I’ve become a librarian. I’ve been volunteering to assist in our church’s library for just over a month now and I find that I really love it. Although the data entry isn’t terribly exciting, I have lots of experience at some form of that so it goes quickly. My favorite tasks involve handling the books. I like to tape corners of paperbacks, tape their spines, glue in pockets with check-out cards, stamp the library’s name in the books, etc. There are all of these little details and rules to follow and the orderliness of it all really appeals to me.
Maybe this is my calling and I’ve never known it. I love books and paper. According to my test in “Now Discover Your Strengths” one of my strengths is “Input” which means I like to collect information. That’s probably why I tend to read mostly non-fiction and also why I seem to always be reading a half-dozen books simultaneously.
Perhaps it is the quiet that appeals to me. About ten years ago I had a job in a CPA firm and I was appalled that they wouldn’t allow me to play music quietly at my desk, even classical. Now I’m in an office where I can listen to music, and although I do once in a blue moon, mostly our office is quiet except for the phones ringing. A visitor from one of our offices in Richmond spent a few days with us providing some training and complained daily that our office was too quiet. “Turn on a radio or something!” I find it soothing.
Librarians have gotten a bad rap. In the classic Capra film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George finds that without him, his wife Mary became a mousy librarian – it was the bad flipside of her life’s possibilities. Librarians always seem to be portrayed as spinsters with bad hairstyles, round glasses and a house full of cats, as if a life spent with books was a default, a last resort.
I’d rather think of the character of Evie from “The Mummy” movies. We see a beautiful, intelligent librarian who gets to put her knowledge into action and help save the world from evil. Granted, she also gets to run around the world with Brendan Frasier so how bad can it be?
From “The Mummy“
Evelyn: Look, I… I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell, but I am proud of what I am.
Rick: And what is that?
Evelyn: I… am a librarian.