Thursday, May 31, 2012

Once upon a time....


Once upon a time there was a little girl who had a number of really great friends at school but would often be pursued by bullies. This resulted in the little girl seeking refuge in the library and escaping the bullies through reading books.

You see reading books meant the little girl could be anyone of the many characters held within the pages of a book. Mostly she liked to be characters in far off lands that were strong and brave, and who would never be bothered by silly ol' bullies. She would spend many a lunch time in the library visiting different worlds.

After some time the librarian asked the little girl if she would like to help them in the library by stamping and gluing a due date slip in the front cover of the new books. The little girl felt very special to be needed by the librarian to do such an important job. It also meant she got to see what happened in the secret room that no other students were allowed to go in.

While stamping and gluing the little girl would often sneak a peek inside the new books and read a few pages. One day she felt brave enough to ask the librarian if she could borrow the new books she liked. Of course, the librarian agreed and the little girl felt even more special because she got to read the books before any other student.

Slowly the little girls' role in the library began to evolve to serving students at the desk by stamping their books with the due date, shelving the books that had been returned and as she got older she even got to help sort the card catalogue. She also made some new friends in the library with the other students who had also sought refuge in the library at lunch time and joined her in becoming library monitors!!

Unfortunately, when the little girl became a bit bigger and moved on into high school, the bullies followed her. You see she was a little bit chubby, didn't really like sport much (except for t-ball and softball), and she did well in her studies. I suppose that combination made a few people find reason to tease her.

Thankfully, the high school library was open at lunch time so her escapism continued. And much to her pleasure, the high school librarian, upon discovering her experience in readying new books for the shelves, asked if she would like to help him out too - in exchange for reading the new books first, of course!!

So her love of libraries continued and her experience working in libraries broadened. When it was time to choose what to do for work experience, of course the not so little anymore girl chose to work in libraries. You see she had also been lucky enough to have a father who took her to their local public library regularly, so she was keen to investigate how the secret back room of the public library worked.

Work experience at the public library was a little scarier. You see the not so little girl was more comfortable working in the secret back room because the bullying had made her quite shy. But she tried her best and took in all aspects of library work.

By the time the not so little girl was due to finish high school she had to make another decision. What was she going to do for study after high school? A lot of her teachers wanted her to do a degree in science or geography - because she had shown promise in those areas. But the not so little girl could not imagine enjoying a job working in those areas and did not really want to build up a HECS debt. So she found a TAFE course for a library technician and hoped that her marks would be good enough to get her into the course.

Well, I'm sure you have worked out that her marks were good enough. After high school, the not so little girl did a two year TAFE course to become a library technician. In her course she found some like minded souls who had also sought refuge in books and libraries throughout their primary and high school years. And she enjoyed devouring the content of the course so much that it wasn't even a chore.

Through her work experience during the TAFE course she learned that in order to work in libraries you had to enjoy people as well as books, so slowly her shyness receded and she became braver at helping people who came into the library.

Of course, this is not where the story ends.....

I'll see where blog every day of June takes me but more of the little girls’ story may emerge over the next month!!

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