Narratives of Academic Librarians: Chapter 1: Foundations and Early Career

Chapter 1: Foundations and Early Career

So, I wasn't one of those people that grew up wanting to be a librarian.

In fact, I had no real guidance. I was one of those people that went to college, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

I mean, I’ve worked with college students my whole life, so I am very familiar with that. 

I thought I was going to be an education major.

This was- I call it foundations- figuring out my path in undergrad.

I started college without peer guidance.

I initially was going to do education.

 

First class, second day, I was like, this isn't for me.

I just didn't feel like a good fit.

I started taking classes from professors that I thought were super smart, not really realizing that you had to get a job.

I'm not saying that my parents weren't great, but I just didn't have this idea.

 

And I think that's kind of normal.

I mean, I'm [XX] years old.

We didn't have that same kind of job scarcity that there is now.

 

I got really excited about research in college though, and then during my college years, most of that was still in print.

I might have been the only person in the world that got excited about books and print research.

When the librarian showed me that it existed, I just had no idea, like it kind of opened up something for me, because I was writing a book review or something, and I wanted to see others.

 

Then the librarians, I don't even know which librarian- (my academic institution was small, I don't even know their names,) but I looked at New York Times archives on microfilm and that idea blew my mind.

 

I like to interlibrary loan a lot, because I was a citation chaser, and I wanted to impress my professors.

One time, the librarian said, “Hey, I noticed you were doing this stuff, and sometimes I've seen you helping other people.” (because I was using the online library locator tool or whatever) “you should consider this for a job.”

 

But I didn't have any idea of any of it.

I did like to help other people with it, and I had a professor tell me that I'd be really great in grad school despite the fact that I was like a total B plus student.

I would have loved to be an A student, but I didn't really have the skills, I suppose.

 

Then I had lunch with a librarian, and they explained to me how to [be a librarian.]

So that's my foundation.

There was this eagerness of like, “Oh my god, this is cool,” and I wanted to share with other people how to use [library resources].

 

I'm a total information finder helper person.

 

 

I went to library school and I took a year off but I really quickly decided that I've got I just go to grad school. I went to [academic institution], aiming to be an academic librarian.

 

I just liked my coursework a lot but I will admit that on the very first day of class they asked us “what's your favorite book and your favorite search engine” and I didn't even know what a search engine was.

 

I was really embarrassed for my colleagues who didn't know how to cite because I knew how to do that but I had a classmate teach me how to use the [library specific] database but again we're talking- like that was still CD -ROM [based].

 

Thankfully none of my professional life has been CD -ROM based but I did take those classes at that time where I got to learn how to use dialogue web and all those things as I'm really excited about searching.

 

One of the jobs that I had though when focusing on technology is that one of the library school professors hired me to help him turn his slides into PowerPoint and I had to learn how to use PowerPoint.

Oh boy when you first learn how to use PowerPoint you add funny things, especially in that early [time period.]

 

I called that my early experience as a first step in librarianship.

 

I had lucked out with a classmate. [for my first job.]

I always feel like every job you get is because you know somebody.

A classmate got me a job at [a small academic institution].

 

It was one branch of their libraries and I worked there for maybe just a few semesters, but it felt like a significant time.

I worked in the evenings alone and I had little jobs to fix up the website and find the “website of the week.”

 

We used [an instructional software].

I was able to figure it out quickly, but I still didn't know what I was going to do.

I knew that I wanted to be an academic librarian, and I took an internship at [another academic institution in a nearby city.]

I was able to get an internship there and basically, I made a reference manual and I made print -based tutorials for how to use the databases for the students.

 

 It was kind of easy because those students were all graduate students and they were interested.

I realized that a lot of the time I was given things to make instructional items with technology.

 

The first couple jobs I don't usually talk about after that.

I worked in another [specialized] library for a short time.

I didn't like it.

 

I was searching for [specialized professionals] and getting things but my computer was kind of slow.

It was a stressful job. I had to come up with articles really fast and there wasn't a lot of teaching.

Sometimes [specialized professionals] would give us work to do and I didn't like that.

 

I worked at another [academic institution] where I was just checking out books and running the library.

I would teach classes, but it was a very small institution.

 

Then I got picked up by [large academic institution] for a short time and during that time my title [included instruction technology librarian].

The technology they just threw at me.

They wanted me to make a map of floor plans, and I worked on a whole group of big floor plans.

I had to learn to use [new graphics software.]

I had to learn how to do that, but I didn't have a lot of the skills for making a map, and I worked with someone who didn't have technology skills.

We would sit there together, and I would be drawing the rows [of shelves].

We go out and count them together.

Maybe it also helped me with the lack of focus that I had sometimes with just getting work done.

 

I know that I didn't start making tutorials (using instructional technology much) but I did teach a lot.

They hired me to work the desk a lot, teach a lot.

It was only a short time that I was there.

It was a temporary position.

 

When another position popped up, I left.

Working at [large academic institution] is when I feel like I started [as a librarian].

I don't talk about [before that time], you don't have to go back in time.

Not that those other jobs weren't great.

 

Then I went to [another large academic institution] as their [information] librarian, working in the reference department.

That [large academic institution] has many students, and many people who work on reference, [multiple] librarians.

Among those who did reference, some people also taught [as liaison librarians].

I was the only one who didn't have liaison responsibilities, which- I'm going to talk honestly- it sometimes stressed out my colleagues because they felt like they had so much work to do, and all I had to do was work with freshmen and outreach.

 

It was a job that I had when I was still young.

I was still very young in my work habits.

Not that I would be unprofessional or anything, but I was still discovering my identity, and I do remember my boss was slightly micromanaging.

I don't want to call them toxic, but I would go back to this.

When I left that position and went to another [academic institution] years later, I was able to have so much more freedom and get so much more done and so much more productivity.

I feel like [the previous boss] kind of held me back sometimes because there was a lot of tension between them and their supervisor (who was an [academic administrator]) regarding the direction the [academic administrator] wanted.

I was just trying to please people, get a job done. I was in my late 20s, so I kind of wanted to have fun and enjoy my job.