I’m gonna be honest and maybe I’m jaded but all this talk of the library being “magical” sometimes rubs me the wrong way. Like it isn’t magic. It’s underpaid workers doing all this shit for you. It isn’t someone waving a wand and shit gets done. Idk. I’m just irritable today.
Yeah I think that wording definitely glosses over how hard the staff all work for their patrons. Like, they just do SO MUCH for so many underprivileged and houseless folks. And don't get paid near what they should.
If it's ✨magic✨ it must just take care of itself
Oh, right! I know! Why fund it when you can overwork the people responsible for it without increasing their time or compensation! Wait, that sounds familiar...
Oh my gosh yes, thank you for this.
Similarly, the library isn't "free". It's not "magic", and it's not "free". Understanding that you have to PAY people to get these "magical" services might help libraries get more and better funding, too.
You're not at all alone. I thought for a long time I must not be appreciating my job enough to have thoughts like this but after reading the article on vocational awe in libraries (linked in another comment) I felt validated and had the language to express my feelings.
Thank you for saying it! Wish people would look realistically at jobs and professions instead of saying how magical and heroic they are when they're people, usually underpaid, and all these professions also have problems aside from that. Often it's just "oh you're magic" without material support.
Yesterday I attended a 3 hr webinar mini-conference about serving unhoused patrons at a number of public libraries in the US and ultimately it made me bummed out and upset about the inability for "society/government" to solve poverty and disability so the librarians have to do it
It's fine if young children find it magical. That attitude makes it a welcoming place for someone who may still be struggling to read.
Teens and adults need to understand people work hard to provide that space and our taxes help fund it.
It's a place to appreciate when you are no.longer a child.
Two things can be true. Libraries are magic because they hold the key to nearly infinite worlds and knowledge. Librarians are the wizard guides, but they're also put in roles of underqualified tech support, janitorial, social work, research, mental health workers... It's all just romanticized.
In the same way that the pyramids were constructed by "magic" - it's not only sufficiently advanced technology, but insufficiently understood logistics that are indistinguishable from magic.
(With apologies to Arthur Clarke and major thanks to librarians everywhere)
