Tales of a Librarian

Growing up, I had a certain perception of librarians, a stereotype if you will, that has pretty much intensified as I’ve gotten older. Every librarian I have ever met was an older, glasses wearing woman who liked cats. So when ASU told me I would be doing my fall internship at a public library, where obviously, there would be librarians hanging around, I was way less than thrilled. Don’t get me wrong, I in no way hate librarians. I’m sure most of them are really nice people. But the last thing that I want to do is spend a semester hanging out with a librarian in a library. Because I seriously hate libraries. The whole place smells like musty, old moth balls and it’s filled with books that God only knows how many people have touched. Seriously, I don’t even want to know where those books have been.

So anyway, when the day of my first internship rolled around, I reluctantly got ready and slumped off to the library.  When I got there, I was greeted by this:

Not your average library building, wouldn’t you say? So I was more than a little intrigued to see if other things were different at this library as well (i.e. the smell). So with a little more pep in my step [curiosity will do that to a girl] I put on my intern badge and strode through the doors. Taking a deep breath, I realized that I smelled nothing but fresh, clean air. “How could this be?” I thought to myself. I got assigned to a new, modern, good-smelling library?! 

Interrupting my moment of joy, the librarian walked over: a frumpy, glasses-wearing older woman. And guess what? Within the first five minutes of talking to her, she told me about her four cats. Seriously. I knew right then she was going to be a gem. And let me tell you people, she hasn’t disappointed me yet.

Here are just a few of my favorite librarian moments:

“Do you think anyone would notice if I took off my bra? I’m so hot!”

“My profession is dominated by white females. I’m a white female too…It’s really too bad I’m not gay. That would definitely give me an edge!”

“Oh, be careful of that. I’m trying to trap a cat.”

And the list goes on. With next week as my last, I hope she gets a few more good ones in before I go. This whole working with a librarian thing isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be…