I have a job in the library!

The same library where I spent so much time while home schooling my kids, the same library where I created and ran reading clubs years ago, and the same library that inspired me to take online courses from Memorial University in Library Studies, one by one, over six years, so that one day I could work in a library.

Also, it is the same library where I have lost out in job applications to people with graduate school. And one more thing, it is the same library that broke my heart during the COVID mandates. But time heals all wounds, so they say. Or maybe it is just that the river keeps on moving and we have to swim to stay afloat. In any case, I am delighted to be working in the library this summer organizing crafts and games for the children.

I am presently working in the same position that my daughter worked when she was a young student, as as a Summer Reading Club Activity Leader. I was surprised that it was no longer a student position, but I jumped on it. And I was delighted, and even a bit surprised, when the lovely librarian told me I had the job.

My job consists entirely of creating fun crafts and games, and then delivering them to grateful children. I enjoyed the supply teaching that I began this spring (and I will return to this autumn) but if supply teaching is like feeding twenty kids a meal that someone has prepared for you, this summer job is more like going out for ice cream with a pile of kids and their caregivers.

The library, once squished in the back of the village offices in a worn out building at the edge of town, has been moved to a room in the heart of town, the local school. Our one room library is small and lit by florescent lights that pour down relentlessly. There is actually no space for a desk for another worker other than the librarian, and barely enough room to store the crafting supplies or the tables that need to be taken down at the end of a craft day, but when twelve kids turn up for an activity, we make it work!

At one point last week a child pointed at a door behind the librarian’s desk and asked if that lead to another room. It leads, in fact, to a closet that holds some very important looking pipes and vents, but I told the child that there was a lovely room back there with a couch, warm lighting and a kettle to make tea. We wish!

I could see the the picture of the room forming in the child’s eyes and this is why I love working with kids. Children are magical (and I am including young teens in that group) and I love to spend time with them. They are bright with wonder. They have hope and they have dreams, but they are still critical. Even the tired teens are looking for answers and carrying high expectations from life.

The young have a built in radar for insincerity and dishonesty that I love. Children and teens are watching your every move for inconsistencies or disingenuous statements. They keep you on your toes and I find their frank appraisals more than amusing; they are going to tell you when something does not make sense.

I love their company. In ordinary jobs one sometimes has to pretend that you care (about profits or questionable organizational styles or systems) but when you are working with children you don’t have to pretend your job matters. You absolutely know that it does. Each time you catch a child’s eye, every time you answer a question, you know that it matters.

For the last few years the library has been driven by a kind and idealistic library manager whose mind is occupied not by stats but by people and their needs. And her efforts have made a difference. She has a popular Book Reading Club that had at its apex seventeen people sitting on every available chair. This book reading club made it on to CBC Radio recently in the popular show, Books and Backroads!

The number of patrons at our little library is increasing weekly. Clearly our local population is responding to the librarian’s devotion, but the sheer numbers are also related to the waves of new immigrants hitting our region, mostly from Ontario. After one week of summer programming we noted that the children’s programming alone had brought in fifty seven people! That may not seem like a lot to a city library but in past years our small library would have been amazed to get that many program attendants in one year.

I am facing what my dad would have called ‘an embarrassment of riches’; so many sweet children looking up at me hopefully. Can they take their craft home? Can they win a small prize for reading a book or doing the scavenger hunt? Will I read a book aloud? I do all of it and very happily.

We have so many visitors: big families with many children, visiting cottagers with their grand children, local kids on their bikes, and small groups of sweaty children walking from the daycare, they all turn up at the door and peek in the window before slipping into our air conditioned room.

Spending full days at a job was a difficult transition at first. My regular day is generally doing twenty things all over the house at once, administrative, domestic and creative. So being tied down to one job and one room felt restrictive at first, but I have adjusted. Besides I am really busy now that the programming has started and children are arriving hungry for crafting and games!

I do not have time for the news, the predictable hysteria, the images and interviews orchestrated to cause stress and anxiety. I don’t have time for it. I look at what is in front of me. I see green flowing grass, the tide washing in and out and a garden full of flowers. I may take the time to wander the garden before work, bending down to really smell the luxurious sweetness of the pink roses, and then I am off.

I pack the car with prizes, books and craft supplies and head five minutes down the road to the library to spend time with our society’s real and proper treasure, the young. The curious, the gentle, and the innocent, and one day not too far from now, the teachers, the scientists, and the artists.