I am currently employed at a local public library. I was offered a position at another library (as a librarian!), with the tentative start date being Monday, November 23. The position is board approved, which is set to occur at their Tuesday, November 17 meeting.

I want to give my two-week notice to my current employer by Tuesday, November 3. This will give me a short vacation before the start of my new position. It will also mean that I am leaving in good-standing, and I thus will be able to cash out my unused vacation time. However, I do not want to submit a resignation prior to the board approval of my new position.

Would it be stupid to submit a resignation before this occurs? I could potentially ask to have my start date delayed until the following week; would this set a bad impression if requested? I know the board approval is a mere formality, but I feel uncomfortable submitting a resignation without certainty my position will be approved. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Hey everyone! I’m cultivating a display of our Criterion Collection DVDS + Blu-Rays because we have tons! I was wondering if anyone had any punny ideas for a title of the display? I could go the basic route and just have “ [library name]’s Criterion Collection” but was hoping for some more creative display names.

Thanks guys :-)

As a rural library I know that healthcare and healthcare related concerns are a big weight on the community. I want to find ways to address these needs and thought partnering with the local Health Department might be a good place to start. I am not located in the county seat so my goal would be for the health department to come to my location to save patrons the drive. I'm open to any and all thoughts!

After 5 years of unemployment I am happy to say that I am now employed.

Please, I'll take anything! Its tough getting children to come in. I am focusing on school aged kids but this open for all ideas! PLEASE please!

Has anyone worked with Ancestry.com to have their local microfilm digitized? If so, how was it? My biggest concern is whether they then claim exclusive copyright to whatever they scan.

Every year I slightly dread having to do a book display for Thanksgiving. I work in the kids' department, so a lot of our "nonfiction" books tell the false story of how the pilgrims and "indians" were friends and had a nice big party. I avoid these books and instead choose books that focus on family and being thankful, but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for kids' books that begin to touch on the reality of what happened.

this is reposted from r/Librarians

I’m an incoming MLIS student, not in the US. For background, I have worked at a special collection library for years as a student. The projects I have worked on vary greatly, and some directly pertain to the work a librarian would do, however I do not catalogue or sit at the reference desk.

I questioned for years if I should get an MLIS, and decided I should, which I do stick by. However, over the past few months I have began to question if I actually want to work in a library long term, and if I can’t stay at my current library (which I would really love to do), would I be content somewhere else? While I do think I would be, I also am leaning towards trying to enter a different sector when I graduate with my MLIS.

I don’t want to be too specific, just for privacy sake, but the library I currently work at is well regarded, prestigious, and very interesting. There is a chance I could be hired as a librarian here when I graduate, but nothing is certain. I have expressed my desire to stay with the higher ups.

What I am wondering is, how difficult is it to transition from libraries into other sectors? I could see myself really enjoying and excelling in certain government positions, like policy analysis or researching for political parties/legislators. I could also see myself working for cultural organizations, as I also have an MA.

School librarian here, and the business manager just told me my budget is going to be cut in half next year (I’m in Australia, and the school year starts in late January).

We are a public school, but there are school fees to be paid by families at the start of every year. The library will also now be an optional contribution rather than drawing from the big pot.

Good times ahead 🫠

I’m conducting a research study on decision-making during large-scale collections projects (e.g., subscription cancellations, package reductions, or major weeding initiatives).

I’m particularly interested in how decision-making evolves over the course of these projects and what shapes that experience.

If you:

• Work in an academic library (college or university), and

• Have participated in a large-scale collections project in the past 5 years

I’d really appreciate your input. The survey takes about 5 minutes to complete. 

Survey link: https://carletonu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8cfbFNVbi5Fy4rI 

If you have any questions about the survey, please feel free to message me on here!

Here's mine. I am finally getting through the legendary Fables comics; I'm currently up to Book 10 of the Deluxe Editions. Got some Gears of War E-Day to play with the wife (fun fact -- did you know that Xbox Series X 'Play Anywhere' titles also come with a PC version attached to that disc? Just stick the disc in your Xbox and the PC version gets licensed to your account too. Your local library now carries PC games if they have Xbox titles!) And my library just got in The Department of Truth Deluxe Edition Vol 2, so I am now reading through Vol 1 in anticipation of checking that out next!

All my library holds came in today. Perfect timing, considering my house currently smells like pot roast. As you can guess, I’m not a fan.

I have had beyond enough exhaustion with trying to get even a measly page job at NYPL…let alone any archive internships that could be gainful…so I’ve decided im gonna try to just finish the degree and try to pivot in a field that has a lot more maybe immediate potential? Idk how long I could stomach a potentially multi year job search since moving back home with my mom is a very shaky option now because of her personality issues…so I’m positing this question out there for those who felt like they needed to pivot. I have a sizeable background working in things like web radio promotions, a little bit of research stuff from my MLIS plus undergrad, and know a few people at various museums/magazines/labels/nonprofits and the like so I don’t feel like this path is completely infeasible?

For some context, I’m 17 and I work at a small town library. We get, if I had to guess, maybe 150 patrons a day at most? During my shifts there are no patrons in at all at times. I have very few jobs to do, just shelving, cleaning dvds, tidying, helping patrons to a limited degree, and refilling printer paper. When that is done, shelfreading. I don’t mind a bit of shelfreading at the end of my shift, but some days that is genuinely 85% of what I am doing. I had a 5 hour shift a few days ago, and I finished shelving 20 minutes in. I have shelfread everything there is to shelfread in my library many, many times over and I am tired. It‘s to a point where it is completely redundant, and there is no tangible benefit to the magnitude of shelfreading I am doing. I feel like my skills aren’t being utilised, and I could do so much more to benefit my library if only I were allowed. I often ask the techs and librarians if there is anything else I could do to help, but the answer is almost always no. Perhaps this is just what it‘s like to be young and working 🙃

Hi! I got a new job working in a school library. I was a school librarian previously so I know the job, however this new job is in another country and they do some things differently there. I'll also be working with kids that are slightly younger than I'm used to. The school wants me to do weekly library lessons for kids. This means I'll have a full classroom of kids for the whole 50 minute period. In my previous job, kids would come to borrow books and stay for maybe about 10 to 20 minutes. I'd have different clubs during lunch break or organise events with authors, however I have never done any library lessons and don't really understand what it means, especially since they have to be so regular (all classes come every week). Does anyone have any ideas of what to do with pupils during these library lessons? After introducing them to the library and maybe doing a scavenger hunt, I'm not sure about what activities are suitable for this age group!

