Re: GEN: librarians -vs- aides

[Krista Clement <kristac@PARAGON-PCB.COM>]

Just for an alternate perspective...

I am a recently graduated librarian, currently without job. To get
some experience, and sort of as an "in-kind" donation, I am
volunteering one day per week at my church's private Christian
School.

The head of the library is NOT a librarian, or even a trained or
experienced aide. She is also 100% volunteer, as the administration
hasn't figured out that they'll need a librarian eventually. She is
the parent of two children  in the school. She learned from a former
aide (no longer there), who she considered "a real librarian".

The library must serve K - 12 in one small room, almost
entirely with donated books, and the automation project has been a
shambles. There are over 100 students, mainly under gr. 8. No library
or research instruction is given by library staff (not even book
talks). Each elementary class comes in to check out reading material
for 20 minutes per week (no reference help given). Children have no
access to a catalogue, because the cards were tossed at the beginning
of the "automation" project (sigh) and the catalogue doesn't work
yet. Most teachers maintain their own collection of books in the
classroom, but of course those are not shared or accessible to others
except by word of mouth. Major issues in the library: censorship
without process, and strange cataloguing decisions.

I am considered an "aide." I get to do basic processing, card
stamping, book check-out (manual), shelving. The "librarian" has been
there several years, and of course has been given the authority to
run the place. My goal is to gradually educate both her and the
administration to the potential of the library, and means of making
it function. However, I refuse to put in more than my set volunteer
time or give professional level work for FREE (when I don't have any
children in the school, either). My hope is that they might maybe
hire me someday, but no, I'm not banking my career on it.

The thing is, about the non-librarian overseer, she's a wonderful &
practical lady... but doesn't really WANT to be a librarian. She's
doing okay, but makes little effort to push the library forward.

KLC
Krista Clement
Looking for a library to call Home
kristac@paragon-pcb.com

http://paragon-pcb.com/X_Novels/
Fiction Bibliography for Christians

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