Abstract
This article considers the challenging formative years of a new librarian’s career and presents some typical career trajectories, particularly in Australian libraries. Its focus primarily relates to common misconceptions and struggles that new librarians might encounter, as they may not realise that these experiences are commonplace. Key topics include library qualifications, entering the workforce, job application processes and common work experience pitfalls. This paper suggests that challenging experiences are better shared, considered and expected.
Introduction
I am a librarian. I also have no idea what I’m doing. I imagine that’s an absurd way to begin an article that aspires to give advice about the library sector to new librarians. But I did – and still do – have a knot of uncertainty in the pit of my stomach when it comes to my library work, a nagging thought that perhaps I’m not the best librarian I could be.
It was so different when the life of a librarian was just a potential half-formed musing. In my mind, library work was an idyllic journey of chatting endlessly about books, helping others find hidden literary treasures and delving into the finer points of research. I could smell the books on their shelves, hear the rustle of papers and the gentle tapping of a keyboard. This imagined future self pulled her hair up into an ironic bun and sported a cardigan. Serious librarian things were happening. Little did I know that libraries were changing, and the better for it. Libraries had become vibrant community hubs and my experiences would be equally vibrant. New librarians, I need you to know that libraries bring both the joy of doing something that matters and the acid of life’s derision when things don’t turn out as you anticipated. I love my job and every library job I have had the honour of calling my own. They have given me amazing memories and captivating challenges. But there were certainly more tears that I had anticipated.
This article is titled ‘The new librarian’s roadmap: at the crossroads of expectation and reality’ because it charts the course of entering the Australian library workforce. It examines those first few years from the lens of what I expected vs. what I encountered. I have implemented a clichéd and terrible road trip metaphor to do this. I’m not sorry. I’m writing this because as new librarians we are so full of expectations, full of reams of advice and info-sheets and glossy brochures, but we don’t know how those expectations will track against our personal experiences, and our hopes.
And we are hopeful. Good. But nothing hurts more than the pitfall you can’t see coming. So I write this article to the librarian I was, who could have known a bit better.
Preparing to travel (qualifications)
The Librarian’s roadmap begins with procuring a suitable vehicle, something that can get you on the road. Any would-be librarian will need one thing for sure, a qualification. Library degrees are the fancy pieces of paper that separate you from other people without them. I’m not disenchanted about the academic process (although no-one could blame you if you were). Academic learning is valuable in that it can teach you a number of useful skills that are directly relevant in the workplace, such as:
| • | Research skills – creating an argument, providing evidence, citing your sources. | ||||
| • | Gauging whether the situation permits you to say what you think or what someone wants to hear. | ||||
| • | Pretending to care about a subject long after your interest has waned. | ||||
| • | Discovering that institutions don’t really care about you. What’s on paper is more valuable to them than your personal experience or the fact that you are a human being. | ||||
Do degrees really tell you if someone is a good librarian or not? No. This will come as a bitter taste to some new librarians when they have to get yet another qualification, despite suitable skills and experience. Library degrees will not teach you the important stuff, like what to do when someone pulls a knife on you, or how to discern that despite someone’s nice clothes, they have nowhere to go tonight. They will not tell you when your colleague is subtly showing the signs of being at breaking point, or the strange dynamics of a team and how to make them answer your damn email.
This is soured further by payment. All new librarians will part with an exorbitant fee to get a qualification that is completely inferior to on-the-job training. This makes it impossible to decide if libraries are the right workplace for you before you have invested significant money and time. It’s a bet. Fingers crossed for you it pays off. I suggest you choose a library course not by reputation, prestige or any other nonsense. Pick a course by something that will have relevance to your life. Choose the cheapest if you’re barely making ends meet. Pick the shortest if you’re time-poor. Pick the online degree if that works for you, or the face-to-face. If you want to do a PhD one day, choose the one offering a dissertation and a supervisor you like. All else is meaningless. If it’s Australia Library and Information Association (ALIA)-recognised, it’s a goer.
Getting on the highway (first work experience)
Now that you have a vehicle (phew! well done), you need some fuel. This is where work experience becomes crucial. The more you have the further you can go. There’s a catch though. Libraries are a small industry and there aren’t enough jobs to go around. Competition is high and someone who is experienced is always going to trump someone who isn’t. This leads to the age-old question: ‘How can I get work experience if no-one will hire me?’ There are three ways to do this.
