@corsent As someone who often finds themself in a similar place professionally, I hear you, I see you and AAAHHHHH🤦‍♀️.

@becky_fast I’m a “back of the house” librarian, and so I don’t deal w/ the demands of public-facing work that so often leads to disillusionment & burnout. But I hear & see enough to feel immediately protective of my coworkers’ job boundaries when people talk of expanding library services.

@corsent I can’t find the OP that inspired all this Discourse from “should libraries have gyms” to “are libraries dens of CSA” and I’m fascinated. But are you against leaving kids at libraries at all or against librarians being conscripted into entertaining and actively caring for them?

@PetticoatShrink Definitely not against children unattended in the library—at a certain minimum age!

@corsent While they should pay librarians well, I don't think that they should have to take care of other people's kids. Even if sometimes that happens. That shouldn't be in their job description. There should be dedicated staff for that, that are trained for that.

@corsent It’s a good time for some “yes…AND …” energy, I think. What are the best examples of spaces that serve kids well in libraries, as libraries? (I would say Medford’s new library kicks it out of the park w/no playground) & what kind of spaces are out there in the world that work?

@corsent Care work is not my job.

@corsent What if we crossed librarianship with deep sea fishing? That might get some people excited!

@corsent i would like to see the librarians take that up with their administrators & library board rather than piling on one patron who was just daydreaming. i've seen librarians call her entitled, a bad mother, a bad person, even compare her to the alt right. she's not a punching bag

@corsent And honestly, they did not apply to work at Six Flags.

@corsent And then suddenly, "all librarians actually hate children and moms"

@corsent I'm a teacher, so I know how it is. I see how hard the librarians at the libraries I frequent work, but they don't get nearly as much recognition as we do as teachers. Librarians deserve more

@corsent I still love librarians I will also listen when you say you have enough on your plate at work and you don't need to add things that other departments are already working on because you are trying to handle the things you have. THANK YOU

@corsent I'm guessing a Venn diagram of people demanding all this extra shit from libraries and people who would would fight tooth and nail against any tax increase necessary to make it happen would be basically a circle.

@corsent "But look how much other countries love kids!" (Uttered by some parent who wants to dump their kid at the library trampoline park on Sunday evening instead of, you know, parenting...)

@corsent See also, every other job that's stereotyped as "female."

@corsent That’s not what anybody was asking for

@corsent Americans want to be royalty and have servants. Once you see it, you can't stop seeing it.

@corsent Same with teachers. Teachers were heroes during Covid lockdown and online instruction. Now there is even less respect than pre-Covid.

@corsent Just a matter of time before librarians are required to carry guns, because library security will be added to their duties.