What book would you recommend to explain to someone what you do for a living?

MariaRomanov@lemmy.sdf.org to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 81 points –
62

As a librarian, this question tickles me.

Got any good books on librarian science?

Good question. None that I think would be fun for the general public...

... although...

Perhaps you might enjoy the 1976 Canadian novel "Bear", which features an Archivist as the protagonist. It won the Governor General's Literary Award when it came out.

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4885078M/Bear

The Phoenix Project

I'm sure this is unpopular, but I hate that book with Mrs.White-level hatred.

I'm so glad there are people like you who do things like this so I don't have to.

This book is sitting in our office. Is it actually a good read? Its very dusty so I always wrote it off as just another corporate book.

It basically created "Devops" as a mindset. You decide if thats a good or bad thing.

Id personally call it a good book. The first half will hurt you if youve ever worked as a sysadmin, as it basically recreates all the worst parts of the job at once to setup the story, but the second half explains how devops as a thought process can solve the issues it creates. It does not going into tools, just methods and concepts.

It can help you fix your orgs bullshit. It is heavy on "you need management buyin" angle though, so if you cant get that at your job, continue to abandon all hope.

Microchip Fabrication by van Zant. Specifically chapters 8 and 10 discussing photolithography. Might be different chapters in current version.

I'm a supervisor in a machine and welding shop so I would pick Carl Vernon's " Surrounded By Morons Make the Most of it. "

The Linux and Unix System Administration Handbook (6th edition)

The book I wrote. When I first talked with the publisher he asked, "what skills would you look for in someone who wants to do your job?" And that's the premise I stuck with writing it.

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care

The US Federal code of regulations. Im a US customs broker. At 50 titles and sometimes 100s of pages per title if not thousands, it’d be quite the read in one go!

Edit: I just checked, it changes pretty regularly, usually stands somewhere around 90 thousand pages. The specific code on customs brokers is title 19 part 111. But really the whole thing is specific to my job in one way or another. I’ve never actually read the entire thing personally as it’s practically impossible. I look up whatever I need to as needed.

As someone going into conservation I'd probably just throw a copy Nat Geo at them or something. If we were talking about shows/movies I'd go with Wildcat, even if it is a depressing documentary.

Cinderella. The dead parents are also on point 👌

Not a book, but the Bastard Operator From Hell series on theregister.co.uk gives a decent picture, if a touch dramatized.

Between the lines

It’s a book that takes the theory out of acoustic design and loudspeaker placement / management, and says “Life sucks, it’s never perfect, let’s make it suck less.”