Time to say goodbye!

Four months have passed by, and it’s time for me to say goodbye to my trainee period in the library.

When I first entered through the doors of the library as a normal student who comes to the premises to complete their essays, assignments, or study for their exams, I never thought about how much time I would spend in the Carelia building of Joensuu, where our library is located.

This place has meant lots to me, not only when it comes to studying, but also to socialize, relax, feel comfortable and spend my days. The library is a very important meeting point in Joensuu, where friends find knowledge, not only in the books, but also in other people.

This place feels like home. The books, the computers, and the people – everyone is together here for a reason. This feeling has been proven to me in these past four months. Magic happens from the service desk onwards, but what about what’s behind? In my first blog I wrote about how curious I was regarding the machinery behind the shelves. The human machinery.

Non-stop working behind the staff doors: acquisition, review, cataloguing, shelving, information retrieval courses, and concern for the users. Nothing ever stops, and even though you, as users, don’t know the people working here, they know you and want to know you even more.

This is why we designed a survey about the library services. We want to improve; they want to improve: From premises to services and problems with the noise. What is going on in the library is one of the main concerns of the people that make all this possible.

Regarding concerns, I also got the opportunity of selecting books for the Multilingual Month, creating a collection related to linguistic minorities, language endangerment and bilingualism, because the cultural and linguistic identity are very important aspects of our society, and I am very thankful, as a linguistics student, for being able to make such a selection. Discrimination also affects languages, and the equality of all of them should always be sought.

By this last post, I want to say thank you to all the people who work in the library and from whom I have learnt and enjoyed so much. The library always felt home, but now even more. I can confirm this after working for four months with all of them, with all of you.

Thank you for making this possible. For being library. For making history. For telling the story.

Gonzalo Maestro, Library trainee