Editorial-Juggling Hats

Summertime and the livin' is easy—except for children's librarians.

In "Make Your Point ", Carol Edwards's frustration resonates loudly and clearly with every single children's librarian. Her opinion piece, "Her Name Is 'Jo,'" brought to mind a cartoon where a job applicant is sitting across a desk from an interviewer who says, "I thought the ability to wear many hats was just a figure of speech." And the drawing shows the job seeker with a number of chapeaux stacked on top of her head.

That's the glass jar that children's librarians are in—trapped by directors' expectations and the inherent inability to say "NO" because they are professionally conscientious about providing top-notch children's services.

Children's librarians can't take vacations in the summer because it's their busiest time of year. "Gotta have a clever theme for the summer reading program; gotta push the enrollment numbers higher than last year; gotta keep the kids reading with programs and incentives; gotta march in the annual parade dressed in book costumes; gotta man the booth at the local fair." Aaah, but all in all, those numbers look great when the director presents the budget to the city council.

Children's librarians are exploited. In addition to the responsibilities listed in their job descriptions, such as collection development, programs for toddlers to teens, outreach to agencies and schools, helping staff the adult and reference desks—add: computer cop, child psychologist, AV technician, diplomat, politician, conciliator with parents and teachers, social services worker, and party planner. Here are the renaissance librarians of the profession.

It's no wonder there's a shortage of children's librarians. Who wants to juggle all those hats?

Perhaps if the salaries for children's librarians matched the expectations, three things might happen: the shortage would ebb, administrators could hire capable staff, and children's librarians would be compensated for all of the skills and ingenuity necessary to do their jobs well; $70,000 would do for starters. Translate that into children's lit lingo, and we can call it Caps for Sale.