To be shocked the librarian was so poorly read?

[bendmeoverbackwards]

In the library recently reserving some books for dd. Librarian had not heard of A Handmaid’s Tale and did not know that As you Like It was written by Shakespeare.

These are not exactly obscure books!

AIBU?

Oh, and library assistants are not always volunteers - far from it. There seems to be a level of confusion about job roles and their required competencies, skills and qualifications amongst some on here.

Why do librarians have to have read Shakespeare or Margaret Attwood? Is it in the job description? I thought "librarianing" involved "shushing", glaring and pushing trolleys of books about

Ahem, in my 10 years of being a librarian in a university library I don't think I ever once pushed a trolley full of books? That's what the shelving assistants did 99% of the time. Neither did I ever shhhh anyone, to be honest. I still think most people think that any member of staff working in a library must therefore be a librarian. They're not. When I was working, for every qualified librarian there were probably 15 library assistants (who you would see actually working in the library. And, then there were the dozens of library assistants working, out of sight, in Acquisitions or Bibliographic Records or Collection Development. The majority of these rarely spent time within the library itself and certainly never worked on the Issue Desk or shelved books. Infact, when I worked in Acquisitions I was completely off site, in a building that was roughly a mile away from the main university library 😊

I didn't suggest that they were definitely a volunteer. They could be though.
Or they could be the most well read librarian that ever lived but had a blind spot or even a dizzy moment. They might have known bit the OPs mask might have made it difficult to hear.

Regardless. People don't deserve to be string up for not knowing the equivalent of pub quiz knowledge.

Pub quiz? That’s what you think a knowledge of literature is? Seriously?

The arbitrary nature of the literature in question in this context is absolutely at pub quiz level.

Ariel I have a literature degree, so no, I don't think literature knowledge on the whole says that.

But we're not talking about a broad variety of a wealth of literature here, we're talking about two factoids. Two factoids that may or may not be known to someone who has an interest in literature.
Knowing the names of two authors' strikes me as very pub quiz like.

I also dislike putting literature up on the pedestal of knowledge. My area is no more or less valid than knowledge in a non fiction subject. There were plenty of people on my degree who thought they were somehow better than everyone else for reading literature and not another subject.

Being able to reel off titles isn't the point of literature. It's about analysis, comprehension, persuasion and comparison. All transferable skills and much more valid than being able to name drop authors.

So if it's at pub quiz level, and actually I agree that knowing who wrote the dreaded 2 texts under discussion is pub quiz knowledge, not being "snobby" about Literature with a capital L, isn't it more in the realm of common knowledge?!

@VeryQuaintIrene
Unless you expect library assistants to score full marks in every pub quiz question that may possibly have some bearing on the holdings of their library then no.

Are you trying to shame me for not writing to essay level in accuracy?
Doing Mumsnet in Ds naptime. I don't feel like editing.
And you have posters with proper nouns in their usernames that aren't even capitalised. But I don't mention it because it's dickish and low point scoring.
MN also autocorrects it's and its just so you know.

This thread gets funnier by the page.

Who knew that the subject knowledge requirement for teaching English isn't a relevant degree across a range of areas, but whether someone knows texts/authors that frothy mumsnetters think they should?
Not only does reading classic literature make some people an authority on library staff, it makes them an expert on the requirements for English teaching too!

Who'd have thought by 30+ pages the Hyacinth Buckets of this world would be up in a frenzy, lamenting that everyone hates books, the world is full of anti-intellectuals, and people can't stand general knowledge.

It's like another world. Most people in life think 'oh OK, someone doesn't know this book... it's probably not not area of interest. I'm not going to be a sanctimonious arsehole about the fact someone knows different things to me'. On this thread there's so much pearl clutching going on as if Britain has fallen into the cultural abyss because some strangers might not know certain texts.

There's one thing this thread has shown me: it's entirely obvious why some students are arrogant enough to be snide about their peers getting questions wrong or not knowing things.They've got parents who model the same unpleasant superiority complex and need to mock others to feel clever.

@LolaSmiles it’s madness isn’t it. And still no one has explained why this author (playwright) and this text (play). I just can’t understand why this is the line for a library person and no one has explained it?

Complete madness. I would have thought that the self professed literary experts on here would have been better able to articulate the why, but sadly it doesn’t appear to extend much beyond ‘because I said so’. Which is brilliant in its absurdity

Unless you expect library assistants to score full marks in every pub quiz question that may possibly have some bearing on the holdings of their library then no.

We never expected to win against the library team in quizzes back home, so as a team...

It's a bit like when the younger members of staff snigger at the older ones for not being second natured with computers.
I have a colleague like this. I always help her become I am better with computers. It doesn't make me better. She's far more knowledgeable than I am about lots of different things. We've just had different exposure to different skills and knowledge. It makes us a good team.

