Comments on: Why I am a librarian

By: paula

paula — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:40:45 +0000

Always such an invigorating run to read your posts A-M. I’m honored you thought of me. I am an academic librarian because I feel like I’ve found my home in this profession. This is the 3rd major career in my long and varied worklife. I often found I got bored after I mastered the basics. That NEVER happens in this job…just the opposite. I feel like I must always scurry to keep up. I’m in academia in particular for a number of reasons. Most of what I’ve been in life is a perpetual student…my friends jokingly gave me a license plate holder that said “She who dies with the most degrees wins.” I love learning new things. I love being around other people learning new things. I like being able to help others learn new things. My family refers to me as a scholar so there is also a totally selfish aspect to working as a tenure track faculty because I get to indulge myself in pursuing things of interest and that’s thought to be a good thing in such a setting. I particularly like collaborating with faculty in the disciplines (and in the library) on research and writing projects. Then I get the energy transfer of their passions as well as my own buzz. I’m an academic librarian because it allows me to be around really thoughtful people, who think things in ways that I haven’t. I just thrive on that intellectual stimulation. Thanks for inviting me in, for being such a provocative thinker and writer, and for being a good colleague and collaborator.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:47:37 +0000

This is terrific. The issue of expertise is fascinating. In some ways, faculty in the disciplines defer tremendously to expertise, even to the point of saying “I can’t comment on that issue, because it’s not my field.” Well …. we didn’t get training in most of what the world’s about, but we did get training in how to read and analyze and respond. Sometimes we have to figure it out even if it’s not familiar.

That’s one of the devil-may-care things you get to do as a librarian, figure it out. And help other people learn how to think for themselves.

Thanks for being game…. I felt a little guilty tagging you with a question that sounds like an essay exam.

By: karenlibrarian

karenlibrarian — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:27:15 +0000

Okay, I had a stab at it! Thanks for tagging me! And I just realized I forgot to tag someone else… !@$!#!!

By: Why I am a librarian. (An academic librarian, in particular.) « Karen Munro, E-Learning Librarian

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:26:41 +0000

[...] 2008 at 7:26 pm (daily life) Anne-Marie Dietering tagged me in her excellent post on this meme, here. I’m going to try to do it justice, though I’m sure I won’t give half as [...]

By: Woeful

Woeful — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:57:32 +0000

I’m a librarian for all the fame and fortune that accompanies it.
;-)

By: karenlibrarian

karenlibrarian — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:57:32 +0000

Ahoy! Great idea, and thanks for tagging me! I’ll give it some thought and try to come up with a worthy answer!