So I'm in my late 20s and unhappy with my current career. The most fulfilling experience I've had at a job was when I worked part-time at my college library, so I was considering going back to school for a Masters in Library Science and moving forward with that. When I spoke to my family about it, however, they told me that it was a bad idea and I'd be wasting my time. Do you all have anything I can tell them to put their minds at ease?

Finishing up my MLIS program this semester and starting my job search. I knew it would be an uphill battle but I’m having a hard time even finding positions to apply to.

Already starting to feel a little discouraged and was wondering if anyone had any advice?

a couple houses in my neighborhood have mini libraries you can take books from. i've grabbed probably 10 for my daughter.

my husband and i were talking about a book i grabbed today and he said, 'oh, did you take the other books back and grab new ones?'

aaaand i didn't realize you took them back!! i've been keeping them this entire time.

so my question is what are the rules surrounding the mini libraries? do they work like regular city libraries where you return the books? do you keep them? can you add more books to the library??

i'm so confused! someone please help!

I was having a tough time at my job. Being a children’s librarian is the best job in the world. But your administrator can make all the difference in the world. I had an administrator who was making a difference for me and not in a good way. I left work one day and pulled into the local gas station to get gas. This is Oregon so you know I’m not getting out of my car, but I’m gonna let somebody pump my gas for me. As I pulled in the two gas station attendants were pushing each other. They were having an argument over who got to pump my gas. They were some of my Library kids. As they were pumping my gas, another car pulled up. Some teenagers got out and went into the store, but the mom got out and walked over to my car. She said, ”My kids saw you as we pulled in and said ‘hey there’s the librarian.’ I asked them which librarian and they said the only librarian.” Which is why it’s still the best job in the world even if you have an administrator who isn’t cool. Note: almost all of the Library directors I worked with were cool or supercool.

I work in a public library, but I did not go to school for library sciences. I was wondering if anyone here had a good resource for understanding and memorizing the Dewey decimal system? I'd like to make a cheat sheet for myself but also a cute one for our children's department to print and give to kids when they are looking for something specific. Any resources would be greatly appreciated!

Hi! Looking for recommendations/ideas on children’s summer reading incentives. Two years ago we did different pin buttons on a lanyard for each level they passed and last year we did different beads to put on a necklace for each level they passed.

I’m looking for another theme/idea that is stackable or in levels instead of just a random prize for each level completed.

Any similar ideas for adults and teens is welcome too!

LOVE THIS! Don't like DEI, fine let us present JEDI. May the force be with us all in the coming days.

https://preview.redd.it/1fdu5056vdge1.png?width=1313&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b8fdc62fad9c2b73fb7f1b423bfe34d8feb6bee

Hi everyone, I have an upcoming in-person interview for a programming position at a public library in my town! Interviewers notified me that I would have to make a presentation about how I would go about developing and executing a program in the library to showcase my skills and knowledge. I’m pretty nervous since I have no way to go about how I would run a library program, but I have done health education programs and life enrichment programs in the past. I was brainstorming ideas for a sensory play program for neurodivergent children or a coloring with mindfulness program for seniors. Let me know if you think those ideas are too basic because I want to stand out to the interviewers! Thanks.

For context: I am currently an assistant for a life enrichment director at a senior living community and have developed health education programs in college for my public health major.

My granny is 90 and has been a friend of her local library for at least 50 years. I thought to celebrate her 90th it would be awesome to do some kind of plaque or dedication to her at the library. I have no idea how this works, and I emailed the library about it, but they have been slow and unenthusiastic to respond. I know if I were to mention a dollar amount for a donation, it would help. But I have no idea what would be appropriate. I could probably get together a $1.5K-ish gift and also pay for the plaque (or bench or whatever), but I don’t know if that’s laughably low. Any insight into an appropriate amount? Like is it way higher than that and I should give up? Thanks!

