Week Three Weblog

I have only recently realized that I would enjoy being a librarian. Why it took me so long to realize this, I don't know. I remember a lot of the experiences I've had at libraries since I was a young child. My mother and father, both book aficionados, would take me to the library a lot when I was young. I participated in children programs there and I have very vivid memories of entering my own world of fantasy when left to explore on my own. I can still recall my sense of self developing as I looked through books on unicorns and space exploration. My imagination soared and my knowledge grew. My parents had no limit to what I could borrow from the library. For this I am indebted.

As I grew older, my time spent at libraries did not decrease. I spent lunch recess in high school studying and writing papers at the (somewhat deficient) school library. I began collecting books as well. I currently have about five hundred different titles. I've always had fun organizing my books. It is a puzzle when I move because I end up devising some new way of arranging my books. Usually I do this by subject and as our readings pointed out, it can be a little challenging.

After I graduated from high school in 1997, libraries really started to show some evidence of an emerging system (like discussed in Miksa). I began my career at UCLA in 2000 and I worked at the Physics Library when it was in Kerckhoff for a little while. Basically, I checked material out and put returned books to their shelves, but what a crazy place! I remember very strange people (not students) who would come in. There was this old man who thought he worked there or something. He would be waiting outside the doors when we opened at 8am and he would find a desk on the second floor to sit at and read and write. He left for lunch everyday at the same time and then returned until 5pm. He never once said anything to me, or checked any material out. I saw him talk to the Librarian (my boss) once, who said he was telling her he wouldn't "be in" the next day. She was kind of amused. Very odd.

Another thing that I did was work for my father's publishing company (Red Hen Press--www.redhen.org). I was in charge of his inventory and shipping for about a year. This process gave me a sense of how to keep books very organized. It also gave me a sense of how the Internet has affected small presses. I remember having to count every single book they had in stock and going mad at times because there were so many. Luckily, they have a system set up now (by me) that still works.

Now I work in a music school that has an inventory of books that is very disorganized (the owner died and left everything in disarray). My job, two days out of the week, is to create an inventory of the books and organize them for the students/customers/teachers that use them. It is a great opportunity for me to learn how to do such a thing, especially since the next year of my education will entail earning an AS in Library Science from Cuesta Community College in San Louis Obispo (through distance learning). I want create a way for the music school's books to be online so people will be able to remotely see what is available in the store. It's like I get to create a mini-library. I hope that the education I learn over the next year will assist me with this.

Last summer was when I decided to pursue a career in librarianship. This week's readings were trully a pleasure to read and very enlightening. I hope that I will be accepted to a grad school so I can get an MLIS degree and work as a librarian of some kind. If anyone is interested in what a career as a librarian is like check out these sites:

http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/careersinlibraries/careerslibraries.htm

http://www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/careersinlibraries/top10reasons.htm