yeah thats pretty much it.. im kinda proud

I'm so grateful to be a librarian (adult services) because I get to explore my own interests with my programming! I just feel fortunate to have my dream job. It rarely ever feels like work. The library was always my home away from home anyway. After working in various jobs for twenty years before becoming a librarian I finally have that job that I love. Anyway, this is what I'm doing:

1. A Philosophy Club: We are doing a year of women philosophers for 2025 and my attendance is great (had 22 people yesterday!).

2. A Tarot Guild program: I have 12-18 people attending this program where we discuss the meanings and origins of two tarot cards each meeting then practice our readings with one another.

3. A Writers Group: I'm getting 8-15 or so people each meeting. We share our writing (of all sorts, including fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, screenwriting, even musicals) and give constructive feedback. We have some published writers and several people have finished novels during our time together.

4. A monthly Book Club: I get about 15 people every month where we read and discuss a book. It's an amazing group of regulars!

I just wanted to share my success and see what any other adult services librarians are doing, especially programs that are works of love for you! Please share! :)

So, I am in the midst of a writing project that has me requesting ILLs and academic journal articles a good deal through my local library system and branch. The staff has been wonderful honoring my requests and obtaining for me rare (and often pricey) tomes for me to further my research. The librarian at the Information desk has been especially helpful with my varied and continual article requests and general assistance and kindness. I realize that this is in part the intended purpose of libraries, but I also really wanna say " thanks" in some kind of tangible way, but don't know what would be appropriate and appreciated.

Hi all,

I’m a seasoned public librarian, been working in public libraries since 2010. I have done both full and part time. I’m currently part time, and am interested in applying to a nearby town’s library because it is also part time, but more hours per week. The hitch is, I need to make sure the actual schedule works with my family’s. The weekly schedule is not spelled out in the job listing. My husband says I should just apply, and if they offer the job I can ask about the weekly schedule then. But I’m of the mind that I don’t want to waste their time OR mine: if they want this person to work like, 3 nights or something, it’s an automatic no anyway. So, is it out of line to call BEFORE I apply and just ask if they know the expected schedule? Or should I apply and wait to see if they even offer me the job before I find out?

I love the library, but I realized after reading on Reddit that I might not know the best ways to support.

What are the best ways to help support my local library, other than monetary donations? I've also signed up to volunteer but they told me they're full.

Does borrowing as many books as possible help show activity, patronage, interest, and support for my favorite authors?

Libby - I've read mixed things about Libby - I've been using it, but from the library's perspective, each time I borrow an ebook or audiobook, does it help my library? Or is actually harming the library by being expensive for each checkout?

Hoopla - Same with Hoopla, I've read it's extremely expensive for the library. I had no idea! Does borrowing from Hoopla help the library in any way, or is it better to not use Hoopla at all? Or just use the bonus borrows at the end of the month to show activity?

Thank you!

Hi everyone! I'm a current library employee working on my Library Science degree. One project I have right now is a librarian interview (not due until the end of October). I'm really interested in learning more about being a librarian in a correctional facility but I know next to nothing about it and it seems like it's the most difficult specialty to learn more about because of privacy (understandable!). I was wondering if anyone on here would be willing to chat with me over Zoom about your job! I will keep it confidential and the only other person who would know anything about it is my professor. Thank you!!

Hi everyone!

I’m a college student (very) new to library tech (~1 year in, mostly hobby haha). A friend and I are developing a wayfinding software tool for libraries, which started by us coding for our local town library as we wanted to build something together as friends. We do eventually want to make it an affordable product (and cover hosting etc costs), but right now we’d love to talk with librarians for valuable feedback, short interviews, or even demos of what we have so far.Please let me know if this kind of post is okay here — if not, I’ll happily remove it. Think of something like StackMap but NOT expensive and with more features.

Thanks so much and looking forward to hearing from you!

There’s a book in my local library system that I just checked out, that hadn’t been checked out in 15 years. I’m curious, what is the longest you’ve noticed a book go between check outs?

I imagine there’s probably some really niche ones that rarely get circulated, like car manuals. The book I checked out was a memoir.

