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The Important Emotional Labor of Librarians Most People Never Think About

Oleg Kagan
Oct 26, 2017 · 4 min read

For librarians, as with many other professions, “Other duties as assigned” is code for tasks that are distasteful, off-kilter, or just plain gross.

I’ll be blunt: Almost every librarian I know has a story or three about retrieving something odd (think half-eaten food, cigarettes, live animals) from the book drop, cleaning up feces or other…