Americans are only just learning what librarians really do all day, and despite popular opinions, it’s not all shelving books and telling readers to be quiet.
Despite the launch of phone apps, audiobooks, and even Spotify-style wrapped lists, 50% of the American public is still visiting their local library. While it’s clear that many of us are at least familiar with what a library is, it seems some might need some updated information about what librarians do with their day.
What do librarians do?
For a lot of people, the only point of reference for a librarian is the one they experienced during high school. If we’re being completely honest, most were hardly at the top of their game.
Stitching a video that wondered exactly what librarians do, TikTok user @Sadbeige offered a lesson for her 300k followers.
“I’m going to say this with all the love in my heart, the reason that I think people say this so often, like why you need a degree to be a librarian, is because it’s a female-coded job,” she theorized.”
She continued: “I have a master’s in library science and I manage a public library. What we do encompasses so much more than just scanning a book like someone might do at a checkout station in the store.
“In the past, I’ve been a community technology librarian, and I literally went around the entire county for my entire job and I taught computer classes to people who could otherwise not attend them. I’m talking about going to a Goodwill center with six laptops to teach people individually how to use a computer.”
Even the librarians who read to kids during the summer are arguably more equipped than most parents, offering literacy and skills advice to caregivers. Simplifying it, she said a degree in library science is not completely dissimilar to a degree in education. Both are used to teach people, but just in different ways.
With countless skills and areas of expertise under their belt and still being challenged, the content creator argued that librarians are unfairly criticized because it’s a “female-coded job.”
Everyone loves a librarian
After learning about the complexities of being a librarian, many Americans said they intended to abandon their own jobs for the world of books.
“I had no idea. now I want to be a librarian,” one person wrote, as another said, “I genuinely didn’t realize being a librarian had any requirements.. in my brain you just scan and catalog books..?”
Alongside adoring comments, other librarians shared other skills and jobs they are forced to learn to keep up with trends.
“My partner is a librarian and she teaches nurses how to do research with medical databases, there is so much that librarians do,” one said, while another added, “A librarian may also be responsible for budgeting, grants, research, etc. Librarians are incredible!”
