Asperger librarian?

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I was thinking of a librarian degree. Is this work too social for an aspie? It's a quiet environment but contains quite a lot of customer service. I'm high functioning but still, could a librarian career have potential for too much stress due to all the interaction?

Libraries are about as quiet as Wal-Mart.

My librarian has to do may different things. Make and run events for adults and children. Deal with the public, which is everything from the homeless guy peering in the reference section to the psycho mom with the 3 kids ripping apart the children's section. My cousin got her MLS, and lasted about 15 years. Budget cuts and having to do everything else (catering to the public) did her in. You are trapped at a desk for 8 hours a day, and can't escape. The volunteers did all the bookshelving stuff, so no moment to hid out.

The minute you hack someone off, they run to your supervisor. All about customer service.

This is a public library. There are very few public school librarians any more, and you need to have teaching credentials for that job. Don't know about the private sector.

I think working the drive thru at Tac Bell would be easier...lol..

There are many areas of librarianship that have minimal contact with the public. You could be an archivist, a bibliographer, a cataloger, or a myriad of other positions where you'll only see a few librarian coworkers each day. Those people that work the circulation desk at the public library are usually just students or paraprofessionals, not librarians.

Here's what the job market for librarians looks like right now on the national level: http://joblist.ala.org/modules/jobseeke ... ch=showall

I see quite a few choice things there that don't involve "customer service": copyright librarian, metadata curator, digital resources archivist, etc., etc.

I seriously considered it as a career goal, but even on medication I have the worst time following the dewey decimal.

I am a librarian, and in Canada, and in a lot of places, with your MLS, you have to be a manager or supervisor, or you work on the front desk if you want to get paid decently. Jobs are scarce.

It is not a job for introverts. You have to love people. That being said, I am an introvert and have come to love the library world. I WANTED to do well and worker really really hard to do well.

I am not stuck at a desk all day. But, there is definitely a high workload.

Tina

I have my MLS and was Head of Reference at a major public library for 13 years and a cataloger for several years prior. I won't go deeply into my story again here, though you will find it if you search my posts, but I was terminated in September. The circumstances are complex but my Asperger's Disorder did have some relation to what happened and events that led up to it. I had obtained my offical diagnosis and made the city aware of it prior to my termination. As an EEOC case would be difficult to win, my lawyer and I having been trying to negotiate a disabilty retirement from the city, which I may possibly attain this week.

Most library jobs require contact with the public and almost all professional-level positions will require managing employees. Things you will run into that will strain your abilities in social interaction will be dealing with patrons who are often more mentally off-kilter than yourself, jealous and backstabbing coworkers who lack the MLS, supervisors who do not not understand autism and don't care to be educated about it, and easily miffed employees who misinterpret and report every little word or gesture above your head. All of those factors played into my situation. If you are still interested in library work, I would recommend going into technical services work such as cataloging or collection development. These cut down or eliminate your interaction with the public and require an attention to detail that comes more easily to Aspies than NTs. In hindsight, I would not have moved out of technical services. Alternatively, if you have a computer science background, you might consider becoming a systems librarian. One person suggested becoming an archivist. Levels of public contact vary from institution to institution and position to position in that job, but it generally requires a master's in a history area and some additional coursework beyond or instead of the MLS. Working in an academic institution, where you find original cataloging and a higher concentration of other technical services jobs than are available in public libraries also usually require a an additional subject master's and may require teaching duties if tenure-track.

I'm a librarian from Denmark and I was unemployed for more than two years. I got a job one year ago, with some help from a Danish company called Specialisterne. They helped me to find a job that mixes IT and library science.

I'm working at a large pharmaceutical company in Denmark. I do some publishing, some archive-work, and some tedious office tasks. It's much better than working at an actual library.
Try applying for jobs in the so-called Regulatory Affairs. It is mostly administrative work, sitting in a quiet office and doing tasks all day. Sometimes we go to meeting, but I am not required to say anything.
In Regulatory Affairs, there are A LOT of documentation, and it helps if you have a library degree.

Public libraries are great places to work, but you have to like people, and be a very calm person at all times.

