National Library Week

It's been a busy, busy week here at the library; the work is piled so high I'm beginning to wonder if I'm even going to be able to see over it soon! That's alright though, it's good to keep busy & to feel like my services are needed.

Since this is "National Library Week" I thought I would give a quick intro to how I came to work at the library.

Even though I always enjoyed books & reading (some of the books from when we were kids still have my "librarian's marks" in them, for example LPB for long paperback), I actually went to college to be a teacher. My junior year I applied at the college library for work-study; I remember there was a whole line of people in front of me, and the library director would ask them a question or two, and in most cases say something along the lines of "thanks for stopping by--but adios!". Well I noticed that he was asking them why they wanted to work there, and most of them were answering, "because I like to read". So I made sure to come up with a different answer by the time it was my turn. I think basically I responded with something about enjoying helping people and doing research. Well, apparently that was the right answer, because I got the job! Even now I find that a lot of people have the misconception that librarians basically sit around and read all day. About all I read at work is my email, and I admit...I check out what advice Jimmy the Bartender has to give when the new issue of Men's Health comes across my desk!

I continued to work at the Viterbo library as a work-study student for a year and a half. The most memorable part of it was when we moved the library to its newly built location. I spent my spring break lugging books & magazines down 2 flights, putting new shelves together, and getting them all shelved before classes started up again. The worst part would be when we would get 4 or 5 rows of magazines shelved, and then a row of Rolling Stones would show up. If you aren't aware of this significance, let me just say this: it involved lots of swearing, and sometimes tears were shed. Since the Stones were so much taller, it meant we would have to go back & redo everything we had just done; unloading all the other shelves, readjusting the shelves, shifting, reshelving....you get the point.

To be continued tomorrow......