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/lit/ - Literature

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6887270 No.6887270 [Reply] [Original]

>tfw libraries are dying
>tfw ywn be a librarian

>> No.6887312

I know this feel.
Careers I feel I would like as a bookish person include:

Librarian- libraries are closing, they pay minimum wage nowadays, a years underpaid work is often required, and then a postgrad degree.

Archivist- Same story

Humanities lecturer- Having to find funding, or thousands of pounds for a PhD, potentially no job afterwards.

Museums- Require PhDs too, or unpaid workers.

Is there any place left for bookish people to go?

>> No.6887315

>>6887312
locally owned book shops

>> No.6887319

>>6887315
tbf, while it sounds comfy-ish, that is really just like any other retail job.

>> No.6887329

>>6887312
>Is there any place left for bookish people to go?
the government should create a department similar to the military but for wikipedia editors

>> No.6887332

>>6887319
Except your average customer at Urban Outfitters and your average customer at an independent bookstore are likely to be very different people.

>> No.6887343

>>6887332
are they though

>> No.6887363

>>6887319

Never worked in a bookstore, so this could be bullshit, but having worked a few different retail jobs in my life, the culture of the workplace is what makes it or breaks it.

Scenario 1: have a cool boss and cool coworkers, talk about books all day, discover books you may never have read, and interact with potentially cool customers, all while doing the mindless tasks associated with retail.

Scenario 2: have a shit boss, coworkers who don't give a fuck, and annoying customers while performing the mindless tasks associated with retail.

Obviously working in a local bookstore wouldn't guarantee a cool boss and cool coworkers, but I would say your chances are significantly higher than working at Target or a gas station s-sorry gas-kun

>> No.6887366

>>6887332

And every time I go to a local bookstore, the people there are always passing the time by reading. Sounds pretty cozy. They don't let you do that in retail. My friend had a retail job and he said they'd get mad if you even glanced at your cellphone to check the time.

>> No.6887367

>>6887343
No. Both read Harry Potter and Stephen King.

>> No.6887372

>>6887343

Depends what kind. If it's a big chain store you might get Wal-Mart filth but smaller used bookstores should be fine. Really the worst thing I can see walking through the door is a Fake Nerd Girl.

>> No.6887410

>>6887372
You realize the Fake Nerd Girls are just people using your hobby for a utilitarian purpose but are too inept to convince you, a real hobbyist, of their legitimacy?

Those are good. Get all the fake nerd girls in my store. I'll savor our mutual feeling of discomfort as I look into their eyes and ask them about their choices in literature, chuckling internally the whole time.

The worst people who can come into your store are genuinely disinterested people, like the old man who stands in the middle of the aisle and lazily reads the titles of genre fiction and walks away when he can't find another book by the 1 author he actually reads.

>> No.6887441

>>6887410
>like the old man who stands in the middle of the aisle and lazily reads the titles of genre fiction and walks away when he can't find another book by the 1 author he actually reads.

That doesn't sound too bad. At least he's quiet and minds his own business.

The worst you'll get are teenagers or teenaged minded potheads. When they're by themselves, they're not bad, but in a group they can be very loud and obnoxious. The only books they're interested in buying are On the Road and The Doors of Perception, but the main reason they come to a book store is because it's the "intellectual" thing to do.

At least they don't steal books. I've heard bookstores hide books like that because people love to shoplift them, but we've got our eyes everywhere and we've never had a problem with it.

>> No.6887530

>>6887343

I work at a bookshop and it's mainly just little old ladies looking for some decent lit, middle aged women looking for romance novels and other such drab, teenagers looking for YA, adults looking for literature, adults looking for YA and teenagers looking for literature. That's in order of rarity from most to least.

>> No.6887549

>>6887329
absolutely

>> No.6888304

>>6887441
>The worst you'll get are teenagers or teenaged minded potheads. When they're by themselves, they're not bad, but in a group they can be very loud and obnoxious. The only books they're interested in buying are On the Road and The Doors of Perception, but the main reason they come to a book store is because it's the "intellectual" thing to do.
the worst thing about my group of friends is that we were both exactly that but yet actually intellectual, as far as I could determine.

>> No.6888360

>>6887441
>The only books they're interested in buying are On the Road and The Doors of Perception

I felt a feeling like this today when I bought my first /lit/ recommended book, Stoner by Williams.

I wonder if internet-savvy bookish people at the tills notice these trends... I mean, I know this /lit/ example is pretty niche, but I do remember how I felt buying on the road, and I look at kids buying this shit and I remember that feel.

>> No.6888411

There are still librarian positions open all the time. You can get your MLIS in like a year if you focus, online.

There's five public librarian positions open around me, and six university librarian ones.

>> No.6888418

>>6887367
Gross overestimation

>> No.6888429

>>6887270
You could always run a bookshop. Basically it will be like running an antique shop.

>> No.6888438
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6888438

Strange feel to have, tbh. Library I work at just had our best circulation year in our 40+ year history.

>> No.6888538

>tfw you still need to have human contact to work as a librarian

thought of it once but nah, not worth it.

