Wednesday 8 May 2013

Day 8 - First Job

Day 8 of rosalilium’s 'blog every day in May' challenge
First Job
(Tell us about your first job. Did you love it or was it horrendous?)


Aah, another awkward topic.

Mainly because my first proper paid job was for the Ministry of Defence and for fairly obvious reasons, I can't say too much about what I actually did.
Suffice to say it can be summarised as filing, stuffing envelopes and tidying.
Not particularly inspiring.


Instead I'm going to talk about my first voluntary job.
When I started secondary school, after a couple of months I noticed that the school library was advertising for lunchtime student librarians. I thought I'd enjoy it and 5 years later I was still working there several lunchtimes a week and training all the younger students.

After a brief hiatus of taking my career in completely the wrong direction at University, I then realised I should've stuck with what I enjoyed and went on to work in my local public library for 5 and half years and am now (very slowly) studying for Masters in Information and Library Studies.

And I'm certain it was all down to my happy school lunchtimes at secondary school.
Coral was the name of the librarian and she was wonderful at showing us the ropes, developing our skills and letting us create our own ideas, events and displays.

She even devised the school's very own 'Student Librarianship' awards setting practical tasks and exams each year such as knowing where to shelve items, the intricacies of the Dewey Decimal System, using the library computer system and mending and repairing books.

I owe my career path to one lady - the school librarian Coral - I'm not sure she's still with us anymore sadly but I'd just like to say, for everything she did, thank you.

Coral Hill, Matravers School Library, 1999


 

4 comments:

  1. How lovely. My first job was an assistant in a charity shop and I used to love looking through all the donated books!

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    Replies
    1. Helping out in a charity shop sounds like a dangerous occupation - I think I'd end up bringing home most of the books and clothes! :-) x

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  2. That is definitely a dream job working in a library. Well maybe one day I will.

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    Replies
    1. It is a fantastic job - you never know what each day will bring! x

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