The Aspiring Librarian

Information services and instructional librarian in a medical school library - interested in health/digital/information literacy, GIS, and pretty things.

[schoollibraryjournal]

Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade premiered on HBO, and the rest is history. Or is it? Creator of the Lemonade LibGuide, librarian Jennifer Ferretti considers the learning potential.

(via Beyoncé’s Lemonade Gets a LibGuide | School Library Journal)

[aspiringlibrarian]

Thank you Jennifer Ferretti for combining my favorites, library things and Beyonce things. 

[fergusonlibrary]

Judge A Book By Its Cover

You judge books by their covers, then we judge you.

The most fun time with surprising results.

[darienlibrary]

I am very terrible at this.

[aspiringlibrarian]

Too fun but Judgey is judgey and told me I’m too judgey. They did warn me.

[aspiringlibrarian]

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

I've been pretty quiet on Tumblr for a while but I think I’m starting to come around. I finished my MLIS this past December and found a new job in January (in turn leaving a really terrible job) but I quickly realized I was exhausted. The old job left a bad taste in my mouth and I've since been re-evaluating what libraries and the career path I've chosen mean to me. Worst of all, I started asking myself if I really do want to be a librarian. 

I have applied for one librarian position so far, didn’t get it, no big deal since I am happy with my job now, but there are more positions open and I haven’t applied yet...what is causing this paralysis? Has anyone else experienced this?

I suspect that I may not be as happy as I thought I was with my decision to pursue academic librarianship. Academia is (can be) a big bully and I don’t like bullies. I chose librarianship because I wanted to help people but I feel like it can be so hard to do that at the university sometimes. Of course maybe I just need to keep in mind the patron I helped who actually called to thank me. I know it can’t be sunshine, rainbows and ponies all the time. Just sometimes:)

Can someone tell me how their work experience with public libraries has been? Or can someone pinch me, tell me to wake up, grow up, and get the job I set to do 3 years ago?

[aspiringlibrarian]

Do We Need Libraries?

Libraries are not the only sector facing a threat of extinction

This article is circulating around my library, my take away from it, the moral of the story if you will, “for our users.”

[aspiringlibrarian]

My own personal Humans of New York. My best friend @thatsmymelody and her husband @brandonlaner photographed on their wedding day by Brandon Stanton. 💜 (at Lower Manhattan and Financial District)

[aspiringlibrarian]

Little Free Library is up! Leave books not trash! (at M&M’s)

[npr]

Before Google there was — that paragon of accuracy and calm — the librarian. The New York Public Library recently came upon a box of questions posed to the library from the 1940s to the ’80s — a time capsule from an era when humans consulted other humans for answers to their daily questions and conundrums.

Here’s one salacious example: “I went to a New Year’s Eve Party and unexpectedly stayed over. I don’t really know the hosts. Ought I to send a thank-you note?” asked a “somewhat uncertain female voice” during a mid-afternoon telephone call on New Year’s Day, 1967.

Other patrons inquired about the life cycle of an eyebrow hair, how many neurotic people were in the United States, the name of Napoleon’s horse, and just how do you put up wallpaper? As one patron tells the librarian over the phone: “I have the paper; I have the paste. What do I do next? Does the paste go on the wall or the paper?”

The NYPL will be sharing these questions from the archive every Monday on its Instagram account with the hashtag: #letmelibrarianthatforyou.

Librarian Rosa Caballero-Li says that today, more than 100 questions still come into the NYPL’s Reference and Research Services desk every 24 hours. It’s not just fact checking — it’s questions of etiquette, opinion, contact information, even shopping.

"We answer everything," Caballero-Li tells NPR’s Linda Wertheimer. "Patrons can call us and reach out to us for anything they feel curious about, any service that they need — and I think that surprises a lot of people."

Before The Internet, Librarians Would ‘Answer Everything’ — And Still Do

[lawrencepubliclibrary]

Seriously. We’ll answer anything. Got a question? Need a book rec? Just use the ASK box. 

[nsimin]

wtf people…

[pyrohydriscence]

We had a dude bring in a bottle of rum to the library the other day.  Not in a flask, or mixed up with a bottle or coke or anything. Just a bottle or rum.

[intrepidheroine]

We had a patron walk in tonight with a ham. Not a ham sandwich, a ham. He walked over to the computers, set it on the table next to him, and researched serial killers for an hour.

[librarean]

Chiming in because as my coworker was closing the lobby tonight she found a pair of nice hiking boots neatly wedged under one of the men’s toilets. What are we, a foot locker?

[aspiringlibrarian]

I have to chime in too with a similar story! I'm in Hawaii where everyone wears slippers (flip flops) and yesterday we had a patron step out of his flip flops and just walk away. We figured he would come back eventually but nope, they were still there when we checked back today. Also, someone keeps leaving their rice cooker in the stacks. And we have had to tell people "sorry, you can't brew your own coffee in the library, please unplug your coffee maker."

[theoreticallytrue]

Every time I heard a book quote in Divergent

[aspiringlibrarian]

I just applied for my first librarian position. So many feelings. These cats get me. 

[yivialo]

[aspiringlibrarian]

Just finished the last assignment for my last class for my MLIS. 

I AM DONE SON!

[aspiringlibrarian]

My library conference has Dolphins, how 'bout yours? Hawaii Library Association Conference 2014!

[aspiringlibrarian]

How Andrew Carnegie Built the Architecture of American Literacy

"Built into every one of these six designs was a community center or an auditorium. The library profession has lost sight of the fact that from the beginning, Carnegie intended those buildings to be community centers, and indeed they were."

[aspiringlibrarian]

Hamilton Library thrives 10 years after devastating flood

UH Mānoa Hamilton Library staff, UH administrators, lawmakers and others reflected on what was accomplished 10 years after the October 30th flood.

There's a nice video that sums up the events and recovery from the flood. The maps you see out, I put them out:) My contribution to the commemoration was minor but I'm just proud that I could help at all.

[aspiringlibrarian]

First time attending a symposium barefoot. #luckywelivehi #hawaiianlibrarianship #fromwhereistand at #hookele2014 (at Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies)

[bookriot]

Why Geocaching is the Perfect Sport for Readers

Libraries have picked up on readers’ interest. Librarians and staff in many different states have placed caches in their libraries in an effort to encourage reading and visits. They are some of the most fun caches out there. Not only are you likely to visit a new library but you are almost always required to do some creative thinking in order to find the actual spot (even after you have found the library).

[aspiringlibrarian]

Love this!

[aspiringlibrarian]

Would the librarians approve? Books arranged by color. #smartgirlshelfie thanks @danielledot12 for the inspiration

[aspiringlibrarian]

Get Lost in New York Public Library's Massive Map Collection

A look inside the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division at the New York Public Library.

NYPL knows how cool maps are:)