I have a really sweet coworker who just immigrated here from another country about a year ago. She came into work all excited the other day, saying “I heard some news on the radio that I think is good for you!”
She proceeded to tell me about the Florida law (HB 1467) requiring a certified media specialist to review books before they can enter school libraries and classrooms.
“More jobs for future librarians like you!” she said.
Sad to think this is how a lot of people probably see this law, and that many won’t bother to investigate further into how vague and harmful it really is for students (not to mention the teachers who could face a third-degree felony for violating the law).
I don’t know if this is an area of librarianship I really want to go into, but literacy has always been at the forefront of my academic/professional interests. That includes cultural literacy, which tends to fall under HB 1467′s broad language (re: theories that could lead to "student indoctrination”).
I’ve found myself thinking about the ways I could shape my librarian studies/career into something that involves combatting these and similar laws affecting our education system, but I’m still not 100% sure what that would look like--hoping to take Intro to Info Policy in the fall for some insight.
In the meantime, if anyone has any knowledge or experience regarding this topic, I would love to discuss it! I have a few friends in the K-12 teaching space but none on the librarian side, and they are dealing with enough already, unfortunately.
brb gonna get my library to acquire the entire lockwood & co series because apparently we don’t have any of the books????? more proof of how our YA section has been lacking (which i’m currently trying to fix)
OKAY I did it! Somehow I've made a reasonable case to be put in charge of the archives and special collections at my library.
Now what?
Genuinely welcoming any advice; this has been my first library job, I came at it with degrees in history and museum studies, and I don't have an archival certification but I do intend to fix that.
Decided to update this poll because it got pretty good circulation, but looking at people's answers I feel like I could get more data! So let's do this again!
I got the position! So excited to be able to say I’m the Digital Research & Scholarship Graduate Assistant at my university’s main library. I’ll be working on projects related to open access initiatives/advocacy, academic publishing, and digital literacy--all areas that I’ve been interested in exploring for a future career.
Still not exactly sure when it starts, but I’ll have to start thinking about what classes I want to take this summer in the meantime...the position requires me to be a full time student, so I’ll go from one to two or three classes per semester. This means I’ll be cutting my hours and/or quitting my job at the coffee shop which has honestly been starting to wear on me anyway.
Even though it’s a remote position and a virtual degree program, this also means I’ll probably be prepping for a move back to the university when my lease is up.
As exciting as all of this is (you know, all of my plans finally falling into place), it seems like good news hardly ever comes without bad news. I’m waiting on a call from the vet that will more than likely change my cat’s life forever, so I can’t really celebrate how I’d planned. Just hoping we can handle it quickly and everything will be okay in the end. If you’re reading this, I hope you’re hanging in there.
After over a year of trying to find a full-time job after I graduated from college, I’ve finally got a job as a library assistant! Hopefully this will give me some good connections and the relevant work experience to pursue a Masters in Library Information Science, but I’m super excited for my job!!!
I thought it would be good to share, since I know there are a ton of people like me who’ve been trying to find a job post-graduation and have been really struggling. Wishing you all the best and thanks to all my followers who have been with me since the beginning, when I made this tiny little account during my senior year of high school.
"I am a different me, with different pangs and discomforts. I am grateful that my head doesn't hurt, but not in the way I would have been grateful if, in the midst of the pain, it had suddenly disappeared. Maybe we forget so that we can go on."
today i learned that some libraries have “reading dogs” that are there to help children with their reading and gives the child a friend to read their book to out loud i-