This is a series of posts about librarianship and what I do, and why I love my job so much.  Hopefully, you’ll find this interesting and entertaining  I love talking about my job.  For the first post, see Part 1: What led me to become a librarian

Students with some of the books we purchased through a bookfair (Faces obscured to protect identity)

Part 2: What gets me excited about my job?  

The kids, first and foremost.  I love having my students come up to me and tell me about this awesome book they just read.  I love it when I can find that perfect book for a student and put it in their hands.  I love it when they get so excited to be the very first one to check out a new book.  Nothing’s more important to me than helping my students learn to love reading and become lifelong readers.  I love getting to know my students.  I love talking to them about life, having political debates, discussing our favorite mangas.

I love other parts of my job too.  I like the level of control that you can have as a media specialist (school librarian) vs. a public librarian.  I get to put together the book orders, filling student requests, teacher requests, and books that the students don’t know about yet, but will love once they get their hands on them.  I love making attractive book displays.  I love using my artsy creative side to make signage.  I love putting together programs that help my students realize that school can be fun.  I love showing a teacher that one little computer trick that can make their job so much easier.

Oceanside Public Library in California.  Yes, I visit local library branches while on vacation.  And take pictures of them.  

And to be completely honest, I’m a total library/book nerd.  Whenever I get a chance to visit a public library, a bookstore, another school library, I jump on the chance.  I take pictures.  I take notes.  I peruse the shelves and check out books.  I look at merchandising.

Yes, we have a jet engine in my library.  It is awesome.

On my weekends and nights, I love nothing better than to curl up on the couch with a book and read until I fall asleep.  So really, being a librarian is my dream job.  Not that I spend all day everyday reading on the couch.  Actually, I hardly ever read during working hours – I’m way too busy helping students and teachers, planning programs, teaching classes, e-mailing vendors, etc.

Up next in this series: Part 3: A day in the life - a look at what a typical day at work is like for me.  It’s probably not what you’d expect.
Got a library related question you’d like to have answered in this series?  Shoot me an e-mail:  DianaLynnSmiles *at* gmail.com. (replace *at* with the @ sign)

I got a great e-mail from a reader and an aspiring library science student wanting to know more about my profession.  This got me thinking – my blog is a place where I share what’s important to me with you, my lovely readers.  Yet, while I mention my profession frequently, I’ve never really taken the time to talk specifically about what I do.  So I’m beginning a series of posts about librarianship and what I do, and why I love my job so much.  Hopefully, you’ll find this interesting and entertaining I love talking about my job.

Part 1:  What led me to become a librarian?

Let’s rewind back to the summer of 2005.  I quit my job working as an in-house roadie at a local concert/event venue to go to Nicaragua.  Once I got back from my six week stay there, I needed a job.  I also began to realize that I needed a job with actual, consistent hours since I was nearing the end of my bachelor’s degree.  The mom of my boyfriend-at-the-time was a children’s librarian downtown, and she told me that there was an opening for a library assistant at a local library.  I interviewed for it, but then didn’t get it because someone from another branch got promoted into it first.  But they really liked me at the interview and recommended me to another branch who needed a Library Page (re:shelver).  I got the Page job, and then ended up at the library I originally interviewed at a few months later.  I then went on to work different positions at several different branches over the next two years: Library Assistant (shelving and circulation), Library Technical Assistant (reference, computer instruction), etc.

(me, as a Library Technical Assistant in 2006.  Luckily, I’ve learned how to smile for photos since then. )

Meanwhile, I finished my bachelor’s degree, got broken up with, and met my current boyfriend (at the library).  I was only working part-time, and just as I graduated, the economy was starting to get bad, and the county froze all full-time positions.  I went for about six months working part-time and living off savings before I realized that this wasn’t going to work.  For a long time, I refused to really consider librarianship for a profession – everyone thought that I was working on my library degree, but I didn’t really want to get one.

(me in 2009, working as a substitute for media specialists)

But I enjoyed my job, and it just became the logical next step to go back to school and get my Master’s in Library Science.  I left the public library, took out some loans, got a job as a graduate assistant, and got my degree.  I looked at all the available librarianship avenues and decided that school librarianship sounded the most enjoyable to me.  It took me about six months of substituting and working grant funded jobs before I got seriously lucky and got my position at the middle school that I still work at today.

(me in 2011, at my current job as a middle school librarian)

Up next in this series: Part 2: What gets me excited about my job?  Got a library related question you’d like to have answered in this series?  Shoot me an e-mail:  DianaLynnSmiles *at* gmail.com. (replace *at* with the @ sign)