Ah, so. November rolls around and I'm still without a full-time job. Two years ago, I assumed my late twenties would entail moving to a (more) spacious house in a nice bit of Yorkshire countryside, having a colony of cats, and planning my wedding to my long suffering fiancé. Well, I'm living in a flat in Yorkshire's BNP heartland, have two cats who eat more meat than I do, and the wedding date has yet to be set.
To try to combat this career malaise, I've decided to start volunteering. Mindful of my friend Lauren at Voices for the Library's advice that volunteering for public libraries doesn't do much to help their case for keeping their funding, I've devoted my time to the Feminist Archive North, and a local primary school library. I'm off to the latter tomorrow, being thrown in at the deep end with a Harry Potter-related quiz and hopefully some seven year old kids who are eager to learn. Adding that to my weekend gig almost makes me 0.75 FT!
I'm not entirely sure whether this will pay off, but I'll let the non-readers of this blog know. In any case, I'll finish with an inspiring quote that aforementioned Lauren came across and sent to me for a potential article on the gendered nature of librarianship post-20th century:
“To my thinking, a great librarian must have a clear head, a strong hand, and above all, a great heart…and I am inclined to think that most of the men who will achieve this greatness will be women.” — Melvil Dewey
