Thursday 2 February 2012

Once a librarian, always a librarian!


There's something about being a librarian – for however short a part of one's ultimate career – that sticks. Despite the fact that I was a librarian for less than a quarter of my career I still naturally think of myself as one. It is the part of me that matters. Does any other career affect one that way, I wonder? For those who have spent their life in one career it may be hard to judge. But if there are those out there who have swapped their career and yet think of themselves as still being of the shorter period one I should be interested to hear.

One of the things I love about blogland is suddenly finding out new things about one's fellow bloglings. I have, for example, often wondered about what Librarian's real name is. If it is not obvious on their blog one is loathe to ask  because some people, quite rightly, might want to hide behind a different identity. Not that I'd so a thing like that, said Scriptor! (for those who want to know mine it's plain old John or CJ if you follow GB's blog). I found out Librarians name here on Cathy's blog. Then there's the discovery that SP is the phantom knitter and managed to break her leg playing with the cat (Duh!) – your secret is well out now, SP.

Blogging and reading blogs is all such fun but I'm trying to restrict myself to a mere hour and a half a day. Otherwise I'd get nothing done except this enjoying myself and that would not be right. Would it?


Partner-who-drinks-tea and I were discussing the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel.
I wonder what exactly the difference is?” I said.
About £8,” was her prompt and witty reply.

I got a most surprising letter through the post the other day. My life insurance has suddenly jumped up £40,000 as a result of my latest review. Remind me not to hang around at the top of the stairs while Partner-who-drinks-tea is up there! (Especially as she has read that post about 'Does that sound stupid' and has therefore been reminded of my reply.)


Something I have never seen before happened in a football match on Tuesday night – Everton's contest against Manchester City – some idiot managed to hold up the game by handcuffing himself to the goalpost. The man wore a T-shirt criticising Ryanair. The airline had apparently denied his daughter a job. I wonder if it is fair to reject an applicant on the basis that your father is a nutter?? (OK I know that isn't politically correct, especially from a counsellor's husband, but how else can one describe a man who does something like that over a personal matter. A matter of great humanitarian interest might merit a major protest but hardly something like that.)

I haven't really been following the Olympic build-up but I took a look at the Olympic site today and found a little thing to amuse children. The mascots – Wenlock and Mandeville – can be dressed in a variety of ways by the visitor. Here are a couple of mine. (Yes, I know, some of us never grow up.)

On a more serious note, the main body of the London Olympics take place from 27th July to 12th August and I'm really looking forward to the Opening Ceremony. I find the parade of nations with their flags and their happy, waving athletes a wonderful mix of jingoism and international friendliness. Long may sport (and blogs) bring our nations together.

13 comments:

  1. The quote that makes up your post's headline today has been part of my "about me"-bit ever since I started my blog - and it feels the same for me; working at a library was the shortest of all my employments, with working at a publisher's and now in the point of sale hardware industry making up the biggest chunk of my working life, and yet, that time has influenced me enough to be still calling myself Librarian.
    I was surprised to read that you only found out my real name through Cathy's featuring me - your brother knew, so I must have mentioned it at some stage on my blog :-)

    Thank you for mentioning my blog and the feature here!

    As for the olympic mascots - am I the only one finding them scary with their cyclopic eye? Well, they do quite well symbolize London, as (so I was told) it is in London where the average person on their way to work gets caught on CCTV cameras the most.

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  2. Here in British Columbia we loved our Olympic experience. I wish you all the same enjoyment - not hokey at all!
    I taught for a very short time, but still think of myself as a teacher.

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  3. My immediate reaction to the mascots, Librarian, was the same and even after playing with them I'm not sure I like them very much. I'm soft enough to have preferred a cute little animal of some sort.

    (As for GB knowing your name - he knows so much I don't! He can even make hollandaise sauce successfully! How's that for a non-sequitur?)

    Ah yes, Pondside, I suspect teaching is similar in that respect.

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  4. I never have done anything else but being a librarian (well, worked at a bookshop), but I do wonder at how much it has become part of me. Most people I interact with online/offline know I am a librarian, even if it has nothing to do with what we do together, even if I have no idea what they are doing for a living.

    Comic/graphic novel: I think Partner Who Drinks Tea is right. I tend to call them all comic (although I have tagged my reviews of such stuff on my blog comics and graphic novels). Alan Moore calls his stuff comics and that's good enough for me.

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  5. How I managed to break my leg will have to remain a secret between me and the cat!

    Just too embarrassing, but it did involve chasing a piece of string across the grass...the cat that is, not me

    SP

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  6. Amen! The unity and seeing other nation's athletes without seeing their politics first is the biggest benefit of the Olympics I too love looking at the flags and the costumes the countries choose for their athletes.

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  7. Are you planning to go watch the olympic torch as it passes? It'll be in Exeter a week after we get back from our honeymoon, then Liverpool a couple of weeks later and Lewis a couple of weeks after that (dates on my calendar). I think we'll watch it if we can.

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  8. I may go to Birkenhead to watch it - the same day as Liverpool, thanks Helen. Or, if I can get Jo to take a day off, Knutsford / Runcorn the day before.

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  9. Hey!
    I think that even though I have never worked in a library, I am really a librarian at heart. (And my sister, who has NEVER liked to read books, DOES work in a library, go figure!)
    Those mascots look funny to me too, but you need to type in "Atlanta's 1996 Olympic Mascot" if you want another laugh!

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  10. I worked for a few Years in a Scientific Research outfit.
    Of all the People I worked with the Two Librarians are still the ones I hold most dear and even today, some Almost! 30 years later I often cross paths with one of them and she is still a gentle mine of information and interest and humour that one could ever enjoy the company of, don't panic she who spends her time directing children to the straight and narrow and joy of learning is usually with me when we meet

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  11. I thought of becoming a librarian back in my teens... Never did, but I still partly feel like one! Actually I was back and forth from secretary to teacher and back to secretary; no straightforward "career" at all. I also never really identified myself with any title except student - a conclusion I reached just recently when sweating over my Facebook profile!

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  12. Well I'm glad that you consider yourself a librarian because I consider myself to be the daughter or two librarians (even though both of you spent more time in other jobs)

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  13. Anyone who says that Blogland is not interesting or fascinating or is a waste of time really should have read that post and the comments. I'm not, nor have ever been, a librarian (although I was told recently by one of the librarians at my local library that I was one of only a handful of members of the public who had asked her for the Dewey classification of a subject - which I found odd) nor can I be classified amongst the serious readers I know but I have a fascination for libraries and books and have always had a great respect for librarians ever since my visits to Childwall Library ever week or so as a child.

    Does that count?

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