Myth: Librarians are quiet folk

My dad was the youngest of six children... six girls. He never had to watch younger siblings and entertain them. Thus, when he had to watch me and my brother, we were usually left at the library like the babysitters to entertain ourselves while he went back to work. Good thing I liked the library, I spent a lot of time there.. One summer my brother and I spent practically every single day at the library. My brother was in middle school and many of his friends were serving as volunteers in the library. We helped them shelve books. I liked to pick up lost books and help them find their way home. I probably read at least half the picture books in the children's section (it wasn't THAT big). This also helped us have high book counts for the summer reading program. I liked seeing my name on the strings of colorful construction paper.

At some point I told my brother I wanted to be a librarian.
His response was something along the lines of

"You can't be a librarian! You're too loud!"

At some point I must have run out of Brian Jacques books to read and paid more attention to studying and other things rather than hiding in my closet to read and raiding the school library every other day.

But I always thought it would be fun to talk about the adventures and mischief of characters in children books and recommend more titles to another greedy pebble of a kid trying to carry a boulder-size stack of  books. I remember thinking it was such an accomplishment reading Dr. Doolittle in 3/4th grade all on my own. It seemed like such a BIG book at the time. I don't remember much about the content of the book anymore. But I do remember the bright pink cover and picking the fattest book on the shelf of my school library and being completely lost in his world.  There is something magical about books. The library is just a portal.

Myth: Librarians are quiet and reserved.

Tonight I went to hear a panel of librarians discuss their profession.
What a chatty bunch. Most of them didn't even need the microphone. Each passionate about shepherding others towards desired information with a clear love for their profession. Clearly from their plethora of things to say and the volume of their voices.

Myth Busted.