Hi everyone!

I’m a relatively new Library Assistant II (working on getting my masters in library science soon) working in the Research & Instruction department at an academic library, and I wanted to get some perspective from people who have worked in similar positions.

I’ve been in this role for about two months now, and one thing that’s been really surprising to me is just how much downtime I have. Some days, I genuinely struggle to find enough work to keep myself occupied throughout an eight-hour shift.
My responsibilities include staffing the research desk, helping with reference questions and chat services, assisting librarians with projects, working on LibGuides and instructional materials, and various other departmental tasks. I really enjoy the work when I have something to do, especially the research and instructional side of things, but there are stretches when there just isn’t much happening.
I’ve tried to be proactive about asking for additional projects and finding ways to contribute, but I also don’t want to constantly bother my colleagues asking for something to do. I understand that reference services are largely dependent on patron demand, and that academic libraries probably have slower periods throughout the semester.

I guess I’m just struggling with the adjustment. I recently graduated from college, and this is my first full-time position in an academic library. I’m used to having a fairly constant workload, so sitting at a desk with very little to do makes me feel like I’m somehow not doing my job, even when I’ve completed everything assigned to me.
For those of you who work or have worked in academic libraries, especially in Research & Instruction:
\-Is this amount of downtime fairly typical for library assistants?
\-Does the workload fluctuate significantly throughout the academic year?
\-How much independent work are library assistants generally expected to find for themselves?
What do you usually do during particularly slow periods?

I’m genuinely interested in hearing other people’s experiences! I really like working in an academic library, and I’m hoping to better understand what a normal workload looks like in this environment.

I'm a freshman MLIS student who has been working in libraries for almost a decade now. I have worked in both academic and public libraries and want(ed) to eventually work in archives and special collections after receiving my degree and potentially getting another masters in film. I love libraries, I love my work, and I genuinely enjoy every part of the jobs I've had for the most part, but management at both locations I worked at in recent years have driven me away and crushed my spirit.

For context, I live in Florida. Anyone who has read the news can imagine that our funding is less than zero in most respects, but we also have really lax employee protection laws here. Both jobs I've worked have had management who oscillate between being harsh, tyrannical, and constantly micromanaging, to extremely unprofessional, inappropriate with staff, and lazy. I won't go into extreme specifics here, but both libraries I have worked at have had managers who have in one hand made inappropriate sexual comments around staff and then in the next, fired people who I worked next to for the kind of things that every single person on earth does (chatting on the clock, getting information wrong the first time around, being late by a few minutes). It's very much a game of favoritism, where one employee can literally sit on their phone and play games all day at the desk, but another can't be seen resting at any point without getting called into the principal's office.

I perhaps could just chalk it up to this one system, but these have been two very different systems in the same city with completely different organizational structures. One of them used to be great, used to really make me feel like I was doing something important and worthwhile and was respected, but recently changed. When I moved on after years of working there, all I have found is the same exact situation somewhere else. Are all libraries like this now? Are all management horrible leaders who blatantly and flagrantly act like hypocrites? Are all upper management spineless tyrants who would rather fire someone for complaining than consider that their supervisors and managers aren't good leaders? Leaders who brag about employee turnover and low pay?

I'm very sensitive and I know that, I know I should perhaps just suck it up and realize I've just gotten very unlucky, but I don't know. Libraries should mean something, and that something should be kindness, empathy, compassion. They should be welcoming and accepting. I haven't felt like that in a library in years. I feel like I've dedicated my life to something that's a lie. I can only help people so much, and only if it's at the behest of a management team who cares more about rules than human beings, and only if I'm perfect every day in every single way.

I'm leaving the library I'm currently at. They've fired two people since I've been there (six months) and have attempted to write me up for insane infractions while letting other employees blatantly disregard basic workplace rules. It's tanked my mental health working there, and despite how much I will miss our regulars and getting to work with different media, I've started looking at medical receptionist positions only. I'm considering dropping out of my MLIS program and working on another degree instead, maybe film or media studies. Or maybe just doing absolutely nothing with my life for a while.

I'm sure I sound like either a failure or an idiot, and that's fair. I know I'm very sensitive and naive when it comes to how the world works. I constantly expect the world to be a lot nicer than it actually is. I'm just not sure how to move forward now that I've seemingly been reminded repeatedly that nothing I do really helps at all, and that most people don't care about doing the right thing at the end of the day.

Anyway this is super mellow dramatic. I just hoped maybe someone is/was experiencing this feeling too. I'm going to do my best to finish out this semester, but I really don't know what I'm going to do going into the new year. I wouldn't mind any advice or suggestions. Thanks for listening. :)

“Libraries do more than just lend books they lend ideas. They share knowledge. They provide a safe space. They reflect the people in the community. They help us understand our ourselves better. They preserved history and addressed social problems. In the library, there is room for everyone’s point of view. Libraries in librarians, champion people whose voice is my other otherwise go unheard, so we can learn more about ourselves and others.”

The hilarious final installment of a short video series from my town library.