Blue-Collar Librarian
As mentioned in my About Page I used to work in the trades before going to school and becoming a librarian. Blue-collar work, as they say.
Back in December, I was talking with my spouse about my ideas of giving blogging another go. We were kicking around different blog name ideas. We had tons of them, most of them terrible, but before I settled on the name, Librarian in the Wild, my spouse actually recommended calling this blog The Blue-Collar Librarian.
I really liked that name. I mulled it over alot and almost went with that as my choice. It was a nod to my previous career path. It spoke to my roots.
I'm the first person in my family to go to college, let alone get a master's degree. So, the name fit. It had weight for me. While I ended up not going with The Blue-Collar Librarian as a name for this site, it did give me an idea for a series of posts.
You would really be amazed at how many so called “blue-collar skills” can be helpful to a librarian. There are many of those skills that translate really well into a career that is typically viewed as a white-collar job.
You may not need to plumb in a new hot water heater or wire in a new electrical outlet yourself at the library, but I have found that having that knowledge base available to me when conversing with contractors or maintenance personnel to be extremely beneficial. When you can talk in their language, that is you know what a sewer cleanout is and where they are all located in your library, you create inroads, and yes, gain their respect.
So, I thought it may be fun to highlight a few of those skills and show how I have used the knowledge I gained working in non-library jobs to help me in my role as a librarian.
Now, before I dive into the meat of this post, I want to put down a little aside. No matter how the following post turns out, I want it to be clear that I am in no way denigrating blue-collar work. This is not intended to be an “I escaped blue-collar work, so you can too post.” I have a ton of respect for those that work in the trades. I come from a family of truck drivers, plumbers, mechanics, and welders. I worked in the trades myself for many years before deciding it wasn't for me and going on to college to pursue an education. The trades helped put me through college, as I worked in them almost the whole time I was working on my associate's and bachelor's degrees. Sometimes, I even contemplate giving up the “library life” and going back to the trades. But ultimately, I know that would not make me happy, so I don't do it, but it does cross my mind more than I may care to admit.
While wrapping up my undergrad, I really didn't know what career direction I wanted my life to go in. I was working on an English degree, and all I knew was that I didn't want to be a teacher. Because when you're working on an English degree, that's what everyone assumes you're going to do. I found that annoying. Thankfully, a well-timed research assignment that required meeting with a campus librarian, helped me figure out that maybe libraries were a place for me.
So, in an an effort to kick-start the library career I now had planned for my post-college self, I began looking for a library job. Before I became a master's degree wielding librarian, my first library job was as a part-time circulation desk clerk.
As a person with a growing family, I made far too little money in that position, but I was lucky to have a very supportive spouse by my side during that time. I'm not really sure how we kept food on the table and gas in the cars, but we did it. We made it through. Thankfully, a full time position opened shortly after I started and I was able to transition into that role.
However, during my job interview for that part-time library clerk position I had to work really hard to convince the hiring manager that I had the skills to work in a library. At the time of that interview, I was working as a delivery driver for a diesel mechanic shop. I drove what basically amounted to a hotshot rig into coal mines, etc... to pick up broken machinery and take them back to the shop for repairs. Let me tell you, it was a pretty hard sell, to convince the hiring manager that I had the skills to work in a library.
Yet, thinking on the fly landed me my first library job. I was able to show the hiring manager how my knowledge in the trades could translate to the library profession. When not on the road, one of my duties at that mechanic shop was to conduct inventories of all the parts, make sure they were in the proper bins, shelves etc... create inventory codes based on part numbers and get new stock onto the shelves where it belonged. All of this was to ensure parts were quick and easy to find for the mechanics when they needed them.
If you're a librarian yourself, that probably sounds an awful lot like processing new books. That's because it's exactly the same, just with diesel engine parts instead of books. Amazingly, my brain kicked in during that interview, and I was able to make that connection. Obviously, it helped me immensely, as I landed the job.
I later learned from that hiring manager that they had real reservations about offering me the position as I had no relevant job experience. In all my previous jobs, I had never worked in an office. Never touched a fax machine. Never made a copy. Never ran a till. Never interacted with customers. Now, as a library hiring manager myself, I wouldn't have wanted to hire me either. But they took a chance on me and I am grateful for that. It changed my life.
Sure, it hasn't been EVERYTHING I envisioned. I don't own a cardigan or have those little beaded chains on my glasses. I don't get to fight alongside a sentient Excalibur to save the world from evil like Flynn Carsen in The Librarians, but I do enjoy the work. I think it's valuable. Working in and being a part of the community. Filling needs. Helping.
If you've ever worked in a storefront that deals with lots of inventory, that has to go in specific places, maybe a grocery store, hardware store, etc... and think you may want to try something different, think about your local library. You'd be surprised how similar it is, the inventory is just a little different. Who knows, maybe you will find a new career path like I did.
I have worked a number of other “blue-collar” jobs over the years that have helped me out in the library world. I'll explore some of those skills in later posts. Plumbing, carpentry work, welding, fence building, and a few more are up for exploration, so stay tuned.