Poor Neglected Little Blog

Poor neglected LitheLibrarian Blog! Well, I have a solution! My travel blog has too many watchful eyes, parents and relatives and such. I need an outlet for griping, telling embarrassing stories, and writing about the books I've been reading. There's just too much self-censoring with the other blog. So this one will remain in use!

I may not be working as a librarian right now, but I am still the LitheLibrarian! Volunteering at the local public library has been a great experience, and because I reappear each week, people become more and more comfortable sharing the "unofficial" story of the institution. I heard a lot about labour issues when I spent an hour with the head of circulation. Every week I hear about how poorly librarians are paid in the public sphere, but I was suprised to hear this from a library assistant. Librarians and library assistants belong to different unions, however the LA one is much stronger because they have more power for striking. Last time the librarians striked, the LA's filled in. There is a movement for the two unions to join forces. LA's make almost the same wage as librarians, though they do hold 4 year degrees.

So I have been shuffled around, I spent time with the mobile services librarian, the music librarian, the head of adult reference, and the head of cataloguing. And of course, the most fun place to be, I've been most frequently - the children's department! It really is a lovely place. I'll hold off a bit more until I take some pictures. The language continues to be a difficult thing, making me despair that I will ever truly work as a librarian in Finland. There aren't any language classes available in our city at the moment - the adult learning centre closes for the summer, I'm not a student so I can't join the Language Centre classes, and I'm not an EU citizen so I can't join classes at the Employment Centre....I'm doomed to mutter in English under my breath, the crazy wannabee librarian, who blurts out phrases only to have people stare in confusion. My favorite - I have no idea how to spell it - PAHOOOTKA ENGLANTIA? (Do you speak English) and MEEENA ENTEA (I don't know) - not exactly key reference desk phrases...