Everything literary in this country seems to happen in April. International Children’s Book Day (okay, that’s not just this country), National Library Week, and, next up, (now in fact) National Library Workers Week.
So, speaking as a part-time library worker, I want to thank the nation for all the appreciation my colleagues and I have been getting since Monday, and …. Oh, wait … you didn’t know, right?
No problem. Most library workers get a fair amount of appreciation for the jobs we do. Most library users are actually a little afraid of libraries and of the people who ork in them, so when they find out that we’re not there to intimidate or threaten them (what do they expect? “Put that book down now and march right out of this building. And don’t come back!”) they can be excessively grateful.
Most librarians (and it’s important to remember that not everyone who works in a library is a librarian. There are four or five other ranks of being, like angels) who go into public service really did do so in order to serve the public, and in these days of internet self-service reference (honstly, why do people want to make their own mistakes when they are already paying us to make mistakes for them?) a good reference question is more treasured than ever. I used to work in a place where we were asked for that kind of help so infrequently that when we got a good one, we’d go back in the work area and tell everyone.
We all have favorites. One of mine happened years ago when a young man trained as a bakery and about to open his own high-class pastry shop, came in and asked for a recipe for an elaborate French dessert which he hadn’t been able to find anywhere.
This was actually an easy out, given a good section of 641′s (cook books) which we had. In fact, I happened to know the book that would almost certainly have it, and did. Time elapsed, about thtee minutes. he could hardly believe it had been so easy.
And there’s the children’s programming. If you become a stoyteller, you’ll probably develop a following. Kids will show up every week to hear you do their favorite song. You get a name, like The Monday-Monday Man. On a good day, you may get your leg hugged.
So, thanks very much for the National Week, but the fact of the matter is that, in those places where budget cuts and city council recruited from America’s ever-growing community of self-imposed illiterates have so far spared the services, we library workers are getting plenty of appreciation just for doing what we do. Maybe what we really need is a National Library Patrons’ Moment of Thanks.
So, if you are one, thanks.