Librarian

[vaneramos]

Guelph: driving along Speedvale Avenue this morning


Marian wants a summer job next year (she'll be fourteen). She loves books and would like to work in a bookstore, or even better, a library. I recommended starting with a bookstore. An older cousin works in one in Lindsay; I suggested talking to her and perhaps asking to meet the manager. Any career advice? queenmomcat?

Marian the librarian.

I know. I used to sing that song to her.

As a toddler she had a more choleric disposition, a feverish determination unrecognizable in either of her parents. When she was bent on doing something, it was a challenge just getting her attention. So I would sing.

Funny how she has calmed down, but still with as much determination as ever to be her own person and not let anyone, even her peers, tell her what should be important to her. But she seems to have found teachers who inspire her to apply herself. She's in grade nine and getting nineties. I'm so proud of her. But then, I was proud of her a year ago when she hated school.

In other news, she tells me she has buzzed her head, all except the bangs, which are dyed green and black.

What can I do, my dear, to catch your ear?
I love you madly, madly, madam librarian, Marian
Heaven help us if the library caught on fire
And the volunteer hose brigade men
Had to whisper the news to Marian, madam librarian

What can I do, my dear, to make it clear?
I need you badly, badly, madam librarian, Marian
If I stumbled and I busted my whatchamacallit
I could lie on your floor unnoticed
'til my body had turned to carrion
Madam librarian

Now in the moonlight a man could sing it
In the moonlight
And a fella would know that his darlin'
Had heard every word of his song
With the moonlight helping along

But when I try in here to tell you dear
I love you madly, madly, madam librarian, Marian
It's a long lost cause, I can never win
For the civilized world accepts as unforgivable sin
Any talking out loud with any librarian
Such as Marian, madam librarian

©1957, M. Willson

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Yes yes! she would be the best librarian ever.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it would suit her really well.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

green and black bangs. hmmm. that would be startling! i hope she gets a job that suits her. (i'm a failed librarian myself. a victorian librarian, morelike.)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Marian is one of those people who can do practically anything with her appearance and it looks good. Still, I'll be interested to see....

Any advice from a "failed librarian"? I have a friend who works for Toronto Public Library. I plan to ask him, too.

[daisydumont.livejournal.com]

well, what happened with me was that i presented myself to the library school as if i didn't know what i was supposed to be doing and had just found my way to them. they were not impressed. if marian shows up with her good grades, an interest in books and libraries, and a self-confident air, i imagine they'll think she's terrific! i hope it works out like that. :)

[mhkrabat.livejournal.com]

Back when I was Marion's age, I worked as a page at the Farmington (Michigan) Public Library. My responsibilities including shelving returns, which created the huge temptation to stop and look through the books on either side of the one I was replacing on the shelf. I also did the book check out, collected fines, shovelled snow, pretty much what ever was required short of playing reference librarian (the folks with the library science degrees felt that this was their job). After a few years I took a position in the library for the blind and physically handicapped. Here I did much of the same stuff that I was doing before, plus fixing tapes, tape players and duplicating books on tape. I also was allowed to chose books for the patrons as well as prepare them for mailing.

My inclination is to urge her towards the library vs. the bookstore as the library, with her hard work, can lead to a degreed profession, whereas in my own snooty opinion, working in a bookstore is merely "working retail"; a likely low-paying path.

Last I heard, Librarians were said to be in great demand too! I've no way of projecting what that will mean in tens years, ofcourse. Check with your connection at the TO library! Go Marion!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I don't intend to discourage her from working in a library. I only thought that in a small town she might have better luck getting a starting job, like the one her teenage cousin has, in a bookstore. But maybe a job like the one you had would be available.

[mhkrabat.livejournal.com]

Nor did I intend to imply that seeking employment in a bookstore is foolhardy for it isn't. I'm sure I've made my bias clear though. In either case the pay would be low, but if the library is to her liking, she'll now how to chart her educational course.

I wish your family all the best.

if she decides to try for the library

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps start by asking at her school's library if there's anything she can do to help them during the school year? Also, don't toss the whole career up as a bad job if she gets stuck doing mindless busywork/dull tasks--take a good hard look at the actual professional librarians (with MLS or without) around her to see if she'd like to do what they're doing eventually, not whether she likes what she's doing now. I'd be delighted to talk to her if she wants to email/paper letter me. (Calling's fine too, but I can't imagine you want to run your phone bill up too much.)

I'd say ask two questions now:
1) whether the library at which she would most likely be working in fact accepts "just for the summer" paid employees--my library doesn't, but that doesn't extrapolate to ALL libraries by a long shot. They might have a wildly popular summer reading program or some such. If they don't, find out what the entry level jobs are, then get a summer job that will prove her able to carry out those tasks. (e.g. work in a bookstore and become known as the Shelf Organizer if the library starts teenagers out as shelvers, or the Clerk Who Placates Awful Customers if she'd be a desk clerk)

2) what kinds of jobs they have for fourteen-year-olds. I know in the U.S. there are restrictions on how many hours and how late teenagers of various ages can work, and libraries as quasi governmental agencies have to obey Every Single One, but I don't know how Canada handles this. A lot of this depends on the library though--at my library it's pretty much just shelving books but the micro-library where my cousin lives took her on at 11 putting covers on books and by 16 she was running the entire summer reading program.

Re: if she decides to try for the library

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

This is so helpful! I will pass these ideas on to her and put forward the idea of writing to you. Hey, it's too bad we don't live closer. Maybe she could job shadow you one day. :-)

Re: if she decides to try for the library

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind a bit having Marian job shadow me for a day; for the moment, writing (her choice of media) would work just fine.