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Hello! I'm a long-time admirer of your fic. My gosh I love Pineapple Revolution, I think maybe a few people have told you that though! I'm actually writing because I am considering a career as a librarian! Because I love books, and it seems like it's not too high-pressure Would you mind telling me a little about your job? I worry it may require quite an organised methodical personality and be quite a solitary profession? Thank you very much for any information, it'd be very appreciated - Beth :)

Hmm, you seem to have merged me and Luninosity into a single awesome fic-creating entity! Alas, she is the author of Pineapple Revolution, and I am not. (We are currently writing a tumblr-fic together about Charles and Erik being abducted by aliens, perhaps this is the source of the confusion?) But you are correct in that I am a librarian! More accurately I am a library assistant, since you have to have a master’s degree in library science to be a Real Librarian, but in terms of who is the person checking out your books and helping you find stuff and all that jazz, yes, that is me.

Now I will tell you sad things. I, too, became a librariany assistant because I love books and it seemed low-pressure! Like, that is exactly what I was thinking when I decided on the career! And now I am stuck in a job that I hate because the economy is crap and anyway I am not qualified for anything else!

You see, there are two halves to library work — the books and the people. I love the books. I love reading them, processing them, organizing them, repairing them, I could work with books all day. That’s where the organized, methodical mind you speak of comes in. If that were the bulk of my job (as it has been, actually, at other libraries), I would be a happy little turtle.

But then there are the people. And people, my good friend, are crazy and stupid and loud and they smell bad. And they’re not at the library for books. 95% of the time, they are there for computers (which they maybe halfway know how to use). And 5% of the time for homework, which they expect you to do for them.

Maybe you like people. Maybe the idea of being trapped in a room with two daycares’ worth of children bouncing on the furniture (as I was today) doesn’t make you want to cry in a corner. Maybe you are not unnerved by the crazy man talking angrily to God right outside the door to your section all afternoon (that was yesterday). If this is true, maybe library work is for you! (A solitary profession. Ahahaha. AHAHAHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ha.)

To be fair, there is a TON of variability in library work. There are small libraries and large libraries. There are libraries with posh clientele and libraries full of homeless people and roaches. There are well-funded libraries (…somewhere) and libraries where no one has gotten a raise in ten years. And there is lots of job variability within those libraries. There is the check-out desk, the children’s section, the reference desk; there is tech services and the computer lab and the pages who reshelve. There are tiny libraries where one person does all of that and the library has to close for him to have a lunch break.

I have worked at libraries across the spectrum, and in a variety of positions. What *I* like is tech services, where one is solitary and organized and methodical. It sounds like you might like the customer service end that drives me so insane. In that position, cheerful customer skills are the most important thing, but you do — you really DO — need to be able to alphabetize, put things where they go, and operate computers competently. I have had coworkers who could not do these things. The library and the patrons seriously suffer if you cannot do these things.

If you’re looking for the “solitary profession,” tech services is the place to be. The better part of your job would be scanning, stamping, stickering, repairing, ordering, processing, or otherwise taking care of the books individually and as a collection. Unfortunately, you generally need a master’s to get a job in tech services. Sigh.

I’m not trying to scare you off library work. There have been times (at other libraries) that I really loved my job. Even when I don’t love it, I deeply feel how important it is. So if you feel you can handle the job at its worst, by all means, go for it. Join us. We will love you.

But I do want you to understand that it is not the book-scented heaven you may have dreamed about. I have been screamed at, cursed at, leered at, robbed, intimidated, underpaid, and treated by my superiors as if my safety weren’t even a thing. I have also been taken into the fold of beautiful like-minded coworkers, uplifted by kind and sensible patrons, guided and supported by wise bosses, and spent my days contributing to the gathering and disseminating of stories and knowledge that is so crucial to the betterment of the world.

And hey, as far as high-pressure jobs go, I have to give it this much — unlike being a doctor, teacher, or cop, once you’re off the clock, you are off the clock and don’t have to think about work anymore until tomorrow.

Sorry this became an essay about my feelings about my job. Please make good choices.

P.S. What there is NOT in library work: great pay, career advancement, or a wide-open job market. Do not say I didn’t warn you.

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