My Job

I work one day a week as an assistant librarian. In the winter months it is one-and-a-half days a week since the library is open a half day on Saturdays. I have been doing this for a year now and it is an absolutely ideal job for me.

To start with, I can walk to work since I live one street away from the library. It really takes me back to being a child to be able to walk to the library. When I was a child I used to check out a new book every day, AND try to read a book while I was there! I have always been an avid reader and I have memories of being surrounded by admiring adults as I read {well, strictly speaking word-called The Wind in the Willows when I was four. I say word-called because I duobt that I understood the makjority of what I read, but I was an excellent decoder of sounds and letters.}

This is a small library which has one full time librarian, one four-days-a-week part-time librarian, several devoted volunteers, and me who works one full day a week right now. The city I live in is a poverty pocket in the middle of a prosperous county in Vermont. We are so poor that we qualified for a $17000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for four brand new computers which I am excitedly looking forward to. We have four computers now two of which are Internet-ready, but we definitely need more. We have to limit patrons to half an hour at a time and there is always a waiting list especially in the summer when the kids are out of school.

Today was a day I worked and when I got in there was a note from my boss telling me it was time for my evaluation. Well, I KNEW I had been doing well, but nevertheless… But fear not, I got an excellent evaluation AND a minescule hourly pay raise! Fortunately I do not rely on this job to put food on the table…