Super Mario Librarians

The secret side of librarianship, that I never heard mentioned in library school, is that somehow, you turn out to be in charge of the HVAC and plumbing, by virtue of being in charge of the library. Go figure. I actually like that aspect. You should never, never wear white when you work as a librarian. You will end up having to crawl around on the floor to fix a copier, or look at where the computer and printer are connected, or climb up to change a lightbulb or bang a pipe.

Every day is certainly different! You get to go on field trips to see the dusty books in dead Uncle Dan's attic (or basement, groan! Hope they aren't moldy!). You probably have to pack them up, too. Sometimes, they turn out to be really good, but probably they are just outdated reporters, so you smile politely, because Aunt Sadie will tell you that she remembers when she and Dan scrimped and saved each month to pay the subscription on the set so he could start his law office up. You take the books and write the thank you letter with a detailed list of all the books received and the condition (and a separate letter stating why the IRS does not allow you to give an estimate of the value).

Well, this is a cool job. You get to buy books, show people how to use them, and find homes for the books people can't use any more. And they pay you enough to live on while you do it. And I don't have to practice law to do it. How cool is that? I used this image of Mario to illustrate this post because Mario, you might know, is a plumber, like some of us, and pretty super, like all of us! This image is courtesy of http://www.lamaisondetoad.org/images/wallpaper/wallpaper_super_mario_sunshine_01_1024.jpg