BEING A LIBRARIAN - AN INSIDE STORY
When I told my best friend that I would become a librarian, her first response was disbelief that I was about to become one of the many people who roamed the library in search of books. To many people, librarians are lifeless bespectacled entities who identify only with books and one another with a low level of tolerance for noise. However, according to many librarians, this is obviously not the case. Library duty, like many other ECAs, has its ups and downs and does attract students from all walks of life…
Each ECA has the potential to teach us different skills. Even though after joining the library, I am unable to participate in competitive events and bring name or glory to our college (the rock-climbers, for instance), there is something important that I have learnt and understood - "To Learn, To Serve" our college's motto.
Taking up a service ECA meant that I play quite an important role in contributing to a conductive studying environment. Knowing that the college needed our presence gave me a sense of recognition and worth.
Being a librarian can be quite interesting. Firstly, I came to know the general reading habits and interests of the student population. Book shelving, though tiring, is often compensated by a pleasant discovery of intriguing novels, useful texts, and so on.
As a student librarian, I faced some difficulties when students violated the library rules. At times, may of the students disregarded our advice, which eventually led to further problems. For instance, at the beginning of this year, the enthusiastic JC1s, on several occasions, left many of the library sections in disarray. The situation was so serious that teachers and responsible students alike complained about the mess and I had more work in terms of shelving. Fortunately, the situation changed for the better when the JC1s began settling down.
However, the noise level off-times remained beyond the tolerable level, especially after school and during break times. Loud and inconsiderate students who think they have the right to talk louder than the noise level of their walkmans or discmans had to be duly warned.
The library is paramount to our future. Hence, it is part of everybody's responsibility to make is a conducive learning environment for all.
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