The Day-to-Day Life of a New Academic Librarian

Editor’s Note: Please join us in welcoming M. Roberts, Leadership, Policy, Organizations, and Online Engagement Librarian at Vanderbilt University, as a new First Year Academic Librarian Experience blogger for the 2025-26 year here at ACRLog

When I decided to become a librarian, it meant a two-year return to school and a shift away from a career in communications and public relations, which had been my comfort zone for six years. I felt like the time was right for a change. With librarianship, I could focus more fully on the aspects of that previous career field that I had enjoyed the most – namely, working with and mentoring young people, and connecting people with the information that they needed the most. It would be a change, I knew, but a good change.

What I didn’t anticipate was how many times I would get some variation of the comment, “That’s a great job for you! You love to read!” followed closely by the question, “And is that what you’ll do every day? Read books?!”

Although I didn’t have a minute-by-minute answer as to what my work days would look like when I started library school, I already knew that most of my working time as a librarian would be spent doing something other than reading books. (That’s what weekends are for!) After spending two years in my master’s program at UNC-Chapel Hill, including working for the second year as a Graduate Assistant in an academic library on UNC’s campus, I understood much better what an academic librarian position would entail, and I couldn’t wait to get started – proof that following my instincts on the career change had been worth it.

Now, just over two months into an academic librarian position at Vanderbilt University, I have more things to add to the list of what I do every day with each week that goes by. The short answer is, anything and everything! No two days are the same, and doing something different every day is one of my favorite things about this role. As I was thinking about this blog and reflecting on the first two months at my job, one thing that stood out to me was a conversation I had with a family member a couple weeks after I started. My family member asked me to describe a typical day at work. I said that I couldn’t describe a typical day, because there was no such thing, but that I could talk about the day I’d had that day.

I explained that my day had involved a new student dropping by my office to ask how I could help him in his master’s program; an event planning meeting; searching for resources to email to a student; working on a LibGuide for a professor; attending a library orientation session in preparation for the one that I would teach later that week; and more. Somewhere in the midst of my recitation, the family member I was speaking with exclaimed, “I can’t believe you’re doing all this work for students! No one did that for me when I was in school. I hope the students know how good they have it.”

I’ve thought a lot about that comment in the weeks since. The implication that academic librarianship involves doing students’ work for them has stuck in my mind because I understand how it could sound that way, but I don’t agree with that interpretation. I do spend a lot of time helping students, because that’s the biggest part of my job – but working with them to make sure they feel confident isn’t the same thing as doing their work. In terms of specifics, I’m still figuring out the balance between spending time looking up specific resources for students, and teaching them how to construct searches and use databases themselves. Finding that middle ground will take time, but it’s a part of the learning process.

At only two months in, I know I have a lot to learn, and I’m looking forward to that. My perspectives may shift as I continue growing in this position. But right now, my thoughts go something like this: reference librarianship is about giving students the tools they need to succeed, and also about helping students realize they can succeed. I work mostly with master’s and PhD students, but many of them are new to research and are overwhelmed at the thought of tackling a research paper, review, or other assignment that requires library materials and significant literature searching. If I can show them a few specific resources to convince them why it’s worth learning how to search in databases and grab a book off the shelf, which then keeps their attention when I show them how Boolean works and where the library stacks are, the assignment they’ve been given will seem a lot less daunting. If that’s the case, then I’ve done my job. Plus, I can remind the student that even with their newfound knowledge, I’m here to help – they can always make another appointment, and they can tell their friends that the library is here to help. Their assignments become more straightforward, and I get to do my favorite part of the job almost every day – helping students and working directly with them. It’s a win-win.