Saints in the Stacks / Altar of Knowledge: Two Pieces on Vocational Awe in Libraries
a creative project for my library sciences degree!
On Vocational Awe
In December, as my first semester of grad school came to a close, I produced two individual artworks exploring vocational awe in libraries. This concept, identified and coined by scholar Fobazi Ettarh (Ettarh, 2018), refers to the idealized perception of professions like librarianship, where labour is viewed as inherently righteous. My pieces employ Catholic themes and imagery to evoke the unsettling near-worship of librarianship. I aimed to capture the tension between critiques of vocational awe and the widespread reverence for libraries as spaces that maintain and disseminate knowledge.
Ettarh’s writing explores how vocational awe distracts from larger structural issues within libraries, normalizing harmful patterns. She explains that “if the language around being a good librarian is directly tied to struggle, sacrifice, and obedience, then the more one struggles for their work, the “holier” that work (and institution) becomes. Thus, it will become less likely that people will feel empowered, or even able, to fight for a healthier workspace” (Ettarh, 2018).
Personal Connection to Vocational Awe
Library Science students are not immune to this mentality – this project was, in part, inspired by conversations I’ve had with classmates in my program, as well as my own struggle to mitigate vocational awe at my first library job. Aspiring and early-career librarians may exhibit saviour complexes, referring to careers as ‘their calling’ or using words like ‘moral duty’ to describe their desire for public-facing roles. Though many of us face job precarity, can only find part-time positions, and are underpaid, I have heard folks comfort themselves by stating that their sense of accomplishment in libraries is more rewarding than financial compensation.
Pictured: an excerpt from the book of library-related mythologies I produced for Altar of Knowledge
As my cohort prepares to enter a competitive and demanding profession, many of us are willing to do anything to prove our worth. However, entering the field with a martyr’s mindset leads to burnout, weakens work-life boundaries, and leaves emerging professionals susceptible to exploitation. Interrogating this tendency is crucial for fostering sustainable practices and protecting both our well-being and our long term ability to contribute meaningfully to the Library Science discipline.
Vocational Awe and Library Infrastructures
The paper ‘How to Infrastructure’ states that the invisibility of infrastructures renders them both powerful and insidious, as they shape social and cultural norms without people actively noticing (Star and Bowker, 2006). This is visible in the way myths about librarianship creep into public perceptions of the field, with libraries being placed on a pedestal and their employees being seen as protectors of knowledge.
The portrayal of these institutions as innately ‘good’ only serves to obfuscate difficult realities: that libraries are historically oppressive (Ettarh, 2018) and that their infrastructures continue to fail marginalized folks. When I interviewed an early-career librarian for an assignment earlier this semester, she told me about the negative impact that ‘productivity’ culture has on disabled librarians who do their jobs well but cannot take on extra responsibilities. Vocational awe reflects a systemic issue where libraries thrive at the expense of their staff. The deep sense of devotion it fosters disproportionately benefits institutions by normalizing sacrifice as a professional expectation. This infrastructural ‘standard’ allows library management to avoid addressing critical issues such as fair compensation and adequate support for their employees. Therefore, vocational awe simultaneously results from and reinforces infrastructural decline.
Collage on Canvas: Saints in the Stacks
This collage features several images of bookshelves, taken from magazines. Between the shelves, an outstretched hand reaches off one canvas and across another. The palm is illuminated by a golden halo and holds a heart, as if to offer it to the viewer. The halo, a symbol theologically associated with sainthood, is used to emphasize the way librarians are often idealized as selfless, flawless figures.
The hand represents that of a librarian, and the heart symbolizes the (often overwhelming) demand for emotional labour within librarianship. The negative spaces between the bookshelves are filled with radiant gold paper, a deliberate visual metaphor for the manifestation of gaps within library infrastructures.
Pictured: The canvas positioned in a way where the gold accents glow. The gold fragments of the collage do not visibly shine from every angle, echoing the way infrastructures can be visible or invisible depending on their stability.
These shimmering ‘repairs’ highlight the way vocational awe often obscures or distracts from systemic flaws. Librarians, steeped in the mythologies surrounding their careers, may struggle to recognize these gaps or advocate for meaningful systemic change. If one is unaware that what they are experiencing is vocational awe, it is easier to ignore the presence of these gaps, or attempt to resolve them by working harder. A dogmatic faith in the innate benevolence of libraries clouds their perception, causing them to interpret institutional failures as reflective of their performance.
Sculpture: Altar of Knowledge
This interactive sculpture is meant to capture the ritualistic nature of vocational awe. In a Catholic context, altars are settings of oblation— the one I’ve crafted out of a tray and candles echoes the sacrifices libraries often demand from employees. On the altar, one will find:
A book labelled The Myths We Tell Ourselves
This is a repurposed mass-market paperback edition of Grimm’s Fairytales. I concealed the book’s original cover and re-titled it The Myths We Tell Ourselves (Ettarh, 2018). Drawing on Ettarh’s critique of vocational awe, the pages of the book are inscribed with harmful, reductive assumptions about librarianship. These sentiments, collected from my lived experiences in library work, conversations with classmates, and online forums, reveal how vocational awe perpetuates unsustainable expectations of unwavering dedication within the workplace. The use of a fairytale anthology underscores the mythical nature of the statements written within it, inviting the viewer to reflect on how these misconceptions shape perceptions of library staff.
5 small, handmade clay tokens / relief print impressions
These sculptures are meant to resemble the Communion wafers consecrated and eaten during Catholic Mass. Receiving ‘the body of Christ’ is an act of commitment, a surrender of the self to the divine. According to Catholic doctrine, after accepting the Eucharist, one in turn becomes devoured by Christ’s presence (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], 1997, para. 1391).
I selected clay as a medium due to the material’s inclination toward cracking, a natural occurrence that is visually reminiscent of erosion within infrastructures. Using stamps to create print-like impressions in the clay, I spelled out various words and phrases related to vocational awe. By inscribing ‘job creep’, ‘veneration’, ‘dread’, and ‘sacrifice’ onto clay ‘wafers’, I imagined these concepts as ingestible. I hoped to allude to the way librarians are expected to ‘swallow’, internalize, and endure the demands of unhealthy workplaces in order to display their care for the profession, while simultaneously being consumed by devotion themselves.
Works Cited
Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed.). (1997). https://www.scborromeo2.org/catechism-of-the-catholic-church
Ettarh, F. (2018). “Vocational awe and librarianship: The lies we tell ourselves”. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/
Ettarh, F., & Vidas, C. (2022). “The future of libraries:” vocational awe in a “Post-covid” world. The Serials Librarian, 82(1–4), 17–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526x.2022.2028501
R/librarians - any other library workers feeling the COVID fatigue + vocational awe? (2020).https://www.reddit.com/r/librarians/comments/j6al4u/any_other_library_workers_feeling_the_covid/
Star, S. L., & Bowker, G. C. (2006). How to Infrastructure, 151–162. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446206904.n12