Since the ALIAWest’s April event ‘Thinking outside the Box’, I have been thinking and talking to others at work about some of the jobs that I do as an Assistant Library Manager at a Public Library and how they would fit in with other careers. Also how different my job is from what I thought I would be doing as a librarian when I started my degree.
To understand where I
am who I am, let just say that I am a shy introvert with not library experience
before studying, so a library is perfect place for an introvert to work? May be
if you don’t look too closely at some of the jobs.
So what jobs do I do that I thought was outside a
Traditional Librarian role including some other career titles.
- Customer Service - for Library and Local Government patrons (to give it the fancy name of what libraries has always done)
- Cashier
- Trainer/Teacher
- Presenter
- Children’s entertainer (perfect job for a shy person ;))
- A (bad) Singer
- Event Planner/Organiser
- Library Website Content author/ designer (Junior)
- Interior designer (with no style)
- IT support
- Tech expert
- Marketing officer
- Business manager
- One that is a mixture of Wailing wall, therapist, priest to patrons and staff
- And…. A Librarian
A number of these jobs were outside my comfort zone (children’s
entertainer) or totally new (Library website content author) but had one thing
in common. I was pushing past my fears
and finding out that if I said ‘yes’ to the unknown, I would find something
challenging that I would enjoy. Also the
world of Librarians is changing and you don’t need to be an expert in all parts
just have to try. Your personal experience may be just what you need.