Dipping into inkwells, reaching for starlight

The reality is that most of our understandings of history revolve around what men were doing. But by paying attention to the other half of humanity our understanding of history can be radically altered.

For example, with Jewish emigration out of the Third Reich it is just kind of assumed that it was a decision made by a man, and the rest of his family just followed him out of danger. But that is completely inaccurate. Women, constrained to the private social sphere to varying extents, were the first to notice the rise in social anti-Semitism in the beginning of Hitler’s rule. They were the ones to notice their friends pulling away and their social networks coming apart. They were the first to sense the danger.

German Jewish men tended to work in industries which were historically heavily Jewish, thus keeping them from directly experiencing this “social death.” These women would warn their husbands and urge them to begin the emigration process, and often their husbands would overlook or undervalue their concerns (“you’re just being hysterical” etc). After the Nuremberg Laws were passed, and after even more so after Kristallnacht, it fell to women to free their husbands from concentration camps, to run businesses, and to wade through the emigration process.

The fact that the Nazis initially focused their efforts on Jewish men meant that it fell to Jewish women to take charge of the family and plan their escape. In one case, a woman had her husband freed from a camp (to do so, she had to present emigration papers which were not easy to procure), and casually informed him that she had arranged their transport to Shanghai. Her husband—so traumatized from the camp—made no argument. Just by looking at what women were doing, our understanding of this era of Jewish history is changed.

I have read an article arguing that the Renaissance only existed for men, and that women did not undergo this cultural change. The writings of female loyalists in the American Revolutionary period add much needed nuance to our understanding of this period. The character of Jewish liberalism in the first half of the twentieth century is a direct result of the education and socialization of Jewish women. I can give you more examples, but I think you get the point.

So, you wanna understand history? Then you gotta remember the ladies (and not just the privileged ones).

There was one woman who begged her husband for months to leave Germany. When he refused to listen to her, she refused to get into bed with him at night, instead kneeling down in front of him and begging him to listen to her, or if he wouldn’t listen to her, to at least tell her who he would listen to. He gave her the name of a close, trusted male friend. She went and found that friend, convinced him of the need to get the hell out of Europe, and then brought him home. Thankfully, her husband finally saw sense and moved their family to Palestine.

Another woman had a bit more control over her own situation (she was a lawyer). She had read Mein Kampf  when it was first published and saw the writing on the wall. She asked her husband to leave Europe, but he didn’t want to leave his (very good) job and told her that he had faith in his countrymen not to allow an evil man to have his way. She sent their children to a boarding school in England, but stayed in Germany by her husband’s side. Once it was clear that if they stayed in Germany they were going to die, he fled to France but was quickly captured and killed. His wife, however, joined the French Resistance and was active for over a year before being captured and sent to Auschwitz.

(This is probably my favorite of these stories) The third story is about a young woman who saved her fiance and his father after Kristallnacht. She was at home when the soldiers came, but her fiance was working late in his shop. Worried for him, she snuck out (in the middle of all the chaos) to make sure he was alright. She found him cowering (quite understandably) in the back of his shop and then dragged him out, hoping to escape the violence. Unfortunately, they were stopped and he, along with hundreds of other men, was taken to a concentration camp. She was eventually told that she would have to go to the camp in person to free him, and so she did. Unfortunately, the only way she could get there was on a bus that was filled with SS men; she spent the entire trip smiling and flirting with them so that they would never suspect that she wasn’t supposed to be there. When she got to the camp, she convinced whoever was in charge to release her fiance. She then took him to another camp and managed to get her father-in-law to be released. Her father-in-law was a rabbi, so she grabbed a couple or witnesses and made him perform their marriage ceremony right then and there so that it would be easier for her to get her now-husband out of the country, which she did withing a few months. This woman was so bad ass that not only was her story passed around resistance circles, even the SS men told it to each other and honoured her courage. 

The moral of these stories is that men tend to trust their governments to take care of them because they always have; women know that our governments will screw us over because they always have. 

i appreciate it so much, thank you!

Note: This response is from a USA perspective.

Well, first of all, don't worry about a major in library science. Undergrad LIS majors are very rare and entirely worthless. Most library jobs require a Masters degree in LIS (MLIS or equivalent) and any that don't don't specify a degree. A biology undergraduate degree is more of an asset because most librarians have humanities degrees; a science background will give you an edge when competing for jobs such as medical librarian or science liaison (although they'll often want a second masters in the science field). I knew a guy at a historical society with a science degree and employers were constantly trying to poach him.

I on the other hand majored in English like a chump. I regret this now mostly because why waste 4 years repeating something you're already pretty good at instead of learning something new, but they had a library internship for English majors that led me here, so I can't complain too much. That was the first time I'd really thought about librarianship as a field, and I was intrigued. I interned at an archive and a museum and went on to get my MLIS. Now I work at a community college. I enjoy getting to do a bit of everything since we're a small unspecialized staff, although I do miss the more complex research questions and the grandeur of a research university library.

As for finding work, I started applying 7 months before graduation and got all the way to a final 3 interview the April before graduation, but I finally secured a job in late November after I graduated. I think I applied to 15-20 jobs, made it to phone/zoom interviews for 5 and in person interviews to 4. I was focused just on academic libraries/archives in the general midwest; I might have gotten more if I'd extended my reach. There are more public libraries, after all. (K-12 school libraries are the toughest since they're rare and getting rarer; however if you want to work overseas, there are actually more at the schools for American expats and diplomats.)

A few things that can give you a leg up: Make sure you have teaching or presenting experience in some way (I taught a class in grad school and taught several workshops; I also took a pedagogy class). Keep up on relevant technology. Unfortunately (sigh) AI literacy is a big thing in libraries right now, so if you're able to speak to that in an interview that would be helpful. Then again, will that be the next big thing in five or six years once you'd theoretically be finishing a MLIS? Who knows. Take on leadership roles if possible; the goal is to have something meaningful to refer to during interviews.

