Library Work & Public Perception

When I tell people I’m a librarian, 9 times out of 10 they exclaim, “Oh you must read all day!” I’m sure I’m not the only one to hear this, or other similar misconceptions, about librarianship. There is a pervasive idea of vocational awe within the library profession and misunderstanding of what library professionals do day-to-day.  I’ve also experienced an almost belittling comment of, “aw, good for you!” As if my profession is somehow silly or cute and not at all difficult or important.  

This is of course contradictory to how labor intensive our positions are. I mean that both physically (those book carts won’t push themselves) and emotionally. As a service industry, interacting with patrons, students, faculty is a large part of our job and like other service industries, it can be draining and exhausting. Additionally, “librarian stress is partially caused by the discrepancy between the public’s perception of what a librarian does and a librarians actual work. The general public sees a librarian’s job as being unstressful, and the library environment as one that cannot create stress” (Simon, 2020). This is so interesting to me and validates some of my own experiences. Like any other job, ours can be just as stressful. Being historically under-compensated while also dealing with job creep is the norm for library workers, but why does the public not know this? Maybe it’s jarring to learn a perceived awe of the industry is misplaced? Whatever the reason, it’s a perfect storm for stress and burnout and I do hope you take care of yourself.  

Simon, K. (2020). Emotional labor, stressors, and librarians who work with the public. School of Information Student Research Journal, 10(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.31979/2575-2499.100106  

Additional Reading 

Ettarh, F. (2018, January 10). Vocational awe and librarianship: The lies we tell ourselves. In The Library With The Lead Pipe. http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/  

Farkas, M. (2020). Not beyond critique: The need for critical conversations about our libraries and profession. American Libraries, 51, 54. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2020/09/01/not-beyond-critique/