{"id":23142,"date":"2014-05-22T07:30:05","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T12:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=23142"},"modified":"2014-05-21T23:56:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T04:56:46","slug":"on-being-a-secret-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=23142","title":{"rendered":"On Being a Secret Librarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nena Schvaneveldt, former Head Editor, INALJ Utah<\/a>
\n<\/a>previously published 5\/16\/13<\/em><\/p>\n

On Being a Secret Librarian<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"NenaS\"<\/a>For the last year or so, I\u2019ve been a secret librarian. Let me explain.<\/p>\n

A few months after I got a paraprofessional job in a library after grad school, I made a decision to not advertise that I had a master\u2019s degree. Really, I wondered, who needs to know? My supervisor and coworkers knew, but did all the people using the library really need that information? The students seemed fine just knowing that I, too, have taken really high-stakes tests and that I lived. I would tell people that I had an English degree and a library science degree. A few asked if it was a bachelor\u2019s in library science, and I answered honestly. What I tried to avoid was offering up information about my level of education to students. It was hard to keep it from sounding like people should feel bad for me.<\/p>\n

I told myself it was to keep from depressing the students, but the biggest effect it had was on me. It was kind of sad for me to be reminded that I have a master\u2019s, and not yet a librarian by job title<\/strong>. Keeping it a little secret helped this at bay. I also didn\u2019t want the reputation for being the one that said, \u201cI guess I\u2019ll unjam the printer – but I have a MASTER\u2019S.\u201d No one likes that person. Everyone likes the person who can unjam the printer without pretense.<\/p>\n

Eventually, I got a promotion, and this new role will involve higher-level work, so I\u2019m going to have my diplomas hanging in my office. I figured that if I have an office, I don\u2019t need to keep my degree secret anymore<\/strong>. But the change in attitude I\u2019ve had over the last year of being a secret librarian has been profound. It challenged a little entitlement I\u2019d built up from earning a degree, and kept me humble.<\/p>\n

The more fun<\/strong> way I\u2019ve used my secret librarian powers is answering reference questions on Facebook<\/strong> or other times I hear them. I have a lot of friends who like to ask what they should read, so I\u2019ve done impromptu readers\u2019 advisory, as well as answering a ton of reference questions. I\u2019ve answered questions on community pages quickly and accurately. I live out my librarian traits in ways that maybe don\u2019t use all the coursework I did, but allow me to feel like I\u2019m using my interests and knowledge to my benefit.<\/p>\n

Part of what helps me stay positive is knowing that it\u2019s not up to my job to provide me fulfillment – it\u2019s up to me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nena Schvaneveldt, former Head Editor, INALJ Utah previously published 5\/16\/13 On Being a Secret Librarian For the last year or so, I\u2019ve been a secret librarian. Let me explain. A few months after I got a paraprofessional job in a library after grad school, I made a decision to not advertise that I had…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,4384,3651,167,4383,3976,4382],"class_list":["post-23142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-identity","tag-inalj-utah","tag-librarian","tag-library-assistant","tag-nena-schvaneveldt","tag-secret"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/NenaS.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-61g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}