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

[Prevalence]

was chatting to a friend - who said the school librarian where he works doesn't read books, has never heard of Wolf Hall and cannot recommend any reading books to pupils as a result ... AIBU to think this is nonsense???

I'd say most of us read but anyone considering the profession needs to realise it's techy job for a very long time. Maths skills, budgeting, IT are as useful as a degree in English. A school library will be about physical material but also online resources. Obviously, variables depend on resources up to a point.

When I say we read - I don't mean that reading the books we manage, catalogue etc. is part of the job universally. Arguably, it is in a school library. A working knowledge and some input into what goes into the collection likewise - although I'm fairly certain teachers will be doing a lot of the selection.

I am unsure if having won the Booker prize automatically turns a book into a modern classic or a household name with most of the winners being lost to the mists of time with their singular footnote in literary history being winning the Booker.
I would suggest you look at a list of Booker winners since the award's inception in 1969. I'd be surprised if most people, even avid readers, had read more than half a dozen of them or even heard of half of them.
I happen to know the names of all of the winners as I learned them for quizzing purposes but have only read about twenty-five myself, despite bing a constant reader.
I should say that I am aware that Wolf Hall is an extremely famous book, but I'm not sure its fame is entirely or even mostly predicated on its status as a Booker winner. I think that the whole trilogy is excellent.

My 22y son hasn’t read fiction for years. Hates reading. I just asked him if he had heard of Wolf Hall. He said, of course.

I think that having heard of Wolf Hall is basic general knowledge. Nothing to do even with reading!

That really really surprises me.

I'd be astonished if people hadn't heard of of Hilary Mantell, particularly after the dramatisations - at the same time, I despair of how ignorant people have become. The lack of knowledge of history and general knowledge is dreadful - no, actually, shameful.

agree. Salary earnt does not necessarily equate with education / IQ. If it did we'd all be taking our lives in our hands when we go into a hospital.

are you in the UK though?

agree, but having recently looked for something decent to borrow from the local library I have to say that the dumbing down of the offering is not confined to school libraries as per this thread.

Also, the salary is fine in academic librarianship - which is what I've always done - plus a good pension scheme. Additionally, the feeling you are actually contributing something that I'd never get if working in a financial services type environment.

Yes. Why?

Is it? It's why I'm in IT, not libraries.

On the contrary, it's incredibly ignorant to expect everyone to share the same interests and be exposed to exactly the same fleeting bits of what you personally deem essential culture as yourself.

I bet there are countless films, books, plays or albums that many would consider "essential" you have not heard of. So what?

Wolf Hall isn't a fleeting bit of culture, that's the thing. The point is, if someone hasn't heard of it they are clearly not reading newspapers which I think is proof of ignorance.

You're welcome to try me on any bit of culture considered essential and I will tell you honestly whether I've heard of it or not.

Agree cris also find it staggering someone that lives in England enjoys reading and likes history hasn’t heard of Wolf Hall and Hilary Mantel? How? She was one of our greatest contemporary writers and was often in the press and rightly so. Very sad at her early death actually she sounded like a lovely person no-one had a bad word to say about her. She couldn’t have children herself and mentored others.

The point is, if someone hasn't heard of it they are clearly not reading newspapers which I think is proof of ignorance.

Who reads newspapers these days? You don’t even see the Metro lying around on trains as much as you used to.

Online, obviously.

I do. I read The Guardian online every day, and other newspapers too for balance. Everyone should read a quality newspaper to keep abreast with what is happening in the world, including culture and the arts.

I'm a prolific reader, as is my partner. We recently did an inventory of our contents for insurance purposes and we have over 1500 physical books between us and when you add in Kindle books, it's probably around 2000 books.

I have heard of Wolf Hall, although not read it. Out of curiosity, I checked the list of previous Booker prize winners. I have only heard of 13 of the books (there are a few authors that I have heard of/read on the list, but I couldn't recall ever hearing the title of the book that won the Booker for them, so didn't count it.

TLDR: you can be widely read and not know even a relatively famous book.

It is also possible as others have said that your friend's child's school may not actually have a librarian, but some sort of assistant type role.

But you HAVE heard of it!

It might just be an unskilled admin role though. But is she’s an actual librarian, it’s pretty poor.

Er, of course it is.

I'm an ex school librarian. Stuck it out for 12 years. The pay was as it should be for someone with degree in the subject area but as new heads came into position and the intake completely changed, the school became a shadow of its former self. My job became crowd control. When I started there pupils would be excited when I'd tell them that the latest in a series had just come in. By the time I finished there, it was just another social area. They misused the PCs and laptops, they were just walking out with the books without borrowing them on the system, and using them as missiles. Very few pupils actually read ANYTHNG. I would find bits of toast and other food from the dining hall shoved behind books on shelves. Once someone upturned a bottle of milk and loosed the cap just enough so there was a slow drip behind the shelves. They hid it well until the stench like vomit was overwhelming and I had every shelf cleared to try to find what the smell was.

The timetable changed and English classes no longer came. That was the final straw. With an incoming head who hadn't been academic at school and so who didn't see the point of a library, it was only a matter of time before they got rid of me. At the same time in my area I started noticing longstanding school librarians not being replaced when they left or retired. They were being replaced with very low-paid TA type roles.

Unfortunately times have changed and in most schools, unless you have a very supportive head who really gets behind the idea of them and is a reader themselves, a proper school library just isn't seen as essential anymore. If there is a space with some books in it's usually a room with PCs and some study space.

Sad times. I've noticed kids' general knowledge and vocabulary has declined a lot since screens overtook books and proper reading. Even my own 19 year old surprises me sometimes when he doesn't know certain words which I would have known at say, 14, because I was an avid reader.

And yes, I've heard of Wolf Hall. Got a copy on my shelf at home. I started reading it but at the time needed something a bit lighter, but I'll get back to it when I have more free time than I do at the moment.

The point being that you don't get to proclaim people as ignorant just because they don't share your interests or didnt walk into waterstones when a particular book was in the best sellers.

Just arrogant, frankly.