City of La Grande

Catalog Librarian

January 1999 • La Grande, OR

What I liked

I like working in public libraries for the opportunity to provide literacy and information services to the public, as well as the interactions you get with the diverse members of your community. I also appreciate the great benefits that most public organizations offer, as compared to many of the private organizations.

What I wish was different

During the time I have been an employee, the library changed managers. The transition from one manager to another is a difficult one, and I wish that the employees here had been more open and receptive to the changes made by the new director, as it would have made the first year or so of the new director's tenure significantly more pleasant, as well as making it better in general for all the employees.

Advice

Budgets are always a concern in public libraries...are you going to be fully funded this year, or expanded, or will your budget be cut a little. Learn to do things that can cut costs and still provide the same excellent services, such as programming that saves money, such as book art; this very popular program only requires glue and scissors, because all the remainder of the supplies are the library's discarded books! We cut and shape the book discards into fantastic objects, and routinely get full house attendance numbers for the program!

Be the first to mark this as helpful