5. you have to fight an urge to offer uninvited help when you overhear conversations at the coffee shop / post office / in line
4. you create spreadsheets / databases… at home
3. an ex has ever accused you of loving them for their books / bookcases / bookshelves
2. you wear corrective lenses (ooo, stereotype. But no really, do you?)
1. when you hear a movie based on a book is coming out, you read the book anyway
If you can think of 5 more clues to librarian-tude, please share in the comments.
Epist 
19 comments
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September 3, 2009 at 9:07 am
Paul Biba
Couldn’t resist re-publishing this on TeleRead!
Paul
Co-Editor, TeleRead.org
September 3, 2009 at 9:12 am
You might be (destined to be) a librarian | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home
[…] know a lot of librarians read us, so I thought I’d publish this posting from The Epist that took my fancy. I’m afraid that I answer yes to all counts except #3 (I don’t have […]
September 3, 2009 at 11:03 am
Eric H
Re: no. 5. You mean you actually fight the urge to offer help?! I’ve given up 🙂
I’m afraid I don’t have any further ideas, but I do especially like no. 4. That’s me all over. My spouse just rolls her eyes…
September 3, 2009 at 11:47 am
wolfshowl
If you have a LibraryThing account so you can catalog your books the way you want to instead of the way NLM/LC/whoever wants you to catalog books at work.
September 3, 2009 at 1:08 pm
mina.
In a definite manner, No. 5 has the right smell.
September 3, 2009 at 1:22 pm
David
Re. #5, I catch myself helping people in the bookstore sometimes.
September 3, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Tiger
6. when you go to move you have more boxes of books than anything else.
7. you can cheerfully spend hours in the book store.
8. You find yourself thinking the local news media uses pretty questionable sources of “factual” information.
September 3, 2009 at 7:37 pm
The Vintage Reader
9. You set up a vertical file in the 6th grade to keep track of your clipped articles from National Geographic _World_ (which, I might note, seems to have been superseded by National Geographic _Kids_) and the _Weekly Reader_.
10. You know how to spell “superseded.”
11. When non-librarians tell you that they’ve cataloged their personal collection of books in both Dewey AND LC, you wonder why, and also ask them if they mean “classified.”
12. You saw “Desk Set” in high school and promptly memorized “Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight”… just in case.
September 3, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Jp
Your childhood books were all in alphabetical order and had checkout cards in them for your stuffed animals to borrow. (Checkout cards fit perfectly on a Jello box by the way. )
September 4, 2009 at 8:01 am
Shannon
If You arrange your pantry by category.
If you whisper when you talk.
If you spend 3 weeks reading the book before you see the movie, and still like the book better.
If you would rather read the news (or get it from Twitter) than watch it on TV.
If you read these last 5 and don’t laugh.
If Barbra Gordon is your hero.
If you’re not sure who Barbra Gordon is.
September 4, 2009 at 8:29 am
Shannon
I meant last “4” not “5” . . . I’m tired. lol. End of week — TGIF, etc.
Add, “If you’re a stickler for accuracy.”
September 4, 2009 at 11:43 am
Mark
If you know how to use a proper reference book to verify that “supercede” does, in fact, have an acceptable variable spelling.
September 4, 2009 at 12:05 pm
The Vintage Reader
Clearly, Mark, you’ve never had to type catalog cards (with a card platen!) while an old-school librarian, complete with glasses and bun, hovers over your shoulder to make sure you’re indenting precisely two spaces and using parentheses properly. Then you would know that there is, in fact, no such thing as an acceptable variable spelling. 🙂
In any event, these days our automation software conveniently fills in all of that kind of thing when we enter a code in a record, so the spelling is left up to the programmers. Isn’t technology grand?
September 4, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Lisa
(along the same lines as JP)
As a child you taped due date cards with the header “The Enchanted Library” into all your family’s books and then circulated them to the neighborhood kids.
You actually watched TNT’s The Librarian.
September 5, 2009 at 6:32 am
Mark
Ah, The Vintage Reader, apologies offered then. But clearly you left just a tad bit of context out of your previous comment. In your specific case then there was only one proper spelling. 😉
September 5, 2009 at 9:47 pm
thedonofpages
You think that books need colored dots on them, but can’t agree what is the correct sequence of colors. Your definition for “collection” has nothing to do with a hobby, and for “weeding” has nothing to do with gardening. (And of course the book was better than the movie…)
September 6, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Joan
You work at a library and still feel the need to go to a bookstore on the way home from work.
September 9, 2009 at 8:06 am
lludmila
You work at a library all day and then, for relaxation in the evening, you go online to enter a virtual world and hang out at THEIR library and find work leading BOOK DISCUSSIONS.
November 8, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Andy
Always read the book, especially if a movie is coming out!