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Monday, April 11, 2011

National Library Week - Why become a librarian?

Today I have a great guest post by a blogger who is going to school to become a librarian. And this is why she decided to become one! :)

Why I want to become a librarian.

By Natasha A. from My Disorganized Ramblings

I grew up surrounded by books. We had shelves of them - old encyclopedias, dictionaries, fiction, non-fiction. To me, books have always equaled knowledge, and knowledge equals power and confidence. One of my earliest memories is of my dad reading a Dr. Seuss book to me.

For me, the most natural thing in the world was for me to work in a library.

I’m not a librarian yet, but one day I hope to be. I’m about a month away from graduating with a Library Technician Diploma.

What’s the difference you ask? One of the easiest ways I can explain is that LT’s are more technical. They do ordering and processing of the new books. They help with research questions. Librarians do more teaching and they do more administrative work, like budgets and such.

So, back to my topic - “Why I want to become a librarian”...

I’ve been working on my diploma for seven years now. I’m doing it part time and online. This has allowed me to continue to work full time but still do my studies. I have definitely have had my moments of doubt – Do I really want to do this for the rest of my life?

And every morning I wake up and say yes.

What greater gift is there than to give someone power and confidence. I can do that. I can do that with my skills and training. I get to help people expand their minds. I get to help them grown, learn and succeed with any endeavor they should choose to accomplish. I get to watch faces light up when they learn something new. I get to watch as they finally understand what it was that the doctor told them last week. I get to watch as they become more enlightened. I get to watch them get excited about discovering new authors or rediscovering an old one.

Every day I will face new questions (yes there will be some monotony). Every day I will get to use MY brain and MY knowledge to teach someone else. Every day I get to learn and expand MY mind.

What better way to spend my life...

Plus? Librarians? Where I work? 8 weeks of vacation!! *grin*



I do love my 8 weeks off! :) Great post and I can see a lot of what made you want to be a librarian in myself. Keep going and I can't wait until you get to experience the awesomeness of librarianship!

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8 comments:

  1. I love being a librarian, but I also loved being a Latin teacher. If I were to pick a career now, I would never go into anything in the liberal arts. Every year, there is the possibility that my position will be cut. It's nerve wracking. Good luck!

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  2. I'm really glad that you promote libraries on your site. I live in the UK, but I'm going to do some library-related posts this week as well since I have quite a lot of american readers / followers

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  3. This is so awesome.... I almost forgot it was National Library week.... guess I need to make a stop (or two) :)

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  4. That's so cool! Congrats on nearly being an LT Natasha and on finding a career that you're so passionate about.

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  5. Thanks for having me Kristen!

    @Zombie Girrrl - Thanks!! I do really love my job and I can't wait to do more with it!

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  6. A great post!
    My sister's a librarian and I think we have the best of both worlds. I write books (which she recommends) and I get to hear about all the great books being published. Love it.
    Good luck and congrats on almost being there!

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  7. Congrats on getting your LTS! :) I changed careers to get my MLIS and become a librarian and love my job. I do think it's interesting that you said, "What’s the difference you ask? One of the easiest ways I can explain is that LT’s are more technical. They do ordering and processing of the new books. They help with research questions. Librarians do more teaching and they do more administrative work, like budgets and such." In my library, the librarians handle collection development, and our technical services staff (some of whom are librarians) do the processing. Our librarians also handle reference questions, run discussion groups, and teach classes. Only librarians at the department-head level handle things like the budget. People who have the LTA don't handle reference questions or teach in our library. It's nice -- and interesting -- to see how your library does things. :)

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  8. 8 weeks off? Why, that just gives you plenty of time to read! :D

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