Any advice for an aspiring library assistant?

Hi everyone :) I hope life is treating you well.

So, I want to be a library assistant. I’m a student at this alternative school in England and since exams are optional here I’m doing a library work experience project in my school’s library.

I’m looking for any advice on how to improve my project.
My project has three aims:
- To get lots of experience of day-to-day library work (cataloguing, repairing books, reshelving, helping people find books, check them out, deal with tech issues, make displays etc…).
- To try and get new people coming into the library with events and to make the library a more welcoming place
- To research the history of libraries, challenges they face today (boy, you’re spoilt for choice on that one), how different libraries work, that kind of thing

I know that the experience I get in my tiny school’s library is quite limited, and that my chances of getting work are probably reduced by my lack of formal qualifications.

All this to ask, are there any glaring gaps in my project? Things I should be doing/learning? Things that would make my resume more appealing to employers?

Thanks so much for reading this, any feedback would be lovely, have a good day :)

Go through the shelves, checking that books are in the right order, again and again. They won't be, and you will gain valuable experience in getting them back in the right order. Also in being able to more easily guess where a stray book has gotten to. I was a library page at your age, and much of my time was spent on that and on alphabetising cards. It's been decades since I last worked in a library, but I still use those old skills when I visit my local library.

>1 hopefullibraryperson: You might also consider investigating requirements to become an actual librarian. In the US, it varies greatly by type of library (public, school, academic, etc.) and by state. I'm guessing the same might be true in England, as well.

It's an ambitious project you've started! Good luck!

Hi there! I'm a library assistant in youth services (kids and young adults) at a public library in the US.-You have lots of great ideas for your project. I don't know what the requirements are, but I would say it's better to design something that is smaller in scope but covers that topic really well. Maybe you could make one of these topics your main topic and do a little bit on the others?

Something that's been helpful to me as I go from being in library school (thinking a lot about libraries) to working in a library is remembering that my ideas about how the library "should" work are way less important than what the library's users want and need. And, the things that I think are super interesting and important... might not always be interesting and important to users. (Users for your project being mostly students, but also the library staff, teachers, etc.) Like, if I was having a friend over for dinner, I could guess what I thought they'd want to eat, and spend lots of time/energy cooking it, and find out the hate that food--or, I could ask them, and do my shopping/cooking with that in mind.

If one of your goals is to promote usage of the library, you could try asking other students how they use the library, or why they don't use it. Random hypothetical reasons could be:
- they hate books, libraries, school, reading, information, and puppies
- uncomfortable chairs
- they need to work on group projects but the rule in the library is no talking
- they owe a lot of fines and can't take things out
- the library isn't open during their lunch period
- they don't know where things are
- janitor is keeping extra furniture in there
- all of the books are one million years old
- walls painted especially ugly color
- they are really into example graphic novels, but the library doesn't have any
- people decided that students at an alternative school didn't really want/need item that other schools have in their library (I know this sounds extreme, but I talked to a teacher the other day who works at an alternative school with no library at all!)
- etc.

Thinking about your next steps, you might find this page helpful: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/library-assistant. Also, if you don't end up doing exactly what you want right away, that's okay. I have coworkers who have worked in bookstores, as camp counselors, the military, daycare (nursery) teachers, home improvement stores, journalism, etc. Many, many jobs will help you gain skills that you can use in a library setting.

You could also look at the School Library Association: https://www.sla.org.uk/ to learn more about their work and the role/function of school libraries in the UK. Good luck!

Thanks so much everyone :) I didn't think anyone would respond but this has been really helpful ❤️

>2 MarthaJeanne: yes thanks! i'll try that. my grasp of the alphabet has improved so much since reshelving. We have this daily cleaning time at school, and whenever I reshelve I notice how so many sections are out of order :/ but they're never seems to be enough time to fix it all. I'll do what you suggested though, that seems useful, especially for people trying to find books

>4 catscoffeecats: I know right? As a chronic bookworm I'm really into libraries and reading but a lot of the students aren't too interested in that, which is totally fine. Lots of people use the library computers, maybe too many because when I sent everyone a survey about the library there were multiple people saying that the computer room gets too stinky, so now I'll get some air freshener and put up some signs to keep the window open.
The alternative school without a library is so sad. Didn't someone say that libraries are the hearts of schools?
Thanks for the reply, it's really helpful and reassuring, especially that it's okay if I cant work as a librarian right away. To be honest, I'm still kind of worried that if I don't have the right exams no one will hire me, but I'm just trying to get lots of experience to make up for the lack of A-levels. But, gosh, from what I've heard of the whole situation in the US being a librarian must be difficult right now. I hope it gets better. Thanks again :)