I don't regret my library education, but it is very, very difficult to keep a steady job, and you have to be good at other things: communication, IT and talking to people.
You should also be good at reading and understanding texts that doesn't interest you. Not just books about your special interest, but real texts for real people: The "grey literature" than flows around in information-heavy companies like a pharmaceutical company or any other large company.

I think the librarian profession were more aspie-friendly some years ago. Or maybe it's just me.
Good luck applying for library jobs. Remember that you don't have to apply for jobs in libraries. You can take your knowledge anywhere. Just make sure that there are a lot of academics in the job, who are too busy working to actually keep track of their own documents.

I feel so lucky that my manager encourages me to do programs for kids who are autistic or who have Asperger's.

Tina

How does someone get referred to Specialisterne? Do you call them, or do you have someone at your local jobcenter refer you, or did your doctor have to refer you?

Now I can use my MLS for volunteering work but nobody wants to pay me for my work. So now I'm saddled with all the student loans and no work in sight.....

I just thought I would put my experiences out there in case they help anyone.

So if you enjoy the field make sure you find a library or group that will work with you as you get your degree or even pay for it.

I'm a cataloging fiend one director said he had never seen anyone work faster or more accurately. But there are no job openings around my area and I need to live with a support system (so no moving). Being out of work for 4 years has nearly broken me as a human. It sucks.

In April there is a disability job fair that I'm going to maybe that will help. But who knows?

Where do you live?

My job center helped me, and paid for an internship. That was all. The Danish welfare system is a lot better than in the rest of the world.

Are you from Denmark?

I have worked in a library in Cleveland for 30+ years. My time working with the public was hard, but it forced me to grow in my social skills and coping mechanisms. My department at its height averaged 45-60 patron interactions per day. I came home tired and ready to cry several times a week. My boss was not helpful nor were most but not all of my co-workers. A saving grace in the job was that I loved hunting down the answers to questions. I loved to learn. I became good at finding answers to business and economic related questions. That ability get the answer forced my boss to give me passing evaluations. Another saving grace was that I managed not to alienate the co=workers who were my friends and I was honest and frank about my limits. When my co=workers got promoted over me I congratulated them and made sure I was their chief cheer leader. I wasn't a toady and did not kiss butt, but I was a sincere friend and a good loser. That got me friends who could protect me when I screwed up.My friends made the difference between being transferred over being fired.

That day did come after I yelled at at a patron, (I was on over load and should not have come in on that day. You must know when to not come in to work.) I put my co-worker in the impossible situation of firing me or saving me. She gave me the option taking disability or being transferred . I chose transfer. I used my last favor and she sent me to Tech Services with the understanding survive there or be fired. After a very hard and steep learning curve after which I still did not become a good cataloger I got off probation and secured a full time position in tech services. God was kind I made some friends I got skilled in serials cataloging and got promoted to Senior Cataloger. The pressure from that promotion caused another break down. This time my supervisor told me to apply for Family and Medical Leave Act and see a shrink. I did. My shrink diagnosed me as an Asperger syndrome person. All up to this point in my life I just thought I was depressed or some kind of funny looking kid. I was never good at girl guy relationships. God was kind to give me friends who were loyal and protective of me. Despite some failures as a Senior Cataloger my boss bass allowed me to work and grow as a professional.

Based on my experience libraries are a good job for those of us with Asperger syndrome. You need to make friends work hard, and be prepared to put up with hardship. Faith in God doesn't hurt either. Volunteer at a library you want to work at as means of getting visibility for future interviews. This may not be possible if the library is unionized. Once you are in a paid position realize you will be teased you will not understand everything socially that's going on. you will need to accept this and try to ignore minor stuff. You can't run to your supervisor for every insult. Pick out whats major. When in doubt wait until you can ask your shrink. Make use of FMLA. if you follow these suggestions you stand a good chance of having long career in libraries.

Really? The way you described your experience — having breakdowns over stress, being faced with losing your job, having people promoted over you — made it sound rather bad.

I think my illness created some of the outbursts. But given other kinds of jobs out there libraries are the most gentle. The business world is not quite as forgiving as the library world.

I was thinking of being a librarian assistant. You just need a high school diploma and on the job training mix plus you get paid $12.76-$13.09 per hour