Hack Library School Day in the Life, Day 1*

Spring break, yay!

Oh wait, spring break barely registers when one works full time. But–spring break, more time to work on papers, yay!

On tap today is a paper about the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act. The paper has been causing me to pull my hair out for no reason other than my own flakiness. The assignment is to write (five to seven pages) about a current trend in librarianship relating either to diversity in the profession or to the role of librarians/libraries/archives/etc. in society. I chose UELMA as my topic because with the start of legislative sessions, the UELMA has been introduced in a number of states (NINE! if I counted correctly) and thus has been in the news. And did you know that the initial call for a uniform act on the subject came from librarians? It did. So I’m asserting that “lawyers” is a fair subset of “society” and marching forth (get it? March 4th? I slay myself) with the topic.

The trick is going to be the actual writing. My other papers I have been able to visualize a structure in my head. This one is escaping me, I think because I’ve been trying to start with the description of the trend rather than a description of the history to this point. Tonight I’ll be exploring if a new structure will cause the words to flow rapidly from my brain through my fingers.

If it doesn’t, you’ll be reading more mopeyness on this topic later in the week.

This post is part of the Hack Library School Day in the Life (#HLSDITL) project.

*By calling this “day 1” you should not assume that I will post every day this week. You also should not assume that I will NOT post every day this week.

2013 Reading: Books one and two

At the beginning of the year, in a post on a blog that I ought to import to this one, I decided that my reading goal for 2013 would be to read the top ten books in the New York Times Book Review for 2012.

Although it took some time to get started, on account of most of the books not being available at my local branch of the public library and me being too lazy to place holds on them (umm…), I have now gotten started. Last week I read NW, by Zadie Smith. And this is where you all see how terrible a book reviewer I am–and how poor a reader. My assessment of the book? Good story, but I prefer a much more straightforward narrative. I was supposed to get out of the book an understanding of socio-economic issues in London. And I did, though I suspect I should have thought more deeply about it.

Moving on…

Robert Caro’s The Passage of Power is very long. It is the fourth in a four-volume series about Lyndon Johnson, and I haven’t read the first three volumes. Nevertheless, despite a few awkward references to the previous books, I’m finding Lyndon Johnson fascinating. Election fraud! Fights! Drama! Power grabs!

I’m only about halfway through the book; LBJ has just taken the oath of office. I’m eager to find out what happens next.

Work and school, school and work

When I enrolled in library school, I made some assumptions. One of those assumptions — wrong, like most of my assumptions — was that when one says that “nearly everyone in the program works full time,” one means in all sorts of jobs. I, perhaps foolishly, didn’t realize that 86% of library school students already work in libraries. (“Statistic” is a made up number not intended to bear any relationship to reality.)

So when I learned that half of the classes at school start at 4 pm, I was befuddled and bewildered. (And frustrated.) I work full-time. So do other students. So how is that so many people can make them work in their schedules?

It only took me three weeks into the second semester to realize it’s because I’m the only one who works neither in a library nor in a public school. I’m not, to be completely honest; I met another “career changer” (to use her words) who still works in her HR job full time.

This explains the scheduling problem.

There is another issue of not working in a library while in library school: graduating without practical experience. I read this post on balancing work and school eagerly, hoping it would relate to the schedule issue above, but instead it just highlighted this other problem.

I’m already an attorney; is that experience enough to be hired as a law librarian out of library school? I already work for the District; if I want to switch to archives, is that experience enough to get a job in the District’s Office of Public Records?  What if I want to work in an academic law library (currently at the top of my list)?

I’m interested to hear from other people who have been in similar situations. Did you work full-time in a field not related to your graduate studies while in graduate school? How did that affect your job search post-school?

 

Shush!

A library post! From the librarian blogs I’ve started following, there seems to be a very important issue: busting stereotypes of librarians. Apparently I am a Very Bad Librarian (to be) by having looked for “sexy librarian” glasses last time I went looking for frames. Not that I have any hope of a pair of glasses magically making me sexy.

[Side note: very important issue? Perhaps a subject to delve into further in my Libraries and Information in Society class this semester? Academic writing on the stern matronly librarian? Yes please.]

I was reminded of this Very Important Issue when I came across a blog post about cell phone use in libraries. Now, although I’m making light of the seriousness of the issue of stereotypes of librarians in the same sentence as linking to that blog post, I’m not intending to make light of the issue of cell phone use in libraries. I could write my own treatise on the overuse of cell phones. I’m guilty myself of overuse of cell phones.

My point, which I realize I’ve taken a roundabout way to get to, is that the title of that blog post reminded me of a twitter conversation I was part of on Friday. My friend Brian, who is the 37th most popular bike blogger in DC, posted this picture of a sign at his university library.

And now we get to the crux of the matter. I feel duty bound as a librarian-to-be to YELL at the top of a whisper “no food! no noise! shush!”

Phew, got that out of my system.

And now we can talk about HOW THE HECK ARE ORANGES AND POTATO CHIPS ACCEPTABLE LIBRARY FOODS WHEN SUSHI ISN’T?!? As I pointed out in the twitter conversation, I have been known to throw soy sauce across the room when eating sushi. No one ever said I was graceful. But there is no world in which sushi is noisy and DEFINITELY no world in which it is messier than oranges or potato chips. (I can be fair. The sign says “fruit,” not “oranges.” But a picture is worth 1000 words, right? Make the picture an apple and I’ll stop criticizing. At least on this point.)

So while I appreciate the broadening of library policies to allow food and drink, at least in designated areas, can we at least make sure that the policies make sense? I’ll be eating my not-at-all-messy poppy seed bagel while you think about it.