>> No.6888552

>getting a job just to read books

Just be a NEET and read all you want.

>> No.6888656

>>6888438
Any notion why?

>> No.6888840

>>6887329
like in 1984?

>> No.6888864 [DELETED] 
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6888864

>>6887270
I don't know about that. Governments are out of touch and need and love to have things to do, and one of those things is building libraries--you know, for the kids.

>> No.6888914

>>6888656
Not him, but my local one has crazy manga lending rates. That's most of what they ILL. Otherwise, many children's books.

>> No.6889846

>>6888656
Children's books and DVDs sadly.

Depresses me, honestly. People check out Breaking Bad seasons more than they do classic literature.

>> No.6889874

>>6887270
>>6887312

can i do anything as an undergrad?

>> No.6889897

>tfw you'll never be that quiet introverted yet handsome librarian that girls fawn over and guys look to for advice and your income isn't important
>tfw life isn't a japanese cartoon

>> No.6889987

Library near me always has lots of people in it. Poor or foreigns using the computers, teens studying, and Moms who havent figured out Netflix checking out movies. No one ever in the adult books section

>> No.6890359

>>6889987
shut the fuck up

>> No.6890699

Get any customer service job and it's essentially the same, just more middle aged women.

>> No.6891892

>>6889987
Yupp, same at my library. Mostly old ladies and men checking out mystery novels and teenage girls checking out the books you'd expect them to.

>> No.6891898

>tfw my library asked for donations to keep it alive
>tfw I chose not to help and turned up a few days after it had closed to fill my sportsbag with books that were deemed surplus

>> No.6891932

>>6891898

Major /mischief/ right there

>> No.6891969

>>6887270
You could be a university librarian....?

>> No.6892015

>>6891898
Book sales don't actually fund the library, they fund the volunteer organization that buys extra stuff for the library.

>> No.6892303

>>6887270
Libraries that are selling series and movies aren't dying.

>> No.6892329

>3 years of uni for a dying job with almost no demand for new librarians, with a crap work environment most of the time, and a paycheck that barely goes over minimum wage

I'd rather take my chances being a writer, fuck.

>> No.6892380

>>6892329
Yeah it sucks hard. Library Science degrees only exist because universities (private companies) know they can cuck anyone these days because university education is considered a right of passage.

Instead of showing that you have a literature degree and an interest in the sector and being given a shot you're now expected to spend thousands of pounds on a degree, before applying for unpaid internships and finally sending out lengthy, desperate CVs to people who pretty much settled for their jobs after earning their O Levels. Fuck the real world.

>> No.6892392

>>6892380
rite of passage

>> No.6892410
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6892410

>>6889897
>>tfw life isn't a japanese cartoon

>> No.6892450

I love libraries but most of it seems like menial shelving work. Working at a small bookstore seems a lot more better (doing nothing and just reading at the counter while you slowly go out of business)
I should feel guilty about not donating but it seems like most of the donations are for new programming, which, though good for the community, doesn't interest me.

>> No.6892667

>>6892450
I'm the min wage shelving cuck. Beyond me there's the non degree circ staff that spends all day at the desk checking things in and out, and then the people with degrees get to sit at the reference desk and explain to retards where things are and babysit the people who use the computers.

>> No.6892696
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6892696

>>6892410

>> No.6892704

>>6892380

>library science degree
why the fuck do these exist
why do you need one to be a librarian
why was i born in a time when being a librarian is not only something negative, but also a dying breed in a dying industry?

>> No.6892714

>>6892704
a librarian is not just somebody that sits at a counter and buzzes the books you check out

>> No.6892740

>>6892714
PROVE IT

>> No.6893922

>tfw libraries are becoming community centers
>tfw barely any books in city library
>tfw mostly magazines, computers and "hangout" areas
>tfw made entirely of glass and full of natural light
>tfw noisy as fuck

>> No.6893927

There's three libraries per town in my county.

>> No.6893958

>>6892740
Librarians run libraries (or sections of). They choose and maintain the what titles are kept, they organize lower staff around the steady maintenance and circulation of those titles, they do research and take reference questions, usually they organize programs or do them themselves. That's really just the most obvious things they do.
t. library worker (not librarian but possibly after getting undergrad degree)

>> No.6893973

>>6887329
Americans are so brainwashed, it's basically the same thing.

>> No.6893985

>>6887329
A number of governments are already editing their wikipedia pages. China got caught iirc.

>> No.6894023

>considering going into library science to work at a library
>this whole thread

Please tell me this is just an American thing...

I live in a major Canadian city and the local libraries are doing fine
I checked out how much you can make working at the main library in town
Over $100k if you run the whole thing, $16/hour to stock shelves ($10.25/hour minimum wage)

>> No.6894046

>>6894023
>>6894023

BC or Newfoundland?
BC might have some nice libraries in Vancouver or Victoria. Newfoundland probably doesn't read.

>> No.6894101

>>6894046
I was talking about Vancouver, but I go to school in Victoria

I haven't been to the public library in Vic. The uni library is obviously thriving

>> No.6894131

>>6894101
Calgary is building a new $245 million public library