to think a school librarian should have heard of Wolf Hall and actually read books?

I think declining newspaper circulation would disagree with you there. Most people get there news from the internet. I follow politics and current affairs.

Most of us do

Same as this. I get through a book a week on average, more before I had DC, and I've kind of vaguely heard of the TV series, but know nothing about it and didn't know if was a book.

I read masses of history, but the bulk of it is non-fiction, in fact the bulk of everything I read these days is non-fiction.

Magnastorm some of the best library staff I have worked with have zero library qualifications. Whilst I'd always encourage staff to do a masters to improve their career prospects, there is no doubting that most skills can be learnt doing the job for many roles. Because I studied before the job was so techy, everything I do I learnt to do later. Yes, I've done courses in this and that. We make skill up available to our staff and I'm grateful for the resources to do so.

Who reads newspapers today.

Tv, I watch Strictly, the occasional news programme, or if I happen to notice anything musical or dance is on. I rarely put the TV on. I do go to the cinema.

the last thing I saw at the theatre was Hadestown.

And I don't. The only series I'm keeping up with is Strike, because I'm looking forward to the next installment. 😊 I love reading, but a lot of what I read is old books that have been out for years.

(Both my parents are retired librarians though, I shall have to ask them if they've heard of it!)

I suspect she is a receptionist or dinner lady who’s upped her hours by managing the library as well.
It’s a pity that the school didn’t go for something interested in reading but maybe no one was available for this amount of hours and money.
And yes, it feels wrong. I’m not a big reader, English is my second language and I’ve heard about Wolf Hall. However we don’t know her duites it might be just open the door, do notes and close the door.

If you see some of the shit that parents are counting for World Book Day, it’s hardly surprising that school librarians don’t read. The bar is so awfully low.

I would consider myself a reader, and I'd not heard of it. Its not the sort of genre I would choose to read though, and I don't have a career in fiction books so tend not to pay a lot of interest to 'the latest news' about books, which ones win prizes etc.

Just be glad your school still has a library.

And you never read a newspaper or watched TV over that 17 year period?

All teachers should read books and be able to recommend one to a child

I’m really not sure I would have wanted book recommendations from my maths teacher

You should've said 'Well, they were all out of prussic acid, so I borrowed this instead..'

No, that period of time was when I had young children so we were unable to go to the theatre. I went a lot pre-2001 and apart from children friendly shows and musical only really started to take an interest again around 2016/2017 ish. And 2021 was a bit of a shit show.

The latest things I have seen are things at the National. Dear England and Small Island for example.

It won.the booker and was turned into a TV show. Any librarian should have at least vaguely heard of it!

But "doesn't read books" is the far more worrying part.

I'm not sure whether a librarian should have read Wolf Hall or not but when I was doing a gay and lesbian literature module at university I borrowed Hanif Kureishi's My Beautiful Laundrette and the librarian (at an RG Uni) said 'I don't know why on earth you would want to read anything like that young lady'.

So you'll have heard of the 2013-14 RSC dramatisations of Wolf Hall and its sequel Bring Up the Bodies, their high-profile transfer from Stratford to the West End where they won several Olivier and Evening Standard Theatre awards, and in 2015 on to Broadway, where they were nominated for eight Tonys. And the concluding part of the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, which played in the West End in 2021.

YANBU

All teachers should read books and be able to recommend one to a child. And especially anyone with a job function working in a school library.

This shouldn’t be a controversial statement but I expect some posters reply and say teachers should not be readers of books, and that it’s not necessary to do the job. Reading Facebook and mumsnet and perhaps a teaching website is all they need. Which will be depressing!

@BishyBarnyBee
Was thinking the same, if I told you a tiger ate my dog, would you start a thread warning people off the dangers?

🤦🏻‍♀️

It’s unreasonable to expect a librarian to have heard of the Booker prize winner which has been turned into a massive TV show?

YABU if it's not required in order to apply for the job.

You gotta do what you gotta do to pay the bills!

i am an avid reader of many different genres and have never ever read a Booker book

And are you a librarian?

Phew! You can’t tell on here sometimes 🤣🤣🤣