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Monday, June 6, 2011

An Open Book

"An Open Book." The Guardian / Leo Benedictus.
London: The Guardian Online, March 7th 2009.

"Despite the pressures on her time, however, this traditional face-to-face work is still something she particularly enjoys. "It's that idea of librarianship being like a detective role," she explains, her eyes lighting up. "People come to you wanting to find information, and you are able - hopefully - to help them track it down in places, perhaps, that they wouldn't know to look. Or in ways that they wouldn't know how to look."
One slight regret I sense from her, however, is that there is so little understanding out there of what librarians do - or how useful they are. "I think most people think it's probably quite a nice job," she says. "I think they imagine you sit in a room full of really nice interesting books and you get to read them, and help the odd person. I don't think they realise quite how busy it gets, or how much pressure you feel under." "