My grandmother recently passed away and my grandfather was trying to quote a poem from a newspaper clipping poem she gave to him while they were dating. They have both lived in New York their whole lives so I am assuming its a paper published in NY. It is probably between the years 1955 and 1965. The words he remembers are:

Elaine, Elaine, my sweet Elaine

You are my sunbeam on a rainy day...

or something along those lines. PLEASE HELP ME FIND THIS POEM!

Hello fellow librarians,

I am applying for the ALA scholarships for school and noticed that one of my reference emails was never sent, the other one was sent and submitted but it says they never received it, and the last one has no issues. Is this happening for everyone or is it a glitch on my account? I've submitted a help desk ticket, but I was just curious if it was happening to everyone.

Boston Public Librarian and Professional Staff Association (PSA) MLSA 4298 member Eve has been with the Boston Public Library for 12 years and is deeply committed to her work. In 2019, Eve was diagnosed with breast cancer. Today, her diagnosis is stage 4 metastatic breast cancer; a terminal diagnosis.

Since her diagnosis, Eve has had to rely on the hours donated by our union to the Extended Sick Leave Fund (or, "sick bank") after she's used all of her own leave. She needs these hours to be able to attend doctor's appointments and pursue treatment without loss of pay.

In November 2024, Eve submitted a request to the union's Extended Sick Leave Fund Committee. They approved the request.

Boston Public Library denied it.

On Tuesday, January 14, members from PSA and AFSCME 1526--who represent library assistants, clerical, and mechanical personnel at the Boston Public Library--delivered a petition to President David Leonard and the Board of Trustees signed by over 200 staff members demanding Eve be granted her requested hours from the sick bank.

We received no response.

Denying her time from the sick bank will not make Eve's illness go way. It will not make her need any less time off for doctor's appointment, treatments, or days where she simply cannot get out of bed. It will just make sure that while she is worrying about eventually dying of cancer, she'll also have to worry about paying rent.

Please consider adding your name to the petition to show the first public municipal library in the United States that their actions are reprehensible and horrifying.

Link here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sickbankpetition?source=direct_link&

Union insta: https://www.instagram.com/bplpsa

Hey all - we're looking to expand our Spanish language book collections for all ages at my library. We currently purchase most of our books through Ingram because we get a great discount, and while they do have some Spanish language titles, we'd like to expand our options. A few questions:

1. What are your favorite distributors of Spanish language books that reliably deliver to the USA? We have decent access to English books translated into Spanish, but we are especially interested in books originally written in Spanish by Latino authors.
2. Does Baker and Taylor have a decent Spanish-language selection, and if so, does it differ significantly from what is available through Ingram? We can also get a discount from them, but I've not heard good things from other libraries about their processes, so we don't currently have an account.
3. We send our Spanish-language outreach coordinator to the Guadalajara International Book Fair every other year. While it's been great to purchase books their and ship them back, when we've tried to establish accounts with Central and South American book distributors, ordering afterwards and getting those items shipped to the US has been inconsistent, takes forever, and invoicing etc. has been a nightmare. Are there any distributors from Central and South America that has been able to fairly consistently distribute books to your US library? To be clear, I realize international ordering and shipping is tricky - I know these distributors have no ill intent.
4. We love looking at recommendations and bestsellers lists from Libros de Planeta, Casa del Libros, etc. However, I've yet to figure out if its possible for us to order from them directly - usually links lead me to Amazon or Barnes and Nobel, which obviously don't give any kind of discount to libraries. I'd also just generally rather support smaller book distributors and publishers.

Part of what makes this is tricky is that while I manage accounts with all of our distributors and assist our collection managers with all things related to ordering items, my Spanish is mostly limited to what I need to know for cataloging - I'm improving over time and have a lot of great resources that assist me in cataloging, but even with google translate, looking at websites in Spanish and figuring all this out is challenging. As you can imagine with how things are in the US right now, our Spanish-language Outreach Coordinator has his hands full. My amazing tech services associate is a native Spanish speaker, but she seems reluctant to take this on, and I realize it's beyond her job description.

Sorry for the novel - if you have any anecdotes or insights to share about managing Spanish-language materials, please do!

