In craft, trade and administration
Do you enjoy reading, but are less interested in scientifically disassembling literature? Do you enjoy working with beautiful books, be it an illustrated book, a novel or a children's book? Are you interested in business, but would you rather sell books than insurance or household goods? Would you like to make a practical contribution to turning a manuscript into a ready-to-sell book? Then there are various professional opportunities available to you in trade, libraries, crafts and industry, all of which have something to do with books.
For sociable people - booksellers, media clerks, librarians
You are in contact with customers, users and sometimes authors when you work in a bookstore, book publisher or library.
- If you would like to recommend great books to customers, a job as a bookseller is ideal for you. The contact with other book enthusiasts is intensive, but with a little luck you will also get to know interesting authors if your bookstore holds regular readings. You can also be involved in their organization. Booksellers are also responsible, among other things, for book orders, their presentation and the maintenance of the holdings. The training lasts three years; high school graduates are preferred. Nowadays you often work in the branches of large bookstore chains, but there are still jobs in smaller bookstores. You can also open your own shop or work for an intermediary, i.e. a wholesaler.
- You have a wide range of contacts if you are training to become a digital and print media clerk in a book publisher. In addition to the usual commercial activities such as price calculation or bookkeeping, you will work in the editing department, keep in contact with authors, sell and acquire licenses or develop marketing concepts involved. However, you almost only have a chance of an apprenticeship with a (technical) university entrance qualification.
- On the other hand, an intermediate educational qualification is often sufficient if you are training to become a specialist in media and information services specializing in the library. This lasts three years, training positions are offered primarily by public libraries, such as city or university libraries, but also specialist libraries of large companies and church libraries. Your tasks include procuring and recording books, magazines and DVDs or writing reminders. The contact with readers is often not neglected either, because they also issue user cards, advise users and book the media they have borrowed.
- You have to study if you want to become a librarian. In the past, the administrative colleges of the federal states offered courses for future qualified librarians in the senior service. Meanwhile this is studies only possible in Bavaria, where the switch to other courses has not yet taken place in 2014. In the other federal states, various subjects, often at universities of applied sciences and sometimes also at universities, now qualify for the profession. Information and library science is often offered as a subject Bachelor as well as a master's degree that builds on it.
Professions with books - this is how you provide new reading material
If you would like a job that has to do with books, the choice is yours ...
Book printers and bookbinders - today (mostly) media technologists
If you want to have something to do with books, but would rather learn a practical profession, there are also opportunities.
- One training occupation in the practical area is that of the media technologist printing. This profession has replaced the profession of book printer since 2011. This has to do with the fact that the printing of books is no longer a craftsmanship as it used to be, but is done mechanically and in series. The focus is now on setting up and operating the machines, preparing the data for the digital printing process, planning the workflow and monitoring the printing process. Craft companies still offer apprenticeships, but mostly industrial companies. If you have a secondary school diploma, your chances in industry are greater than in craft firms.
- You will also work in a practical way if you are training to be a bookbinder in a craft business. You not only produce books produced in series on machines, but also one-off and custom-made products. Repairing browsing is also part of your job. If you are lucky, you will still be doing some real manual work. If you are interested in old books, there is also the possibility of further training as a bookbinder for restoration work or as a restorer in the bookbinding trade. These are also used in libraries, for example. With a secondary school diploma or equivalent, you have a good chance of an apprenticeship.
- On the other hand, a middle school leaving certificate is often expected if you want to do your apprenticeship in an industrial company. If the bookbinder is still called bookbinder in craft businesses, he has been called media technologist print processing in the industry since 2011. In this case, as with the printing media technologist, the focus is on setting up and operating the machines as well as planning and monitoring the workflow. Like a bookbinder and a printer, you have to study for three years.
Regardless of whether you like to sell, lend and advise or prefer to work practically - if you want to “do something with books”, you have a number of options.
How helpful do you find this article?
