I had all sorts of career aspirations when I was growing up. I wanted to be a vet, a teacher, a receptionist, to work in Clarks shoe shop and use one of those fancy devices to measure people’s feet (I was seven at the time…) I also remember playing ‘libraries’ in my kitchen one day and using the TV remote to scan and stamp my library books. But I never thought that I’d end up working in a library, it was just another one of my games that I eventually had to bring to a close when my Dad started shouting ‘Who’s got the telly controls..!?’

I’ve been working for Warwickshire Libraries for almost nine years now and I still love it every bit as much now as I did back then.
The most common misconception about working in a library is that you just get to sit and read all day. I WISH. Now that would probably be my dream job…But seeing as jobs like that don’t really exist, at least not outside of my imagination, working in a library is definitely the next best thing for me.
So what exactly is so good about working in a library?
It’s the most obvious of reasons but definitely the best and that is, of course, THE BOOKS (surprise!) Spending the day surrounded by the works of all of my favourite authors is undeniably a good place to be. As a book worm through-and-through working in a building which is crammed full of books is amazing. The only occupational hazard to my job is having TOO many books to read…My library card is forever maxed out.
I was already a massive reader before I started working for the library but my job has widened my reading preferences incredibly. I was a chick-lit girl through-and-through. Give me Sophie Kinsella, Katie Fforde, Jill Mansell, Paige Toon any day and I was one happy reader. The beauty of working in a library (and, in fact USING a library) is that you have the freedom to try any book, whether that is feminist science fiction, planetary romance (?) or Shenmo (apparently this is a style of fantasy novel. I’ve learnt something new…) and you have absolutely nothing to lose. If you fancy trying out a bit of planetary romance but decide that characters finding love on exotic alien planets isn’t for you then it’s no big deal. You haven’t bought the book, you haven’t lost any money and you’ve tried to widen your reading horizons, all at the same time. You’re also doing massive favours for your library by borrowing one of their books and upping their issue figures. Everyone’s a winner…Except for the characters in A Romance on Mars…Thanks to having access to such a wide range of wonderful books my reading preferences have massively changed. I could read crime, thrillers, literary fiction and young adult novels all day long…
Working in a library also saves me masses of money. If I were to buy all of the books I borrowed then I would probably be homeless and living in a potato sack. Have you seen the price of books lately…?

 

Another of the reasons I love working in a library is that I get to be silly. If my boss is reading this then I promise it’s not necessarily in that way that you think…
Working in a library gives me lots of opportunities to get involved with children’s activities and events. I run my library’s Chatterbooks group and have done for the last four years. This gives me ample opportunity to ‘be silly’; whether that’s dressing up as Alice in Wonderland, pretending to be a cat, going round in Wizarding robe, creating a survival kit in anticipation of a Zombie invasion or wearing a Superwoman mask, I get to do all these things AND IT’S MY JOB. What more could your possibly want? Bring on the dressing up…

 

The other great thing about working in a library is the community. The beauty of libraries is that they are open to anyone. They hold no prejudice, you don’t need any money to be able to use one and absolutely everyone is welcome. Some customers may not have any contact with anyone else for the entire week and they treasure their five minute chat with their local librarian. You never truly know peoples circumstances, but so many customers like to come in the library purely for a catch-up and I’ve always seen this as wonderful thing. It’s certainly led to me meeting some fabulously vibrant characters over the years, some of whom I have huge admiration for. (There is a ninety year old lady who is more of a whizz on her ipad than I could ever be…)

I love that libraries provide a place for mothers and babies to come along and get stuck into a rendition of The Grand Old Duke of York at our Rhyme Time sessions alongside providing somewhere that elderly people can meet up once a week and play dominoes, meanwhile there are teenagers having maths tuition in one corner and then a group of ladies who meet up and do knitting in the other…
Despite the out-of-date perception that libraries are places where you will be hissed ‘shhh’ at should you so much as breathe, there is never a dull moment working in a library. You get to meet the most interesting of people and it’s one of those jobs where I’m always learning something…Whether that’s about family history, local table-top sales or the finer details of playing Minecraft, there is always something new to discover in a library environment when you  work with members of the public. I also feel as though I have mastered many useful skills within my role over the last nine years (organisation, patience, research…and I can also name about 90 percent of the Pokémon characters.)
The more I think about the advantages to working in a library, the longer the list becomes. Working in a calm, friendly environment full of people who are thirsty for knowledge or just plain love reading can never be a bad thing…