I work in an academic and public library.
They are remarkably the same and different simultaneously.
It may be that I am a teen librarian at the branch and therefore I am around almost college students, or it could be because librarianship as a part-timer or adjunct is so much more than working the ref desk answering questions.
Information literacy is always on the minds of librarians and it is cool to see ways that it is being introduced, taught, and reconfigured.
It seems that IL is the big top and inside are all the other acts that include but are not limited to digital skills, researching techniques, identifying fake news, and I could go on and on and on.
Wandering around the public library sphere I hear familiar things about too much programming, not enough collection development, magazines (to be or not to be), young people don't want to use the library, and I could go on and on and on. Again.
So I ask myself do I have a different approach to how I spend my time in an academic library? In a public library?
The answer is yes and no.
The reference desk is way more busy at the public library. Hands down. If I am scheduled at the desk for a good portion of my shift I will make lofty goals to work on projects and never get anything done.
I also find it interesting the vast difference of training that happens at each place I work.
What is and is not something that is covered varies and the mission statement is presented at some and not at others.
Not that I think all libraries should have the same training and that sort of thing, but it is interesting to see what is addressed to new hires. I work at a place that I am still unclear how to fill out my time sheet, while there is another place where I had an entire training on it.
Libraries are weird.
