I’m asking librarians to share their thoughts on the positive side of the profession, by asking:
What is your favourite thing about being a librarian?
Early Career Librarians
“My favourite thing about being a librarian is the variety of work open to us: from teaching and research to cataloguing, systems, and being involved in all aspects of the information life-cycle – you’re really only limited by time and energy. I think being a librarian is more of a mindset than a distinct set of duties and responsibilities. That mindset revolves around increasing access to and enhancing the discoverability of information, which can have really life-changing effects for our patrons and the communities we serve.” – Genevieve Larkin, Assistant Librarian, Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, Ireland.
Repository Managers/Librarians
“I think my favourite thing about being a librarian, in particular an Open Access repository librarian, is being right at the forefront of new knowledge. There is no other place that a person can be closer to such a breadth of knowledge creation. Sometimes we see the papers at the very same time or even before the publishers do. Since we’re not in it for profit, it becomes more a duty of care. And the best part about that is collaborating with the researchers themselves on what is most precious to them, their own research, so that as many people who want to read what they write can do so. There is little more satisfying to me than having personal contact with the people who not only have, but are creating this knowledge.- Joseph Green, Research Repository Librarian, University College Dublin, Ireland.
The Invisible Librarian 