[Publib] Why librarianship?

[Maureen K]

Like a lot of you, I didn't think of librarianship even when it was staring 
me square in the face. I was the kid who haunted the library, finished the 
summer reading program first every year, and even paged for two summers  . . 
. yet when I graduated high school, I told people I was going to be a 
teacher as a day job because any day now I was going to be an NYT 
bestselling author.

It didn't take me long in college to realize that teaching shouldn't be a 
day job and anybody who looked at it with as little enthusiasm as I did 
shouldn't be anywhere near a classroom. I traded my Ed. minor for Classics 
and had fun learning Latin and arguing about Fitzgerald vs. Hemingway, but 
as somebody already said, a English degree minus a teaching certificate and 
1.50 will get you on the subway. Approaching the end of my senior year, I 
was starting to panic (because any day now hadn't come yet). Then I was 
talking to a friend and she mentioned she was going to get her MLS and be a 
librarian. Cue the lightbulb over my head and the Hallelujah chorus.

I just finished up my MLS . . . actually, today was graduation day. I've 
done internships, worked as a page (again), volunteered, and still remain 
convinced that public libraries are the place for me. I'm just glad I didn't 
thoroughly burn myself out, along several classes of kids, on my way to 
realizing that.

Maureen

P.S. Writing-wise, any day now has yet to happen. But now it doesn't seem so 
bad, since I'm not in a day job, but something I have a passion for.

"You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people 
sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing 
wild animals as librarians."
-- Monty Python