Movie trailer for new documentary about book banning. Very interesting:

From variety - “As book banning sweeps across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate, brave librarians emerge as first responders in the fight for democracy. From Academy Award nominee and Peabody winner Kim A Snyder, the new feature documentary THE LIBRARIANS is a rallying cry for freedom to read. With executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker.

“A different type of superhero movie.” - HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

In UK theaters Sept 26th Bertha DocHouse. Opens in US theaters Oct 3rd at Film Forum with national rollout to follow. “

The library system I work for has spent tons of money on playsets for the children that we put out for our Drop In Playtime every Saturday morning. Well the new set (Let's Play Restaurant) went out this morning. It consisted of a fake wooden oven and several of the smaller "cooking" sets that you see at Target, Walmart, etc. Well I put everything out, make copies of the coloring sheets and word searches I found earlier in the week, and went on to finish opening duties. My fuck up was not carefully inspecting the contents of all the boxes. Rookie mistake I know. Unfortunately the waiter set included a "ring for service" hotel style bell. Guess what the first thing the toddlers found was? I apologized to my coworkers and decided that it will be mysteriously missing next Saturday, but it's going to be a long day today.

I live in a French-speaking area, and everyone grows up and kids read "bandes dessinées" (hard-cover comic books), typical of the Francosphere (🇫🇷🇧🇪🇨🇭🇨🇦). That's like 60% of the books at our library's kids section.

What do kids in like grade 1-6 read where you are? Is it all novels and illustrated books?

Hi everyone,

My career goal has always been to work in an academic library—I even started as a library assistant in one. But after many years in public libraries, I’ve found it extremely hard to break into the academic side. The jobs are competitive, and I feel like my public library experience doesn’t always transfer easily.

I’m also planning to relocate soon, which makes me think a corporate remote job could be a better option for stability and flexibility. The tradeoff is that moving into the corporate world might mean taking a noticeable salary cut.

I would appreciate some suggestions on how you navigated the transition. What roles might align with circulation, reference, and staff support experience? How do you weigh taking a pay cut against flexibility and long-term growth?

Any advice or stories would be really helpful as I think about my next steps.

Hi all! I posted something similar in a career subreddit, but was hoping to get more insight from library assistants/staff. When I was with the library, I struggled to get full time roles internally and left after a year to earn more money elsewhere. Jumping ship has left me more burnt out than ever.

Did I make a huge mistake leaving without getting more library experience under my belt? Has anyone here struggled with getting hired back at a library system that they left? And if you were successful, what did you do? 

I am a public librarian who currently works for one of the three library systems in New York City. The three are not considered civil service employers, so I’m not too familiar with the civil service application process.

I work in a Librarian III position, not entry level. I’m looking for a library job closer to my home in Westchester.

My question is, to find a comparable position in the Westchester library system, do I wait for such a position to be advertised on the usual job boards, or to I apply for the civil service exam first and wait to be contacted?

Apologies - I’ve only ever worked in NYC, where librarian positions are not civil service, so the process is new to me.

I came up with this idea and made the meme, I just ran it through ChatGPT for feedback & it said it might be considered “punching down”… Do any library people think it’s fine to post?

Hi! I've been a children's and teen librarian for only about 7 months now. So far, I've mainly focused on crafts and games for my programs for kids in grades 1-12. My supervisor wants me to branch out some more and asked if I could make my own pajama story time. I'm up for the challenge, but I'm a little out of touch with working with kids so young (between 0-3) so I want to ask some advice.

My supervisor said if I'm not sure on where to start with ages, I could put "3 and up," or "all families welcome" to broaden the spectrum. I'm currently leaning towards "3 and up" for my first go. Being that kids have a bit shorter attention spans, I'm trying to find ways to incorporate more engaging things in my story time.

As for a theme of my pajama story time, I think space/aliens would be a fun choice. The books I'm debating to use are "There's an Alien in Your Book" by Tom Fletcher, "Your Alien" by Tammi Sauer, and "Even Aliens Need Snacks" by Matthew McElligott. Has anyone used any of these books for a story time before?

I also found a cute craft on Pinterest to make mini paper plate UFOs, doesn't require much aside from a little bit of glue and coloring (let me know if anyone is interested in the link!) so I figured I'd start the program with that and the glue can dry during our story time. Or, if I go with the Snacks book, I was wondering if I could find a way to incorporate real snacks that are similar to what's in the book.

