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  • I was a library "aide" in for a year and a half about a decade ago. We were the ones who shelved books. Who cleaned the section, who had to answer some questions of people around the floor. We also, and this was the majority of the job, had to go through the DVDs and CDs and books to make sure they were in good condition. And make sure there were no bed bugs in them. We found loads of bed bugs. So many. It sucked.

    We also had to just do whatever we were told so we had to do jobs of higher paid workers some times because they weren't able to schedule someone for the couple hours of time we had to fill. We also got paid 10 cents above minimum wage to "be competitive" and were limited to 30 hours.

    We also had higher ups saying "well 30 hours and not paid a lot is fine because this job is meant for super young people in or just out of highschool or while in college. It's not meant to let you make a living." But almost every single one of us aides were between 20 and 35 with multiple in their 40s and were not in school and many were living with their parents because our job wasn't paying us enough to survive by ourselves.

    They also had this "hey maybe if you stay here long enough in this job that doesn't pay enough and won't provide insurance, we'll hire you for a higher paying job. Maybe." Only a handful of aides in the entire library system got hired on for a higher paying job during my time there. This was a system that had like 15 branches. They gotta simultaneously dangle the carrot of higher paying job after years of being there while also saying that the job you have isn't meant to be something you stay in for very long and isn't meant for non people in highschool.

    In short, if you're the lowest rung employee in a big system, it sucks ass.

  • I haven't worked in a library since the early 80s so I imagine it's way different now...

    It was a lot of administrative work:

    Prepping new books for the shelves.
    Replacing old newspapers and magazines.
    Checking books out/in
    Shelving
    Updating the card catalog
    Every now and then helping somebody

  • Depends on the library. A family member worked at multiple libraries. First one was as a part time aid at a small-town library. It was mostly quiet save for some parents who thought of the library as a daycare. Parents were instructed not to leave kids alone. Some just watched their kids run amok. That job was okay. Mostly shelving books and occasionally helping with a community activity like children's storytime

    Family member was offered an opportunity as a full-time librarian at a large city. That got too stressful. As a librarian, not an assistant, she had to do community outreach, event planning, managing the catalog, but handling the community seemed the most stressful. They had hundreds of visitors daily. Most were cool, but some people are... problematic. Unruly kids could cause problems. Angry adults are stressful (angry for various reasons, most often not staff's fault). And occasionally dangerous people can enter.

    But, on the other hand, she did feel like she had a bigger impact at the large library. She provided countless resources to people who needed basic life information, like where to stay if homeless, how to interview, how to use computers, etc. Her outreach also brought in more people who could really capitalize on their services and improve their lives. Eventually she had to quit for medical reasons, but the burnout probably contributed to her poor health. The city was also considering cutting library spending which made her feel unappreciated.

    I have another friend who is a bookworm and got the full library sciences degree. She volunteered at a few libraries and decided library work isn't for her.

24 comments