desk, because many a raised eyebrow is aimed my way when I do. Review journals look like cheap magazines, and it really does look as though I’m reading People or US Weekly while on the job – but I’m actually working. Not to mention that it’s hard to read reviews in the face of constant interruptions. So I keep my review reading for my rare office hours, or I bring those review journals home and chip away at reading reviews in my own, off the clock time.
The only reason I mention all of these hidden parts of my job is because most non-librarians really don’t have a sense of how time-consuming the job is. We all know that teachers put in tons of hours of their own time preparing lesson plans and such, but few know that librarians work the same way, and year-round, too – no summer breaks for librarians. I do my job because I LOVE it – passionately, happily, thoroughly LOVE IT – but I’d also love for the world to know how hard I work. And, I never thought I’d say this, but I also miss those “teacher gifts” I used to get at the end of each school year and at Christmas. Yes, I have way too many mugs now, but it was also kinda cool to be given tangible expressions of thanks twice a year. (I do love dark chocolate, by the way!)