I work in a university library. I'm a library aide which isn't very high up the ladder in fact and on those organizational flow charts you get mine is the job put at the bottom of the page right in the corner. But I like my work which I know makes me luckier than a lot of people. There's variety, and I get to meet some interesting people. In fact I meet people from places I wouldn't even know where to look for on the map.
There are periods of boredom however, skull-crushing, mind-numbing boredom. And summer is the worst, as you can imagine summer in a university library doesn't exactly buzz. You might think that's a bonus, especially if you've worked somewhere when at times there is almost nothing to do you can't appreciate the sense of time creeping, the felling of sleepiness, the sheer physical dullness in the atmosphere and the sense of something like panic that sets in at the thought of yet another hour of trying to shelve from empty shelves or an hour standing at a desk waiting and hoping for readers to appear. But that only lasts two or three months until, suddenly, they're back and the year starts again with its moments of frantic effort and spells of inactivity.
There are a lot of misconceptions about library work — many of which I was guilty of before I started working in one. Most people think of it, when they think of it at all, for it seems to have this reputation as dull, as a nice, quiet almost charming job. Well, think again. At the sharp end it's hard, heavy and sometimes dangerous work. And if you think I'm kidding about the dangerous part how about the risk of a heavy metal, very springy, hanging bookend flying out from the shelf into your face which has nearly happened to me more than once or a five or six pound book dropping on your head or your foot — both of which actually did happen to me. There are a lot of bruises, paper cuts — and dust.
For all that I have to repeat I enjoy it. When it's not dead quiet it's hectic, the time flies and you get a good feeling of accomplishment. It's a nice place to work, the students mainly are great and so, with one or two exceptions, are the academic staff we have to deal with. And there's a good feeling among the staff, especially among us lowly, put at the foot of the page in the corner aides.
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