Week In An Unfamiliar Environment

My experience in the library has been truly educative and life changing.

This is mainly because I discovered a new place where things are completely different from what I'm used to in my everyday life. From now on the library will no more be "that one silence place where to borrow books" but it will turn to be “that place that offers many opportunities to different people without making preferences”. I understood that the library is not only a place where to get books, read, or study in a quite place. It also is a place where to meet new people, make new friends and learn many new abilities. The range of people coming to this place is very large, it spaces from little kids coming for small little books, to adults asking for books or news papers, and to students coming for lessons (e.g. languages, maths, physics etc…). It's very nice how you can quickly build new relationships that can be very strong.

Again, as many of the other activities I have been doing this year, there was a lot of teamwork involved during this experience. I definitely felt this week as a first experience in the working environment where I had to cooperate with my colleagues to complete each task or duty due by the end of the day in the most efficient way. This experience helped me improve my punctuality in meeting dead lines.

Communication, cooperation, organization surely were the three main words I would choose to describe this week. One of the tasks I had to complete was to organize the requests for different books coming from different cities and then make sure that the actual book would reach the right library. This involved a good communication from me to other libraries. Then the opposite was to be fulfilled; so the other library had to clearly communicate to me who the book they were sending was supposed to go to. I had to organize these books and make sure they were delivered to the right person in the shortest period of time. To do so I had to send emails, texts and call people on their home phones to inform them that their book was "waiting" for them in the library hall and they were free to come and take it.

Talking on the phone is not one of my strongest areas as I hate calling people I do not know and especially I fell uncomfortable if someone is around and can here anything that I say. I feel judged for such simple things, but still I do not like to talk on the phone in public. Here it was one of the tasks that I had to complete therefore I had to overcome this weakness of mine and now I am really glad I had to do it. 

Furthermore I had to repair books that were falling apart and I had to try putting the pages back together so that people would be able to read them again. It was a tiring job but in the end it was very nice to know that a large group of books was not to be thrown away but could have been reused. It really was a creative but challenging task that involved my "arts skills" and my patience skills. I had to do this as the library does not have much money left to spend on new books so it is very important to save what it already has now.

Some other times I had to reorganize shelves of book that where no more in alphabetical order, but when I think of my entire experience; when I look at the whole picture I really have to say this was not only related to “books management”. Here the library is not only a place where you can find a quiet place to study, it also is a place where people that have health problems (e.g. disabilities to move or some light mental disorders) have the chance to find a decent job that they can pursue almost like any other employment. I believe it really is a nice way for them to prove themselves.

This means that I also had to spend some time with them when working together. It was a challenge to understand how to talk to them, what to say in which way and at which moment. I thought it would have been impossible at the beginning but after a while things changed. I really feel like this experience has been mind blowing and very important for my education and growth both as a student and as a person. I definitely got to know new things about people, relationships and behaviors.

Some of the activities I have listed above were very tiring and boring, but with perseverance and willingness to do work I did accomplish my work ration for the day. I have been going there for the entire week respecting the times and being punctual at the working place everyday. It did take me quite a bit of an effort but I am glad I did it in the end. 

Another very important thing is the relationship I had with my colleagues, I have to say that I got to taste a bit of the working environment where there are people you really like spending your time with and other that you do not. Obviously you need to learn how to cope with these little issues and make yours and others’ working life as southing as possible. Basically: do not create problems.

The best moment of the day I believe being the morning coffee break with the staff and the worst were those “dead moments” when no one was there and there was not much to do.

The library will definitely look different from how I was used to seeing it before, and especially as I have come to know many of its different aspects from much closer.

I was very proud of this experience as I have planned and chose it all by myself from finding the place where to carry the activity in, to sending application letters to the people in charge of it. I also had to take an interview so that the boss could have decided if I was a suitable candidate for the job.