Forget school, I've become a Librarian!

We’re delighted to bring you a guest blog from our JET work experience placement student Stuart Davie:

My name’s Stuart, I’m 15 and after my first few days at my work placement I’ve come to realise that a library is not all that it appears to be from the public’s perspective.

This week has been a big change from my normal weekly routine; I’ve been up slightly later, but worked much harder. Usually my weekly routine would involve school, but not this week. I have been working in Leith Library and have discovered that the common misconceptions about libraries have been proven false; it’s not quiet, it’s constantly full of life and, contrary to popular belief, the staff are nice and ready to help, unlike how TV can sometimes portray Librarians.

Many different kinds of people come into the library every day, and, as a Librarian I have some kind of interaction with most of them. The range of things that people come into a library for ranges from using a computer, to participating in the Bookbug events, where children can have fun by singing and other fun activities, and many more reasons in-between. The range of things to be done in a library is a lot more than I had originally expected, I, previously, had thought libraries were just for printing things and borrowing books, but I was very wrong in thinking that.

So far, I have discovered many new things about how a library works and have a newfound respect for Librarians; people don’t realize how much goes into maintaining a library and a good standard of service. Before I didn’t know that each library got boxes full of stock every morning and that it’s not an easy job to unpack all of them, or to get them all arranged properly, or, that when someone makes a reservation, a librarian has to go through the library finding whatever book has been reserved, it’s like a weird kind of treasure hunt, which afterwards, needs someone to send the reserved books to whatever library they are meant to go to.

It’s not all like that though, a lot of things about being a Librarian can be quite fun too. I personally like working at the Reception Desk most because it’s great to interact with the customers properly and be able to talk to them, it’s always nice when I can help someone, because it gives a certain sense of pride that I can help someone when they need it and it’s good that then they have a better experience at the library because they know that help is always available, and that library staff are always available in-case they want to chat, or ask a question.

In conclusion, this week has been a fun experience overall, it hasn’t always been fun, but most of the time it has been, and it’s been a great experience which should help me in the future with social skills, and various others. After leaving, I know that my new found respect for Librarians will last, and that I can now appreciate that work is hard, but the benefits are always worth it.

Image Credit: Stuart Davie