Incidentally she didn't go to university. People look down on her for it even though she's easily the most qualified experience wise by far.

@EBearhug - ahh, but have they ever been asked about The Handmaid’s Tale?

Madness maybe, but I think there’s a lot of unwarranted disrespect aimed at people with the opposing view on this thread. ‘Snobs’, ‘feigned shock’ (our views aren’t genuinely held, but a smokescreen for pretentious posing), ‘self professed literary experts’ (nobody has said this, and again there’s an implication of not quite being up to the mark there) and so on. And baseless accusations like saying people aren’t grateful for volunteers and would see them strung up! Or enjoy belittling people.

Bar the odd comment (on a thread with over 800), there is no evidence for any of the above.

I find all that crazier, and, no, I don’t like being repeatedly told I’m a liar, enjoy mocking other people and am not nearly as clever as I think I am. I’ve tried to be respectful when engaging with others, but don’t see it the other way around.

It's a bit like when the younger members of staff snigger at the older ones for not being second natured with computers.
I have a colleague like this. I always help her become I am better with computers. It doesn't make me better. She's far more knowledgeable than I am about lots of different things. We've just had different exposure to different skills and knowledge. It makes us a good team.
Well said.

I don't follow many box sets or popular dramas. Thankfully none of my colleagues have ridiculed me for not knowing who a particular actor is, or having not heard of whatever boxset people are raving about. The only reason anyone would start a conversation with someone else saying "I was talking to Lola the other day and she didn't know who SoandSo was! Can you believe it. She must live under a rock to have never heard of them. I told her about the boxset but she still had no idea. How embarrassing! There's trailers on the telly but she hasn't heard of it." is if they want the other person to join in the bitching, and to pat each other on the back for knowing the right kind of telly knowledge.

Unless you expect library assistants to score full marks in every pub quiz question that may possibly have some bearing on the holdings of their library then no.

That doesn't even make sense.

And I agree with you, @YouShouldSeeMyNewHouse.

@YouShouldSeeMyNewHouse

Madness maybe, but I think there’s a lot of unwarranted disrespect aimed at people with the opposing view on this thread. ‘Snobs’, ‘feigned shock’ (our views aren’t genuinely held, but a smokescreen for pretentious posing), ‘self professed literary experts’ (nobody has said this, and again there’s an implication of not quite being up to the mark there) and so on. And baseless accusations like saying people aren’t grateful for volunteers and would see them strung up! Or enjoy belittling people.

Bar the odd comment (on a thread with over 800), there is no evidence for any of the above.

I find all that crazier, and, no, I don’t like being repeatedly told I’m a liar, enjoy mocking other people and am not nearly as clever as I think I am. I’ve tried to be respectful when engaging with others, but don’t see it the other way around.

So you’ve missed all the judgment on people who don’t know certain texts? Insults such as ‘thick as white’? The condescension? Maybe you should read the thread against

Shite, not white

Again! Ha ha, must proof read

@YouShouldSeeMyNewHouse

I'm not quite sure why you believe I implied you weren't quite up to the mark there - how odd. You're absolutely right on one thing though - we are over 800 posts in, and not one person who has sneered at/belitted/expressed shock/questioned or otherwise the skills, expertise, knowledge and so on of one random library assistant on one random issue desk has managed to articulate why they believe that these are such canonical works they should form the basis (or even part of) of every assistant's job description.

YouShouldSeeMyNewHouse
If someone genuinely has difficulty getting their head around the fact that different people might know different topics and different books then that's concerning and the sign of a very small world. For people who consider themselves rather educated, it seems a fairly odd thing to be confused by.

If someone encounters a person who doesn't know Text A and their initial response is something like "I can't believe they haven't heard of Text, surely everyone knows it" followed by going to find others (online or offline) who will join in with the 'as if they didn't know Text A, YANBU obviously they should know Text A' that is unpleasant.

The snobby attitude comes through because the line of what should be known seems to be whatever the people judging think it should be.

Yes, some posters have made judgemental comments against people they consider ignorant, but they have been in a distinct minority. Allegations of snobbery and pearl-clutching, on the other hand, have been made against a sweep of posters on here without reason.

@mamelon - don’t think it was you, but a couple of posters have now commented that people who argue along the lines that I or others have on here tend to be those who actually are rather lacking in knowledge.

It’s the broad brush insults and put-downs I’m objecting to.

I am shocked sometimes at the low standards we have for knowledge in society. If that makes me a snob, I’ll wear it. Somehow, though, I have managed never to belittle or insult anyone as a result, and as I’ve said repeatedly I judge our culture more than I’ll ever judge an individual person. ‘Shock’ wouldn’t have registered with me in this particular case, but as I’ve said before I joined the thread to comment on the tiresome snob accusations that roll in on every single thread of this type rather than to comment on this particular set of facts.

It’s the broad brush insults and put-downs I’m objecting to.

Same, but for every different reasons.