Nancy Drew and the 3 Investigators helped me develop a love of mysteries and puzzles. Because
of this, Police Officer and Private Investigator were high on my list of what I
wanted to be. The modern and successful women in my Grandma’s Harlequins made
me think that a big city career would be the direction I would go, so I added
Lawyer to my possible career choices. Following my interests I earned an
undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice and Communications only to discover
that life isn’t as well planned out as fiction.
One thing
that didn’t change during my search for a career was my love of a good story.
Though different jobs gave me different skills and experiences, it was the
books I read that helped me dream. When the opportunity came to work in a
Public Library I jumped at the chance to spend my workday surrounded by books.
It was this job that showed me that the perfect career for me, included a lot
of fiction. While a Librarian’s job does NOT include sitting and reading all
day, it does include helping people, providing information, teaching computer
and research skills, and talking about books.
So what
started as a job 16 years ago, became a career that I love. While the majority
of my work days are filled with tasks that don’t revolve around books, it is the
books that I enjoy most. Now when I see a book about a library or librarian I
have to give it a try, because after all this is my career I’m reading about!
Here are some of my favorites.
Free
for All: oddballs, geeks and gangstas in the public library,
by Don Bochert. The author recounts his experiences
working as an assistant librarian in a public library in suburban Los Angeles,
as he encounters patrons who range from bored latchkey kids left there for the
afternoon, to rowdy teenagers.
I
Work at a Public Library, by Gina Sheridan. Collection
of strange-but-true anecdotes, heartwarming stories, and humorous interactions
with patrons from a public librarian.
Open
Season, by Linda Howard. Daisy
Minor is bored. Worse than that, she's boring. A plain, small-town librarian,
she's got a wardrobe as sexy as a dictionary and hasn't been on a date in
years. She's never even had a lukewarm love affair, let alone a hot one. So
when she wakes up on her thirty-fourth birthday and wonders how it is that she
still lives with her widowed mom and spinster aunt while her friends have all
gotten married and started families, she decides it's time to get a life.
Good
Girls Do, by Cathie Linz. After
his father's death, Luke Maguire returns home to Serenity Falls to take care of
the family bar and, while trying to liven the town up a little, forms an
unlikely alliance with Julia Wright, a sassy librarian who can read him like an
open book.
Here
Lies the Librarian,
by Richard Peck. Fourteen-year-old
Eleanor "Peewee" McGrath, a tomboy and automobile enthusiast,
discovers new possibilities for her future after the 1914 arrival in her small
Indiana town of four young librarians.
Louisiana
Saves the Library, by Emily Beck Cogburn. Librarian Louisiana Richardson must resort to unconventional methods if
she is going to save Alligator Bayou Parish's struggling library from being
closed.
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