The few that take the time.
I don’t know about anyone else, but as a Librarian Assistant myself I would like to encourage people to talk to their librarians. From what I have seen they are interested and care about what you like to read and what you are working on. Take the time to thank them for organizing and dusting the shelves. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes, so let your librarian know you care.
When our location still had a full fledged librarian (due lockdown she got fired), I was an assistant here at the college. I didn’t even have overlapping shifts with her but I would see her around and I also practically lived in the library when not working. She wanted so much to help people learn and understand how to find information. She wanted to teach people how to figure things out for themselves and aid reading on any topic. A lot of the time though she just wanted someone to talk with. She had grueling hours and a commute. She always stayed longer then she was allowed too and kept working because we never had enough help around. I always did what I could but many of the finer details only an actual librarian was allowed to initiate. It was really stressful but she did it all with a smile on her face. I just did what I was told and made sure to chat and listen. She liked talking about her travels and all the places she had been. She had so many stories built up inside her and no one around to listen most of the time. Once she took up my entire shift talking about her time being a Chaplin on a Battlecruiser or something equally outrageous.
The thing you have to realize about true Librarians is they need a Masters degree in Library arts in order to have the actual title. They have people working under them that do a lot of the same things but a real librarian worked hard to do a very specific thing. I have only meet a few librarians, but I get the distinct feeling that they did it because that is what they love. They love learning and wanted to be in a place where they spend their time helping others learn.
The happiest I ever saw our librarian was when a student asked for help or asked her how her day was. Sometimes she became overwhelmed by the quantity of things she had to do, and it was interactions like that that kept her going. It can be a really taxing position depending on the situation. I love working at the library and I want people to give some recognition to the librarians that keep them running.
Go ahead and tell me something I don’t know about Librarians yet though; I am really interested to hear other peoples experiences.
