What does a photo librarian do?

I've been working in libraries for five years now and have been haunting the local library for six times as long. I currently sit at a reference desk and answer questions. That's what librarians do. It's our fault that not many actually know what we do. We are, as a profession, marketing-averse, change-resistant, and slightly introverted, generally speaking.

One of the most common questions I get at the library, other than "Where's the bathroom?" is this: "Do you like your job?" I always say yes, because yes is always the honest answer. I love what I do. These patrons seemed absolutely stunned when I tell them that I have an advanced degree in information science.

They are just as surprised to learn that there are many specialized types of librarians. The coolest woman I've ever known was the librarian for NASA for a couple of years. I've also known librarians who were in charge of maintaining the archives for an opera.

As far as library jobs go, if you can find them, you can specialize in history, art, music, law, anthropology, and just about anything else you can think of.

"Oh that's so cool!" said a woman I spoke with this week. When I asked her what she liked to do more than anything on earth, she responded without hesitation that photography was her passion. Taking pictures, working with photos, and everything about the medium.

Even though I knew the answer, I asked her if she would be surprised to know that there are photo librarians. It's true! Photo Librarian is a bona fide job description. What they actually do will vary according to the employer, but the job of a photo librarian is pretty much like the job of other librarians: they organize information.

In their case they just spend most or all of their time organizing visual information. So who would need to employ a librarian just to organize their photos? That's what this person wanted to know.

I personally believe that this field is going to grow as businesses and organizations realize that they can't reach their maximum potential customer/patron base unless they're online. If you work in an organization--like a library--that embraces new technology slowly and reluctantly, things can pretty screwy pretty quickly if you rush to hop on a technological trend without doing your homework first.

If you're constantly trying to add images to a website, but are learning the website itself on the fly, things could get out of hand in a hurry. Maybe not, but I've seen it enough times to know it is a valid concern.

A photo librarian is someone who manages photos and images. It's that simple, although the skills the job requires are much more in-depth. I went to library school and studied a general program because I didn't know if I wanted to focus on anything--my skills aren't as transferable as a lot of library school recruiters would have you believe--but if I had gone into a photo librarian track, I would have actually left school with a body of knowledge the layman didn't possess.

That's how graduate degrees are supposed to work, right?

If you're into photography, you like libraries, and you aren't sure what to do for a career, believe me: there are more library jobs out there than you know. The more experience I get with web design, the more interested I am in specializing in photo librarianship. It's a lot of fun.

If it's not for you, you'll know very quickly. But if it is for you, the library can be the most rewarding place on earth to work for. I say this as someone who normally isn't suited for anything but being the ultimate generalist. But with my new interest in the world of photos, and after my conversation with this young woman, I am more intrigued than ever before in the world of image archival.

Does that sound cheesy? Boring? Lame? Maybe so. Even to me, a little bit. But that's me. That's why I'm a librarian! I get excited about the things few other people do.