I am a reference librarian and I love my job. As an avid reader, I love being around other people who read, I love having access and a say in what we order, I love talking about books and finding more books that I want to read. As a mom, it's wonderful because I find books that my girls would love to read and I make recommendations on children's books. My girls LOVE to come to work with me and as a result they, too, love books! I also get to be creative in helping decorate the library, running programs (I have run an American Girl program for the last two years, which is winding down as my girls' interest is waning; I will be running a Pajama Storytime over the summer and my older daughter had the idea to start an Environmental Club in the fall and my boss has given us permission to start that program, as well!)
Today I had the distinct pleasure of talking to P's class about being a librarian as part of their Career Awareness Day. An hour was reserved for parent volunteers, and I was the only volunteer for both second grades. I was a little concerned with how I would fill an hour time slot! But, with some help from my awesome friends at work, we came up with some fun activities for the kids, such as handing out a very simplified Dewey Decimal system and asking which books would go where. I showed them the security strips and talked about qualifications; cataloging; helping people use the computers; running programs; selecting books for our "collection" and all of the benefits a library provides to the community. Then I took questions! I love their questions: Who decorate the children's room? Who comes up with the ideas for summer reading? How many books do I have to read this summer in order to get a prize? Are you going to have that cool carnival again? Can kids use computers at the library? Why do you have to be 6 to get a library card?...those are just a few...needless to say, with all of their questions, I should not have been worried about having an entire hour to fill!
