Thursday, January 5, 2012

On Librarianship

The last couple months have been super busy! I worked a lot--that's not really a new thing, but I had other stuff going on so it seemed like more than usual. I did some traveling--visited Agatha in South Carolina in November, visited Colin in Lake Forest over New Year's (both very fun and relaxing vacations). And Kristine and I started the "Unofficial Library Movie Club," so I've been going to the theater more frequently.

I've also been thinking a lot about the future. The more I work at the library, the more I feel at home there, and I've been toying with the idea of going to grad school to get a master's in library science. Most libraries (including the local system) require a master's to be a full-fledged librarian, and I think that is something I would enjoy being. Even if I went to library school and decided I didn't want to work at a public library, there are lots of other options--school/specialty/private libraries, cataloguing, administration, public relations, etc. Also, I think I would enjoy studying it. My coworker Kristine is currently majoring in English at UCO and plans on doing library school--probably at OU. She once told me about a class she'd heard of called "Recommending Books." You give lots of oral "book reports" and learn how to cater to your audience's interests. That sounds like a blast!

One thing about librarianship that really appeals to me is that I would be able to help people learn without having to be their teacher. Librarians primarily teach people how to find what they're looking for, steer people in the right direction, help them help themselves. On aptitude tests I've taken in the past, "teacher" has always been among my results of "what you'd be good at," but while I greatly admire good teachers, I've never had the desire to be one. They have to deal with snotty kids, obnoxious parents, annoying bureaucracy, and trying to teach 30 very different kids the same thing at the same time in a way that they can all understand and keep them all interested is a HUGE challenge (100 kids for some college professors). Not exactly my cup of tea.

Also, I'm all about freedom of information. It's important to me, and being a librarian would allow me to advocate that ideal.

I still have a ton of research to do on library schools--how much it costs, what the curriculums are like, where the campuses are. I know that OU has a program, so that would probably be a good, easy, close resource to check out to get a feel for how it works.

...So that's where I'm starting my year--to study or not to study. Right after graduating from TU, the thought of more schooling was appalling to me, but now I'm ready to start working toward something again. I feel like I've been treading water for a year and a half and it's time to pick a direction and swim. One problem, though, is that I'm very attached to Colin, and he still has to figure out his future, as well. I don't really want to swim north if he's going west. I'd much rather us go the same direction! The ideal is that our favorite options happen to be in the same place, but that's probably unlikely. My main goal for this year is just to figure out which direction I want to go. I'll be ok if I don't start moving yet, but I need to at least pick a destination. I haven't had a concrete plan in a long time and it's been very uncomfortable.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love libraries and in another life definitely want to be a librarian.