I’m…confused by this comment lol.

It’s a good question. If you work as a librarian at a public city library, you may qualify for public sector forgiveness, I don’t really know the answer. But continuous, persistent employment is one of the larger issues.

If it were up to me to fix, I would make library science a bachelors degree career and a track at more public 4-year universities. My hope is that more people would enter the field and want to serve the communities they came from in public and school libraries.

Libraries have the potential to hold a lot of power and help a lot of people, and are socialist institutions in their very nature. A library has so much more potential than just a repository for books you can borrow. This is what drew me to the field. I wish more people appreciated libraries and that collectively we invested more in them.

Well I can tell you that part of the problem is that these roles, teachers and librarians, have historically been filled by women, who as we all know do not deserve to be paid as much as men. /s

But in all seriousness, I wonder the same thing. How wonderful would it be if we invested money into schools and libraries and information literacy programs and not, say, PPD? :)

This sucks. A big part of the problem though is that librarians, like teachers, are woefully underpaid. I have my masters in library science, a degree I had to take out copious student loans to get. When I realized during the program that even librarians at city libraries often make less than 40-50k a year, I was shocked. Yes, that’s more than a lot of people in this city make, and maybe you all will rag on me for this, but most people with masters degrees want to make more money than that. I would love to be a school librarian and help with literacy and information programs across this city, but I can’t afford to.

There are so many larger issues at play here just within the library science field regarding representation and gatekeeping and wage inequity…all of which is to say I am saddened but not surprised by this statistic. And I wish I could help somehow but I can’t because capitalism.

Come hang out w us at Rays. Very similar demographic you’re looking for especially on weekdays. Not so many events, but always an interesting time.

Lititz, PA, right outside of lancaster is also a very cool and cute little town, lots of boutiques and breweries. Perfect for a short weekend trip.

Also there’s an app called TrustedHousesitters. You have to pay to join but you can get someone with great experience and recommendations to stay at your house (you don’t have to pay them) and care for your pets. I’ve used it and outside of the one time fee to sign up, it’s completely free. You can also stay in other cities for free, and look after other peoples pets!

Came here to suggest this. Best place to drink alone in south Philly imo. But there is no food other than chips. 💁🏻‍♀️