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???

Lots of books haven’t won the Booker, though. That is why books that win it are notable.

I'm not impressed with the way your friend is talking about a likely much lower paid colleague.
Also, I'd put money on some of those posting on this thread, having only heard about WH because they saw it on TV.

@Printedword other services went down/offline because we were busy reading
aah bring back the old style card index!! i loved looking through that!! it told you exactly which book unit and which shelf to find the book.

Don’t knock Dog Man! My kid asked me if he could read East of Eden after it was referenced in a Dog Man book. He was about 8 at the time so I suggested he leave it a few years but it was on his radar at least.

Op's friend is a gossipy twat.

Apart from that, there is very obviously a difference between a qualified librarian and someone who isn't. And even then, it's not actually in the job description of a librarian to have read every book ever.

I read quite a bit, and I've not heard of Wolf Hall because it's a genre of book I'm not hugely interested in, and I don't watch TV. So what?

Yes, lots of notable and very famous books haven't won a booker.

It's not the be all and end all.

I was involved with the digitisation project for card catalogues at a major library many years ago. I am also old enough to remember working with the card catalogues. I did like them, but they had short comings same as anything, just different snags

I didn’t say it was. I’m simply correcting your assertion that lots of books have won the Booker.

I read a lot although not so much in recent years but I have never heard of Wolf Hall.

I don't watch TV though. I go to the theatre a lot so am probably ore likely to have heard of plays.

There was a school librarian job advertised near me a while ago. A friend of mine was interested. It paid a few pence per hour over minimum wage! You aren’t going to get qualified people for that pay.
The job description was basically check books in and out and monitor behaviour in the library.

Thank you. I absolutely agree with all of this. It's massively important to understand what books will hook kids in and feel meaningful to them.

My gut reaction I think does remain that Wolf Hall is such a prominent book that it would be impossible to be keyed into modern literature at any level and simply never have heard of it, and even if your focus is strongly in more relevant children's/YA/English curriculum areas, it's worrying if you've just never heard of it as what else might you not know about?

And as someone who grew up a history geek who would probably have devoured it in my teens if it had been published at the time, and my school librarian was incredibly formative for me in helping me find books I loved. Projection innit?

Is she ACTUALLY a librarian though?
I work in a school and our “librarian” is a TA who mans the library, makes sure the ch keep it tidy and signs out their books for them, as well as doing some English and Maths interventions. Not a role she particularly wanted or asked for, was just given it by the school as she’s very organised and tidy. I’ll have to ask her if she’s ever heard of Wolf Hall.

The dramatisation of Wolf Hall originated with the RSC, moved to the West End and then Broadway.It won both Olivier and Tony awards.

I used to work in a school library - I had the aforementioned City and Guilds qualification and also the NVQ and my boss (granted this was a private school) was not only a qualified librarian but also a qualified teacher.

She was absolutely passionate about encouraging kids to, first of all, just READ... then to use that as an inroad into exposing them to more and more quality books - and she also made sure to expose me to a range of great kids' literature while I worked there, to the point where, when I left and went off to start a PGCE - they asked us as an initial exercise to brainstorm kids' books and authors we knew of... most of the class managed a decent list... mine went on forever.

My kids' permanently skint state school has a member of staff responsible for the library who does try her best to promote reading around the school - although DD1 is hiding from her after I grassed her habit of hiding the books she wanted to read up to the library staff! (DD1 is a book hoarding goblin creature)

It’s been adapted for the theatre as well.

Yes I was joking 😎

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

And are you a librarian?

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

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

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

🤦🏻‍♀️

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

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

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!

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.

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'.