I’m so stoked to have this new job in the Circulation department of my new public library!  It’s a very different experience from my position in Adult and Teen Services at my last library, which dealt mostly with library programming, education, and community outreach.  This very different kind of library work is an eye opener, and I think it will make me a more well-rounded librarian when all is said and done.  For starters: I never really realized before how physical library work can be! I’m not going to lie — I’m a pretty athletic lady.  Yet my quads are literally ON FIRE after 5 1/2 hours of squatting to shelve books on the bottom shelf!  Also, repetitive alphabet recall can be surprisingly stressful on the brain.  There’s also a lot to learn about the politics of the sorting room.  But I think my favorite part about working in circulation is the amout of face-to-face interaction I get to have with our library patrons at the check-out desk.

Sure, library work will always be about education and community building in my heart.  But for now it’s also about getting materials where they need to be so that patrons can find what the heck they’re looking for, which might be a little bit more tedious, but is just as important.  And even when it feels tedious, it somehow still manages to feel less tedious than my well-paid cubicle job from a few years back.  I sure do ❤ my public library!