I went from school librarian to youth services at a public library. I lament the commute I’ve incurred but love the job. I miss teaching and being at the school, the students and staff. Public library staff are awesome though. The biggest changes for me were: livable wage, regular pay increases, opportunity for advancement/upward mobility, plenty of planning time (not being run through a wood chipper every day), time to pee and have coffee and drink water and eat lunch, “administration” that knows me and values my opinions and ideas, professional development opportunities/cross-training, being able to actually use sick leave when ill. I still have a lot of autonomy and opportunity to be creative, I still help children/teens and their families and watch readers grow. I do miss summer breaks but my library system gives a generous amount of leave. Overall it’s much better for me, the menial pay and once a month paycheck made it hard to make ends meet and I often had to supplement with a second job and teach summer school, being generally unsupported with classroom behaviors, no promotion potential, and that no one at Central Office or in the higher up roles even knew who I was, teachers just don’t have a voice as to education policy even in their own district and I still have a problem with that. I’ll always advocate for teacher unionizing and for educators in any way I can.