Awesome coworkers, amusing environment, and long labor - Anonymous employee Santa Barbara Public Library Employee Review

The people are nice and welcoming. I will admit that at first I was a little bit reserved for "not wanting to step on anyone's toes." I thought this would be a place of cliques and close co-workers, however that was not the case. The staff is extremely friendly and want you to feel included. Whether you have worked there for 10+ years or are just starting, the staff is warm and welcoming. I only worked there for two months and I miss the people I worked with. Oh well.

The hourly wage for me was kind of a huge downside. As a page (I was a shipment page) you work for close to minimum wage and as a former college student in So Cal where everything is expensive, it wasn't the greatest compensation. You do get health insurance and retirement benefits though.

* If you start out as a low-paid employee (Page), and do your job well, you have a good chance of being promoted to a much higher paid position * Friendly staff overall, they want to help you learn and succeed " Some managers see their employees strengths, and give the employees duties that suit them well * There are a lot of grateful patrons, who give gifts and praise * You feel like you're making a meaningful contribution

* You're working for a bureaucracy - a lot of regulations and some seem counterproductive * Understaffed, which creates stress and annoys some patrons who may have to wait longer than they want * if you work with the public, most patrons are nice, but some are unruly or may have unrealistic expectations - the job takes a lot of patience * The job is a lot more complicated than it looks, and takes months to master, so when you start working with the public, you may not know what you are doing half the time, and make mistakes