the everyday and work towards a better tomorrow. This was hammered home to me when, between finishing school and starting university, I had to perform nine months of national service in my home country of Austria. It is since I finished these back in 2015 that I have been deeply committed to becoming a librarian.


I applied for a role that saw me work- ing with homeless people and ended up being assigned to a role at a half-way house for adult men. I had learned from casual conversation with the guests that many were passionate readers but felt uncomfortable signing up for a public library since it asked them to give an address. The ‘library’ in the half-way house however was not much more than an unattractive collection of dusty shelves crammed (it appeared) randomly into the corner of the common room, so when I got the opportunity to do some- thing about it, I jumped on it.


Hive of activity


The shelves themselves were filled with a wild mix of donated books and these were more or less left to their own devices. I started by emptying all the shelves so that I could dust and rearrange them. This sudden hive of activity in the common room attracted interest, so I explained again and again what I was up to and after a short while had recruited a dedicated team of five from the residents to help me. We emptied the shelves together, sorted the different books according to genre, and placed the shelves in a more prominent position. Then we picked out the books that were no longer fit for service and re-sorted the remaining books back onto the shelves. I then created labels for each shelf and rack that made the library intuitive to use. Following that I devised a simple loan system that allowed people to take out books for two weeks at a time.


Not everyone used the service, but enough did that I could ask for reg- ular feedback and suggestions from the patrons and then do my best to source the books they wanted to see on their shelves. People there affection- ally started calling me ‘der Professor’ and it was wonderful to see what a transformative effect a well-run and user-focused library can have on a community. People that used the service now had something to talk about other than their situation and the efforts they were undertaking to resolve it and we could see them flower and gain confidence. It was nothing short of a life-changing experience. I learned that it is not just the books, but rather the in- teractions that grow out of reading that make libraries so powerful. I knew then


16 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL


My first conference badge.


that I never wanted libraries to be out of my life again.


Powerful impact


It is because of that experience that I volunteered in my departmental library at university, why I went for the post as Reading List Assistant at Bill Bryson Library whilst writing my MA dissertation and how I ended up in my current job at RBG Kew. I’ve witnessed first-hand how powerful an impact libraries and librari- ans can have if they actively go out of their way to become involved in the commu- nities they were set up to serve. I refer to this concept as being a ‘visible librarian’ and hold the strong belief that if your community has an idea but does not know which person to reach out to make that idea a reality something has gone deeply wrong. Related to that belief is the idea that it is incumbent on me to learn how to make things happen.


You will have noticed by now that I have


yet to talk about an LIS degree. That is because I have not earned one yet. Unfor- tunately, they together with general living costs are expensive, so whilst I have the grades and experience to apply for one, I have no way to pay for it at the moment. What I need is a stable library job in a supportive environment. That is my main goal at the moment. It is also where CILIP comes into the picture.


I moved to London very quickly – on Friday I handed in my Masters dissertation and on the following Monday (2 Septem- ber 2019), I was in a new job, in a new city, in a new flat with new people and an enormous challenge before me: moving to London meant I had to build myself new support structures and find access to new learning resources if I wanted it to live up to my ideals. CILIP gave me the chance to have both. I joined a week into my new job and it is through volunteering with the London member network that I was able to find my footing in this new city.


July-August 2021


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