Option 1: the library job that isn’t a library job
The most effective way to get around lack of experience is to seek experience elsewhere, particularly when you are studying. I suggest you collect the advertisements for a number of library jobs you see yourself immediately doing once you finish your degree. These are not the jobs you might want in the long-term (space librarian, for example) which will require years of experience and specific expertise (and mainstream space tourism, in my case), but the run-of-the-mill librarian jobs that most of the industry inhabits. By this, I mean library assistant, customer service officer, local studies officer, children’s technician, reference librarian and so on. Look at the criteria specified for these jobs and the specific experience they require. Often you can get that experience somewhere else. For example, if you’ve been dealing with customer complaints as a supervisor for a call centre, that’s solid complaints handling experience. If you are the manager of a shop, you probably have facility management and team management experience. Transferrable skills for library services could be any of the following:
| • | Customer service | ||||
| • | Programme delivery | ||||
| • | Strategic direction and planning | ||||
| • | ICT | ||||
| • | Education | ||||
| • | Children and youth services | ||||
| • | Facility maintenance | ||||
Even better, get a job in knowledge management if you can. That’s another word for librarian.
Option 2: entry-level positions
Another option is to snap up a library assistant or library officer position as soon as possible. I’ve labelled these ‘entry level positions’ but that’s not precisely true. As a library assistant/officer, you spend much more time with the public. And you get a practical knowledge about how procedures work in the real world, which is invaluable. You’ll develop essential experience in customer service and branch work. There’s also a great opportunity to move internally in the organisation. Some of these positions will require the TAFE Certificate III in library services, and this might cut you out from the beginning. Other positions will be flexible with the sorts of qualifications they allow. Other unique qualifications might even work to your advantage. You might feel bad for taking up a library assistant position when your interest lies elsewhere. After all, there are plenty of people who want to be library assistants because that’s the job they want. But don’t feel bad. This is the structure of the industry, and you’re not in a position to do anything about it.
Option 3: placement
Most degrees and qualifications require some practical experience in the library workforce. This is a good time for a student to make an impression on a potential workplace, perhaps even acquiring some casual work or a subsequent position. I’ve seen placement turn into employment in both academic and public libraries more than a handful of times (which in terms of personal experience is high). Even it doesn’t lead to the type of work you are looking for, it’s a ripe opportunity to fatten up your CV. If it’s up to you to arrange your placement, even better. Pick somewhere you could see yourself working in the future. Treat your placement as if it were a two-week job interview with the possibility of extension. If you have unique experience or a language that comes in handy, be sure to show it off. Make some friends, ask questions and inquire about the casual list at the end of that time. Maybe nothing will happen. But placement is the best shot at getting some work without prior experience.
Engine trouble: strategies that don’t pay off
Volunteering seems like a logical step on the ladder to employment, but not if you ask me. The time you spend volunteering will undoubtedly replace the time you could have been working in a parallel industry. Work experience will always trump volunteer experience. Furthermore, in terms of Australian libraries, ALIA guidelines dictate that library volunteers cannot do the work of qualified library professionals. This means you are unlikely to get experience that is in demand – facility management, complaints handling experience or programme delivery. An employment history, on the other hand, tells an implicit story about who you are – that you’re consistent, you can show up on time, that someone is willing to pay you for your work. If you also have relevant experience from another industry, you’re in a strong position.
Social media is another option that looks like it will make you more employable, but the cost–benefit analysis doesn’t work out. You would have to become very well known online for an employer to notice and hire you on that basis. Twitter, blogs, Instagram – these should be reserved for your library research and your personal enjoyment. Unless you create something on the level of Librarian Problems (www.librarianproblems.com) of course – in which case, as you were.
Volunteering and social media enrich you as a librarian. They undoubtedly make you better, but in terms of getting hired, there are better strategies. Build your track record with employment if you can. It’s the best way. If someone has paid you for it before, the direct correlation is that it was on purpose.
The green traffic light: landing the first job
When it comes to finding that first job, apply for everything except what is not for you (if you hate children, then don’t become a children’s librarian obviously, but everything else is fair game). Let’s face it – there aren’t enough jobs going around. Librarians don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing. There are bills to pay and mouths to feed. And after all, how can you know what will suit you? All you have to gauge a job is an advertisement, a job description, and maybe a website.