Hi all! I’ve been tasked with scanning books for an assignment. So far I am using the scan documents function with my iPhone but I’m struggling with copying the spine on some children’s books. They are all super thin and all contain different information than the title pages, so a copy of the spine is necessary.

Without using an overhead scanner (or purchasing one $$), are there any specific apps for this specific purpose?

I feel as though I’ve never quite regained the momentum and energy I had prior to the pandemic. I used to feel so productive and creative and motivated. Now I just feel unfocused and pessimistic every day. Does anyone else feel like they’ve been experiencing some sort of slow motion burnout that began around that time? Or am I just lazy and bad at my job?

Hi! I'm curious - how do you store your bulletin board paper? We have them all bundled in a closet. But they get in the way sometimes and are a hassle to move when needed to. We've thought about the paper roll despenser from demo that holds 20 rolls but it only holds 20... and we have close to 50. Any ideas or suggestions? Most of ours are the typical rolls you get from the brand fadeless.

I'm not sure how to write this post and nervous I'll get blowback for even asking the question. I'm sorry if I'm using any terminology deemed insensitive. If so, please let me know so I can learn to not use it.

I'm relatively new to the library world but serve as an admin in a smaller public library in a city with a large homeless population. From what I've seen so far, and looking at past incidents, drug use, ODs, and violent fighting are relatively common.

We have security guards during open hours, public bathrooms are only accessible with a key, and bathroom use is now timed to a maximum of 8 minutes. We are also a warming center.

The issue is that we have a fairly small seating area with a table and a few couches that the homeless population tends to stay at all day. We do make sure any patron is not sleeping, eating, drinking etc... inside of the library. Our regular patrons tend to stay away from the library I've noticed, or only enter through a certain door, do not stay, and sit on couches or read magazines, etc...

We have a community room in the back of the library and one employee suggested herding our unhoused patrons to that room which, for obvious reasons, is not a solution. I'm just at a loss for what to do.

Does anyone have this in their own library and came up with creative solutions? Turning away the unhoused is not an option. I would love for our building to be a place everyone can come to.

Hi everyone. I am Italian but live in Exeter. Between me and my wife, we have a sizeable chunk of Italian books that might interest Italian speakers or learners. I was thinking of organising a lending library, free. Can anyone point me in the direction of making this happen? Thanks for the answers!

In a recent post, several people pointed out that a library worker questioning the name on a trans person's card is likely not transphobia, but related to "fraud".

What kind of fraud could someone commit by taking out a library card in a name that isn't their legal name? Is this really something that happens? I'm truly curious.

The only thing I can come up with is the desire to have multiple cards so as to avoid paying old library fines. But a lot of systems have moved away from fines, or from using them in a punitive way. And surely fine-avoidance is a less likely occurrence than having a patron who is transgender, or any potential issue with whether a worker, personally, feels like the name on the card doesn't match the person checking out a book.

While, as an avid reader and an absent-minded person, myself, I get the temptation to take out a new card to avoid old fines, this surely isn't a major source of concern for libraries. It's not like people are using this to rack up thousands in fines. The largest library fine I've ever had to pay was like $60. I've also dealt in secondhand books in my spare time, so I can tell you for 100% sure that no book in circulation at a public library is valuable enough to commit fraud in order to check out and resell. Panhandling would probably be more lucrative. Hell, going over to the research library and pocketing rare books till they figure it out and ban you would make more sense.

Besides, why would someone go to the trouble of getting a second or third library card in a different name, for crime, but blatantly choose a name that doesn't correspond to their gender? Wouldn't that increase the likelihood that their fraud would be discovered?

Hi all, I've been asked to host a children's book club for ages 9-12, specifically a science book club. We're supposed to meet once a week on Mondays for 1.5 hours. I've never done something like this and would love help in some science book recs for the kids, as well as some activities we can do. Any help would be much appreciated.

The University of New Mexico is hiring a few library staff positions. The two in the University Libraries are in Access Services (we're also hiring an Access Services director). The third is in our Health Sciences Library.

The positions have a salary range of $3,657.33 - $4,901.87 per month, with the hiring range generally being the bottom quartile of that range.