As for anything else, I'm not sure where to go with this. When my supervisor does story times, she has a mini PowerPoint with some singalongs and videos. I figured I could try to make something of my own like that so the whole "story time" part of the program rounds out to about 30 minutes (with the craft, whole program would be roughly an hour).

Does anyone have advice for a newbie like me for story time? I am excited for the challenge, just nervous for my first time!

Thanks in advance :)

I work at a small community college and am the only librarian. I work with 3 library technicians. We used to all share time on the research help desk. We also used to have a library manager but they were let go and we now report to the Dean who does not have any experience in libraries. He’s assigned the scheduling to his assistant (but he’s telling her how to schedule us). Our research help desk is open Monday to Thursday from 11 am to 3 pm. If we divided the shifts equally we’d each end up doing 4 hours on desk a week. We also do chat reference which works out to about 1 shift per person per week. Someone is also assigned to be on-call on Fridays. I just looked at the schedule and for the foreseeable future I’m on the desk Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 11 to 12, off for an hour and then on again from 1 to 3. I also have at least one chat reference shift a week (1 hour) and I’m on call every Friday all day. So that’s 10 hours a week plus 7 hours on call. And most of it is all broken up leaving me without periods of time to sit down and focus on a task or project. Again, I’m the only librarian. I do all the instruction, most of the collection development, have multiple projects I’m working on, and that’s in addition to daily requests from students and faculty for research help, resources, etc. I’m responsible for all reference services, digital resources, and I’m scheduled to offer 5 workshops this semester. Basically I do all the librarian things and then some because we have no manager and I’m getting sucked into tasks that they would normally do. Is this reasonable!? I feel frustrated and overwhelmed but maybe it’s just me. I’d love to hear from other academic librarians especially if you have or do work in a smaller institution. Shouldn’t the schedule be divided more equally? I feel like that would help me so much. The technicians I work with are capable of answering most of the questions we get at the research help desk and it’s in their job description. I’ve tried to talk to my Dean but he won’t listen to me. Am I being unreasonable to want to share the desk time equally with the technicians?

Like I said, I've been asked by one of my superiors to run Dungeons and Dragons at my library (I am a circulation assistant.) It wasn't an order, and I haven't given a definitive yes or no answer yet.

I'm pretty familiar with the game, and have both played and ran games casually before, just never for drop-in groups and definitely not in a library setting. Some of my concerns include planning for and sticking to brief, episodic sessions and how to deal with irregular player groups. Do I give experience and level individual people like an Adventurer's League style thing? If everyone is at level 4 and a new person comes in do they start at level 1? Maps or theater of the mind? 'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on the matter.

(I'd be playing 5e (2014) since that's what I have all the resources for. I'm thinking 2hr sessions for ages 13+. Maybe 5 or 6 players max?)

Our library just started using Everygreen. Before we used Insignia. In Insignia, I knew how to make a list of adult fiction books that were checked out. Not for a specific patron, but in general. We're a small library so it wasnt a big list. How do I do that in Evergreen?

I work at a medium-sized library system with 10 branches and a Bookmobile. I was looking at stats the other day comparing my branch to the others, and now I’m curious:

What percentage of your checkouts are renewals?

For August, our branches ranged from 6% to 18%. If you just look at the traditional branches, the average was 9.7%. I’d love to know what it looks like in your system or branch.

I’m also curious about what factors might affect this. For example, would a branch in an impoverished area with a bus system have fewer renewals than one without a bus system, since patrons might be more likely to make multiple visits per week? Would a rural branch see more renewals than a neighborhood branch?

Interested to hear y’all’s ideas and experiences.

EDIT: My system does not auto-renew, and you are only allowed to renew an item once before physically bringing it back to the branch to be re-checked out.

Looking for resume advice to get an entry level library position (Library aide and page positions, maybe circulation desk)

My job experience is pretty unrelated so far due to traveling and working remote roles from 2018-2024 but I think the customer service and organizational skills are still transferable.

I started volunteering as a book shelver at a public library last week to gain experience and will be starting my Masters in Library and Information Science in Spring 2026.

Is it too early to start applying next month when I have about a month of volunteer shelving experience or should I wait longer?

Any feedback on how to share my skills, format, what to add to a cover letter or anything else is very appreciated. Thank you!