A Day in the Life of a Librarian

As librarians, we love our jobs. Our days are fun, sometimes exciting, and full of variety. We never know what we're going to get into when we come to work. However, several times a year, a well-meaning patron will look at us and say, "I would love to have your job. It must be so nice to sit and read all day." While, reading a variety of books and materials is a part of our job, so that we can make recommendations to our patrons, we definitely don't get to read all day. In fact most of our reading is still done on our own time, at home. I thought I would tell you a little about our different responsibilities, and what it takes to make a library run like clockwork.


Lisa is our director. Her responsibilities include budgeting and money management, managing our yearly calendar, attending county meetings, applying for grants, coming up with and scheduling all of our programs, purchasing new materials, and managing the rest of us.  She must keep up with the ever changing state and federal laws and mandates regarding public libraries and making sure we comply. Lisa also deals with all the maintenance that a 100 year old building requires. She must keep abreast of technology changes and making sure that we have the technology and services that the public needs. She works with the different community organizations as well.  She is responsible to, and works with, the Library Board and also works with the Friends of the Library board for fundraising and events.


I (Julie) am the assistant director. My responsibilities include managing the front desk, preparing and teaching computer classes, preparing and presenting Marvelous Mondays, repairing materials, and maintaining this blog and our twitter feed.  I am responsible for staying up to date with technology and am usually the person who helps patrons when they have a problem with their personal computers or tablets.  I maintain our collection by rotating older items out, moving bestsellers upstairs to make room for new items, and recommending new items for purchase.  I visit the public school fairly regularly to promote our programs and activities for children.  I also work on the veteran's interviews, both conducting interviews and transferring the interviews to DVD for checkout.


Chance is one of our clerks. He is responsible for checking patrons in and out, shelving returned items, and is usually the one who puts new items into the system. He assists patrons when they need help with using the computers and is my assistant during computer classes. Chance is responsible for anything requiring a tall person and gets to do all our heavy lifting!

Debbie is our other clerk. She is responsible for checking patrons in and out, shelving returned items, and keeps our plants watered and the coffee made. She also helps to process new items by adding all the stickers, stamps, and other identifying labels to new materials. She has become adept at putting on the plastic wrapping that we use on book jackets.

During the summer, we host many events for children, including Summer Reading, Watermelon Day, and Magic shows.  We have two other assistants that help us with the summer activities. They are Jami and Kristen.  The library also employs a part-time janitor, Rhonda.  All of us love our jobs, and I personally hope to never work anywhere else!!