What else makes a good children’s librarian?  Knowledge of the literature.  When a patron walks into a children’s room and asks for help selecting a book for pleasure reading, it is essential that the children’s librarian have a broad understanding of children’s literature.  This is necessarily more complex than understanding adult literature, because it’s not just about authors and series, it’s also about finding books that are appropriate for the decoding and comprehension level of the child.  A good children’s librarian will have an understanding of reading levels, and of which books may suit a child’s current level, but can also be flexible and take each child as an individual.  Meaning that if Johnny loves sports books, his high interest level may mean that the librarian could successfully recommend a sports book to him that would otherwise be above his evaluated reading level were the subject matter different. 

Obviously, it’s almost impossible for one human being to have read every book in a given children’s room.  We can try, but there are only so many hours in the week, and a lot of those hours are given over to the other tasks required of a librarian.  Which is why a solid base knowledge of children’s and young adult literature is so important going into this field.  While in graduate school, we have more focused time to read large quantities of literature, and we are also able to hone our skills for recognizing what makes great children’s literature, and for understanding the trends and developments that drive the literature forward.  Daily, I am grateful for the broad and deep knowledge of children’s and young adult literature that I gained through my education at the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College.  (Not so subtle plug here!) 

And remember to always, always, always, pay close attention to the tastes of your young patrons.  I’ve discovered many books through the kids who come into the library, books that went under the radar when I was reading book reviews because they weren’t starred or highly rated, but just in that middle range.  But there are so many books in that large middle range that appeal to kids because they are timely and unique and because word of an engaging book will spread from friend to friend, and it’s often the middle range books, not the starred books, that “pop” (Lisa’s favorite term) and become wildly popular. 

Tomorrow and the next day and the next:  Other things that make for a great children’s librarian, including reference services, programming, knowing pop culture, and the nitty gritty administrative details.

In some ways, I’m a bit of a maverick.  I’m a children’s librarian, and very good at my job, thank you very much, but I don’t have the traditional background coming into this field.  My undergraduate degree is in English, and my graduate degree in children’s literature.  My two previous careers were as a retail manager in a specialty toy store and as a special education tutor in an elementary school.  So I don’t have the traditional master’s degree in library science, yet I’m great at what I do.  How can this be explained?

In my view, there are several components that make an excellent children’s librarian.  First and most importantly, a children’s librarian needs to be friendly and approachable.  Nothing else matters if the public, be they adults or children, are afraid to come to the desk and ask questions.  For me, this is where my background in retail comes into play.  When you work retail, you literally live and die by how the customers view you.  If the customers dislike you, they won’t come into your store, and they won’t spend their money in your store, and you won’t be able to pay for rent or salaries or new merchandise, and your business will die.  As a retail manager, you simply MUST put the customers first, and a pleasant public facade quickly becomes second nature to you.  And for me, those “difficult” customers became personal challenges for me: I liked to take on the project of turning a habitually difficult customer into a loyal and happy customer (and it worked, too, in many different cases – maybe some day I’ll share my secrets on how to do this, but not today).  I view my role as children’s librarian in much the same way as I did my role as retailer.  I work for the people of the town in which I am employed, and my first duty is to provide them with excellent service.  This means eye contact, greeting people with a friendly smile when they walk into my room, and never being too busy to help.  I’d rather take work home with me than have a library patron feel as if I ignored them.

For a children’s librarian, the corollary to being friendly and approachable is relating well to kids.  In my opinion, this can’t be forced – either you’ve got it, or you don’t.  Kids know when you’re faking it, and kids don’t respond to adults who don’t respect them and enjoy their company.  But beyond one’s natural affinity for children is actual experience working with children.  If I hadn’t been raised by my mother, who was an excellent teacher, and if I hadn’t worked in an elementary school for three and a half years, I wouldn’t have the skills to handle the numbers of kids who cycle through the library in the course of a day.  A well-placed raised eyebrow is worth far more than a screaming fit when controlling the behavior of the after school crowd.  Gentle humor while issuing a request for quiet gets better results than being a dictator.  Letting the kids know that you like them, but you really don’t like their behavior – priceless. 

Tomorrow: more qualities that make a great children’s librarian.