Justin

Oh the joys of being a STUDENT reference worker

So this is why I love my job: Every professor thinks
he's smarter than his students, and that goes for this
job too. Professors always asks for the librarians...
so I have to call them and drag them out of their
office for the patron to ask a question I could have
answered. But it's great becasue I just sit here and
read all day! Furthermore, the librarians have
instruction classes in which they "teach" the students
to use the library resources. The problem is of course
that they teach them just enough for them to believe
that they can actually do it. Library instruction
classes in general are a stupid thing to do anyhow
because they teach students in like an hour what we go
to school for six years to learn. So in reality, they
don't know how to do a good search, use the databases,
or use the library materials. So I go up to them, and
because they think they can do it themselves, they usually
say, "No, I'm doing fine". It annoys me when people think
they're smart! They think I'm dumb and can't help them, and
they think they can do it themselves, when just the
opposite is true. But that's why I love my job, because
then I just sit here and play and write eMails to people all
day.

Of course, I'm being a little sarcastic. I don't like just
sitting they池e watching everybody do something they really
cannot do that well. I have a great sense of pride when a
student leaves with the information he/she needed. But
frankly, when they walk out without asking for help, they
walk out with information they just came up with...not
necessarily what they wanted. That bothers me; that tells
me that the library isn't doing its job.