Be aware that librarianship does not pay the big bucks, although academic gigs have their own perks (built in breaks, historically decent benefits although they're getting worse everywhere). I can live comfortably enough on my salary but that's because I have no dependents and don't spend money on anything but medical bills. If I had another person on my health insurance I'd probably be in the red.

I would note that your volunteer experience is probably not much like a real library job, although I can't say for sure. Personally as a college librarian I don't spend much time with books -- I'm more likely to be troubleshooting someone's tech problems or showing them databases. It's a lot of technology and a lot of people, so the shy bookworm stereotype doesn't check out. I also get to deal with all the internal and external higher ed drama, so if academic politics aren't for you, you might look at publics, but they're getting hit by state and federal governments right now, so consider the color of your state and how much you want to put up with. It's rough out there right now.

I am a library paraprofessional (no MLIS but do similar work to a librarian, and had a semester-long training required by the state).

Public library jobs are getting harder to find. I'm in a golden handcuffs position of being well paid for my profession and region, but if I went anywhere else I would be paid substantially less, enough to not be able to afford to live in this region.

Public libraries are definitely not in a great financial space right now. If they're tax funded, in some regions their budget is getting slashed. If they get funding from other sources, money is tight for everyone right now, so it's not great.

In my area we have more library professionals with MLIS degrees than available jobs (my system has one open to the public right now, and we have over 20 branches). My system is saving money by not hiring for the 50+ openings and actually just got rid of five FTEs (full time equivalent positions, which was 10 part time positions).

For a realistic idea of what I do in my work, here's some info:

I work in a large, two level urban branch.

When I am working in the adult section on the reference desk (usually the majority of my day), I spend about 80% of the time answering computer and printing questions. A lot of my other work is checking in people for study rooms. I get 1-3 "reference" (where is this book, can you recommend a book) questions a day if I'm lucky. I didn't have any on the adult desk yesterday. I am an adult "specialist" so I work the adult desk the majority of the time.

I sometimes work in the children's room, which is mostly reference and refereeing some special spaces. I love the reference part.

I am supposed to help with programming (a personal passion), but I currently have one program a month. Technically I help with a lot more but they are run by volunteers. In my system we run very few of our programs because we don't have enough staff (especially in my branch).

In addition to all of this, the main thing impacting my work is the fact that if there is an underserved population, they will be in the public library. This means I'm working with folks who have untreated mental illness (and mostly my coworkers' ableism, as 90% of the the time everything is pefectly fine), unhoused folks (again, it's my coworkers that are the problem), and anyone else the system leaves behind. It's a lot mentally, especially because we're not trained or supported in these areas. The burnout rate is high in staff. We're the last "third space" where anyone can be safe. I'm not complaining about it, I truly love it, but we don't have enough staff or general support to be able to sustain it.

Also... public libraries are really behind when it comes to disability. We do a lot, but we're shit. I'm disabled myself and a lot of the disability trainings have been outdated.

Will I get an MLIS?

If I have to move out of state, I'll consider it. I wanted to work in museum education, but couldn't afford the degree, and there are no jobs in it right now (and they would be a significant pay cut). Right now, my golden handcuffs job would only give me a pay increase that wouldn't be much of anything, not enough to pay for the degree (especially from the closest library school). I have the money now (married a tech guy), but I don't see the point because I'm passionate about *my* job, but I just don't think a library job is sustainable for *me* in the long term.

As far as your biology degree, I'm in biotechnology central in my region and the jobs aren't really there. My younger millenial generation was the first part of the great push towards STEM, and there are more people than jobs. Also you're probably going to need a Master's degree, from what I've seen. Then again, when I came out of school, that was basically what I found with every job....

I missed the 'would you recommend it' question. I personally enjoy and am fulfilled by (most parts of) my job, and I would choose it again. However I do think there are some important considerations, especially since librarianship is often romanticized by outsiders:

You're never going to make tons of money.

Libraries and education are under attack right now in the US. Do you want to be a target in the culture wars?

You may only be able to climb so high without one or possibly two masters degrees.

It is an extremely white field.

You are likely to be overworked and understaffed and expected to take on more and more responsibilities because your work is so important and you're passionate about it, aren't you? See: vocational awe.

You are going to constantly hear about how tech makes you obsolete, and while that is never going to be true, you'll have to keep up with things (continuing education is a must)

When your GF has been turned into soup and nobody believes you and now there's a bounty on your head and-

“Okay there’s gonna be three kinds of people who see this. Type 1 won’t notice anything. Type 2 will go “that’s absolutely garbage form isn’t he supposed to be good at archery” and assume I don’t know what I’m doing/didnt do my research. Type 3 will realize ITS ON FREAKING PURPOSE. ITS BAD ON PURPOSE. YES THE FORM IS GARBAGE AND WOULD RESULT IN A RELATIVELY WEAK SHOT THATS THE ENTIRE POINT. THATS THE ENTIRE POINT OKAY.”

This is what I was talking about btw

when you try to use a bow like this, you’re pulling w only arm muscles rather than both arm and shoulder/back, and you’re doing way too much work bc your elbow isn’t locked; it’s hot garbage form and doesn’t give you any worthwhile power, plus frankly your aim is gonna suck (though that doesn’t matter here :} )

I’m also gonna switch the bow type to compound because again this gets you no draw power so you frankly wouldn’t be able to pull a decent bow this far plus also it fits better :}

"They've got nobody in the Odyssey?"

"No I'm saying they don't got nobody."

"Nobody's there?"

"Nobody's not there!"

"So everyone's there?"

"Everybody but nobody!"