Some things to consider when applying for jobs:
| (1) | Location: the commute time is acceptable to you. | ||||
| (2) | Qualifications and skills: you have the qualifications or skills specifically listed. This one is the most complicated of the three. If you don’t have a second language, for example, you can hardly apply for a job that specifically requires one. But in general, you will rarely have all the skills or experience desired. Don’t get caught up in looking for direct parallels between your current work experience and criteria, because you won’t find them. Take a hard look at your work experiences and think creatively about how they apply to what’s written. Your job might not have required you to create content for the web, but if that is what you have actually done in your work life, you should feel free to include it. | ||||
| (3) | Deal-breakers: issues that make the job completely non-viable for you, such as religious requirements, working with a particular technology or demographic, or specific shift hours. | ||||
If you can get to the interview stage then you have an opportunity to get a better idea of the workplace and the people that make it up, including your manager. Interviews are not just about selecting the right applicant; they are also for applicants to determine whether they are interested in working at an organisation in the first place.
Cruise control
Once you get your first job, you’ll feel like rainbows and golden baby chicks and unicorns and artisanal cupcakes. Don’t give yourself a hard time as you get to know the ropes. You’re a new librarian and mistakes are inevitable. Now that you know they are coming, look out for them and greet them with a smile. However, there are some particular major accidents which I want to make note of here.
The pothole – the wrong job
It’s normal to get a job at least once in your career that doesn’t suit you from the start. That doesn’t say anything about you as a person – you are not incompetent or bad. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out and that’s no one’s fault. This is far more likely to happen at the beginning of your career, when you cannot possibly know which jobs are compatible with you. For example, you might get a job as a branch librarian and find that you really enjoy shaping the way a facility operates. You’ll get real satisfaction planning for refurbishments, implementing new policies, and supporting staff through all sorts of maladies. Seeing your accomplishments right in front of you, and seeing your staff members grow, will make the job worthwhile. It might also be the case that the dexterous, detailed work of cataloguing floats your boat. Thank goodness, because it certainly shouldn’t be left in the hands of someone like me.
If you’re lacking motivation, neglecting the everyday tasks of your position, or crying at night because you have to come back to work the next day, move on. This is better for everyone – you will have the opportunity to find something better, and your workplace will get another shot at finding someone more suitable. Remember – it’s up to you to decide if the job is wrong for you, no one else. Just do your best while you look for something else, knowing that at least you can afford to pay your bills.
Slippery surfaces – the wrong colleagues
This one is difficult. But when you think about it, what are workplaces? They are a whole bunch of people from different backgrounds, with different priorities, forced to spend upwards of 8 h a day in each others’ company. Add pressure to perform and the fact that your livelihood is at stake and it’s inevitable – sometimes you are not going to get along with your colleagues. And it’s not just individuals. There will be some workplaces that will be incompatible with the way you do things. All workplaces have unspoken rules and glass walls to make them function efficiently. You will naturally prefer some over others. There will always be things you cannot say (e.g. ‘Hey, why are there so many men in management?’; ‘Why does the library council only have one woman on it?’).
Bullying is also something that will happen to you or to someone you work with. Maybe it will even be you doing the bullying. Bullying is not overt by nature: it can be a barbed comment, or not being invited to meetings. It can be an elaborate farewell for someone and not for someone else. It’s repetitive, subtle and awful. If you see it, please stop it. If you can’t for whatever reason, fear of it being directed at you for example, report it later. Even having a quiet word with the person being bullied afterwards, telling them that it was unfair and wrong, will help. Just don’t sit there and do nothing. I wish I could say I always did this. But there have been occasions where I have been afraid to step in. That doesn’t say a great thing about me as a person. If you are watching it happen to someone else, you might also need to reconsider how you think about yourself. Courage is in fashion, I’ve heard.
Conclusion
After five years in public libraries, I suppose I am no longer a new librarian. Yet every moment in this industry feels like a new one. That visceral feeling about deep, troubled waters never goes away. This is both good and bad. It teaches you to value the input of others. It drives you to be inquisitive and cautious and to experiment. But it can also make you doubt yourself. Please don’t. I want to take you back to my insipid metaphor, the one about the librarian’s path being a road. Whether you’re in the library sector for a short time or for the rest of your life, you will come upon crossroads where your expectations intersect with your reality. They won’t always be heading in the same direction. As long as you know that, you’re in a better position to enjoy the ride.
Too long; didn’t read
Don’t judge a book by its cover, even if it’s a misconstrued metaphor for your library career.
Notes on contributor
Rebecca Dale is a librarian and writer who has been working in Australian public libraries for five years. She is a third-generation librarian (her grandmother used to lend out banned books when the headmaster wasn’t looking). Previously she has worked in copy writing, social media and web development. Her professional interests include technology, social inclusion and soft cheese.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.