Minimum qualifications are Bachelor's degree plus at least 3 years of experience directly related to the duties and responsibilities specified. Completed degree(s) from an accredited institution that are above the minimum education requirement may be substituted for experience on a year for year basis.

UNM offers tuition remission, a pension, and good benefits. Reproductive health care, including abortion, is legal and accessible in New Mexico.

These searches are run independently. Feel free to apply to all of them.

Library Information Specialist 3 - Resource Sharing: Apply by 2/06.
Preferred qualifications:

• Experience providing interlibrary loan services, including citation verification using multiple databases, and OCLC/Rapid request processing.
• Experience with staff-side ILLiad and/or OCLC interlibrary loan software.
• Demonstrated successful customer service experience.
• Experience with providing reference services.
• Experience working independently with limited supervision.
• Demonstrated good time management skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to working effectively and collegially in a team-based environment within a diverse campus community.

Library Information Specialist 3: Apply by 2/14.
Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with circulation and information services in a library setting including services delivered in person, and by other mediums, such as phone, email, chat, text.
• Experience with library collections maintenance.
• Experience working independently with building and facilities responsibilities, including safety and security.
• Demonstrated use of Microsoft Office Suite and knowledge of specialized software (SpringShare products, ILS products, ILL products).
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Demonstrated commitment to serving a diverse population of students, employees, and community members.

Health Sciences Library & Information Center Library Information Specialist 3. Apply by 2/12.
The preferreds for that position are:

• Demonstrated experience supervising and training student employees in a library or similar environment.

• Proven ability to deliver exceptional customer service in a diverse library setting.

• Demonstrated strong communication skills, including the ability to effectively convey information, provide clear instructions, and build positive relationships with diverse individuals and groups.

• Experience with integrated library systems and databases.

• Knowledge of library principles, practices, and terminology.

I've done a lot of community volunteering and my first and only job was being a teacher. I have a master's degree in education and no debt. Right now, I just left teaching after 5 years, and am babysitting part-time for some money. I've always liked the library and remember volunteering in high school shelving books. There is a position at my library that is part-time and pays minimum wage. It would be good extra money in addition to my babysitting and it is to greet visitors and shelve books. I'm thinking that this might be a good entry point into the library system and possibly get a higher position in the future to make more pay.

I live with my parents and they are helping me out as I figure out my next steps.

I've looked at higher roles, but I see them and honestly don't qualify for any of the full-time ones out right now because they have to do with IT/building management.

I'm seeing this as a good opportunity, but will the hiring manager think I'm crazy for applying with a master's? I already left my full-time job a month ago, and wanting to focus on part-time work for now with the intention of becoming full-time next year. It would be good also to have something on my resume besides volunteer work and teaching. I've been applying to other part-time work at non-profits and other institutions, so I'm not entirely betting on this role if I don't hear back. Thoughts?

Building off of yesterday’s parenting/supervision post, I’d like to know at what age does your library begin allowing children to be out of sight of their parent for a few minutes?

I have a toddler who I absolutely don’t let out of my sight (nor do I let him stand on chairs or tables, recklessly pull books off shelves, or eat snacks in the building, etc.), but I remember my grandmother regularly leaving me in the children’s section of our little local library for a couple minutes so she could go find a book for herself. She’d always let me know exactly where she was going, she’d only be gone a couple minutes, and the door was directly visible from where she was. I was maybe 7 or 8 at the time, and always on my best behavior because misbehaving in the library would mean less trips to the library! It never occurred to me that it may be problematic for a caregiver to step away in situations like this. Where is the line drawn in your library?

Update: Thank y’all for the insights! It seems that there’s a decent variance in minimum ages and I’m wondering if there’s a correlation between the size of a library and their minimum age policy. Looking back, the library where I grew up was small enough that my grandmother probably couldn’t have been more than 7 rows or so from the children’s section, so she could always easily glance over if she’d heard anything going on. I can imagine larger libraries, especially those with multiple floors, having much stricter policies.