First-Year Librarians
Library Journal - PLA Report: First-year Blues
A short piece on how first-year librarians are finding it very tough.
I remember those days vividly. I was a brand new librarian who moved to a completely different part of the country for a job, and I arrived there full of ideas and a vision of library service. Little did I know that I was going to be in a library where all professionals left in under five years. Eventually, I left too. I was not being listened to, not being respected, not being accepted.
But as we all know, we learn from those situations to choose our next position more carefully. We learn what questions to ask in interviews, how to see libraries where professionals are embraced and supported. Where ideas can be tried and where failure is an accepted part of taking risks.
Even better, we learn how to manage libraries and people from those who were unable or unwilling to do it properly.
So my solution is not to be angry about the lack of education in the nuts and bolts of libraries. Instead, take the visions, the ideals, the soul of libraries that you are taught in graduate school and create your own marvelous service dynamic, and know that no matter where you work, you will have that education to lean on. Graduate school certainly does not by default make you into a good librarian, but it does give you a head start in understanding the underlying philosophies and values. I promise you, it will serve you well, if you let it.