My Love Affair with Libraries (or Booked for Years)

Tip of the Day: Sending LOVE & LIGHT to Japan! Check out the generous donations from the kidlit world to benefit Japan in this auction.

Considering that my current career is Young Adult Service Librarian and it is no secret that I love my job, it would be pretty lame for me to go on and on about why I love libraries (why not????), so instead let me give you my history with public libraries the way I remember it.

Grades 1-2: Attended the summer First and Second Grade Story Hours where we sang songs, read stories, made crafts, and watched movies.

Grades 3-5: Attended the summer Third, Fourh, & Fifth Grade Reader's Club where we book talked, made crafts, and watched movies, often with themes each week.

Grades 5-6: Participated in the summer Reading Contest; read 101 books in 6th grade to win the Waldenbooks gift card.

Grades 6-10: Volunteered as a helper for the summer programs for grades 1-5.

Grades 10-12 + Years 1-4 of College: Worked at the same library in Hilton, NY as a Page/Processor/whatever else they needed me to do. I continued to help with the summer programs.

...AND THEN THE ONE-YEAR NON-LIBRARY GAP HAPPENED! I graduated from college and needed a full time job that the Parma Library could not offer me. I was hired in June as an editor at a legal publishing company, but after only three months I knew I couldn't do an office job forever so...

One Year Post BS Degree: Started MLS degree.

Three Years Post BS Degree: Finished MLS degree. Yay! And decided that despite my initial thoughts that I might be sick of public library work, I wanted to be a YA Librarian.

...AND THEN THE 3.5 NON-LIBRARY GAP HAPPENED! (To be fair, I did regularly visit the public libraries to check out books during this time, of course!) The thing with deciding that you only want to be a YA librarian is that it takes a long time to get a FT job -- but the wait for me paid off! (It also helped $$$ that I was still employed FT at the publishing company during this time.) Averaging one interview a year, I finally scored my awesome current job....

2008 to Present: YA Librarian!

I do think it's fair to call me a book nerd. Even more-so after I read over this post.... :)

Support your public libraries! We need your support!

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing