My Summer Jobs Part Three: The Library

My third summer job was the BEST JOB EVER. I'm not kidding.

I had always shied away from applying to be a library page at the library because I was warned that the boss was kind stickler about schedules and maybe wouldn't want to work around school related things and she never hired for "just the summer". And I had a pretty full schedule of activities in high school so I said, ok, fine I won't apply there even though it sounds lots of fun and Nate's mom was an evening supervisor so I would've gotten to work with her.

Then the summer after I completed my first year at St. Kate's I was again in the boat of "gee I wish I could make some money." Nate had a great job by now as a technical assistant at St. Odilia's school, so he was busy during the days with that. I had a piddly little on-campus job as the women's choir librarian - but really that only took a day or two a week to organize and pull music for the director. And it wasn't going to extend into the summer. So I needed something. My previous summers working retail pretty much turned me off from going that direction at all.

I talked it over with Nate's mom and she said "you know, give it a try, apply for the job and maybe you can work it around your schedule this fall, the boss might feel differently about hiring a college student versus a high school student." I interviewed and really hit it off with the boss - and she actually was willing to work with me on a schedule when school started again.

The downside was, they had a month's worth of training for the pages and it didn't even start until August - so most of that summer I didn't end up working at all. But once I did start in August it was steady work five days a week for the whole month, that was a nice paycheck to start out with!

I did keep that job through the school year - and would end up keeping it for three years total. It was the best job, I enjoyed working with the patrons and helping them find materials. I didn't mind checking in books, shelving books, or shelf reading to make sure the books were all nice and where they belonged. Eventually I was given additional responsibilities like emptying the night drop on assigned Sundays or days the library was closed. I was able to work quite a bit the summer between my second and third years at St. Kate's and most weekends during the school year. The hours weren't bad, I still had free time too. I didn't work as much the summer between my third and last years at St. Kate's, but we'll talk about that in the fourth and final installment of "My Summer Jobs".

Overall though, I loved the library. I have often thought of getting a degree in library science - but even with a degree, it's a tough field to break into full time, I watched my mother-in-law go through it, it's a challenge. So for now, I'm looking fondly on those days. Best part time job ever.

Stay tuned for more adventures!