[Ed. note: I started writing this at the end of January of 2009 but never published it for whatever mystery reason I may have had at the time. Nearly 11 months later (eep!), a lot of what is written here is still highly relevant, so I'm cleaning it up and pubbing it.]

I wish I had some witty story about a patron to give this entry more punch but the best I can come up with is the “faculty” dude who came and started yelling at me about “throwing out those kids” who were apparently disturbing his royal highness while he was working. I was, at the time of the yelling, walking over to work with another patron who needed access on the all access computer (no Internet access but allows students to install and run software for classes. Thus, “all access” is kind of moot, I suppose.). Even though I motioned that I would be with him in a second, he kept yelling across the open area about how they were bothering and disturbing him and I HAD BETTER DO SOMETHING!

Right sparky, I’ll get right on that.

After helping the student get logged into the all access computer, I looked for the librarian on duty for consultation and it turned out “those kids” were two girls who were talking quietly while working on a project together in an area designed for such a thing. The open plan area is not a quiet study area and that information is posted as such all over the place. The librarian on duty spoke quietly with the girls, his royal highness kept glaring at the librarian on duty and at me and didn’t say a peep after that. It was one of those “what the fuck, becky” kind of moments.

And I’m only two weeks into my new job.

The one thing that has been stressed since my starting this program is that you need experience, experience, experience in order to make it in the real world and winning this job has been a $deity_send in that it is giving me not only real world reference experience but experience in an academic library to boot. But here’s the thing: my classes that were to prep me for this job have really had no impact on how I handle myself at the reference desk. This sentiment was also echoed by several librarians I have interviewed over the last six months who have all told me that while lib school was great for the theory and some of the application, they really didn’t feel that they learned their jobs until they were on the jobs. This, then, becomes the catch-22: You need some experience to get an entry level position but you must obtain an entry level position in order to get the experience.

Lots of libraries like to hire in-status students, which is a boon to many of us who have had no prior experience in libraries before lib school. But this goes back to the teaching moment in that how you are trained while working in the library whether as a volunteer, intern or paid employee. These experiences can and will shape how you handle your professional career thus one must also take this factor into account when one is looking for a starting library position.

One thing I have noticed is this slightly playful but not really competition between those who work in a library and those who work in bookstores. For some reason that I cannot fathom, there seems to be some sort of unspoken rivalry between booksellers and librarians, and I’ve heard more than one librarian on various message boards bitch and complain how booksellers “try” to be like librarians by providing reader’s advisory and reference services without proper training and booksellers complain that librarians try to treat bookstores like libraries or that librarians feel like they are slumming if they come and apply for a job or work in a bookstore.

This is the part I don’t get: Bookstores are out to make money and to the corporate bookstores, the bottom line is ALL about the money. Whether or not someone gets interested in reading or enriching their life based on the books they purchased means nothing to the higher ups in corporate America – it’s just about how much the customer has spent and is there a way to get them to spend more. It’s about discounts, volume and bestsellers. It’s not about education, enrichment, support or education.

This is not to say the average bookseller is not a reader, I’d roughly guesstimate that about 90% of the people I worked with were huge readers who read in a variety of genres and many of us had subject specializations. We were a very well rounded crew with a broad spectrum of education and backgrounds. And this is not also to say that every bookstore feels this way – but having worked in $corporate_bookstore and being told time and time again that I spent too much time educating the reader rather than hand-selling them crap, I speak from experience.

The other big argument that often comes up in discussion is how the bookstores are attempting to be like the library system (“help desks” that imitate reference desks, library-esque setting, comfy chairs, etc) while the library system is attempting to try to be like bookstores (cafes, overhead music systems, wider range of programming).

But my question is: Why spend all this time arguing about who is trying to be like the other? All this mudslinging is ridiculous as libraries and bookstores can co-exist AND live together. It’s like watching a never ending game of Tekken and in the end, the ones left holding the “WTF?” bag are the customers/patrons who just wanted help finding a damned book.

Back in July, a slew of librarians wrote about their experiences covering one day (or some cases, several days) of their day to day life as a librarian. And by slew, I mean dozens and judging by the PbWorks page, maybe hundreds? Not only were the blogs collected into PbWorks, but they were also tweeted and reshared on Twitter with the hashtag, #librarydayinthelife.

The point of this exercise was to illustrate how wildly different the tasks and jobs were from a plethora of librarians and library staff, clearly showing that while the MLIS degree to some extent can be pretty generic, what is expected of us really varies on the location and job title we are given. And if this little exercise doesn’t showcase that we as a profession are beyond the bun-glasses-orthopedic shoes stereotype and the flexibility of the job really IS there, then I don’t know if anything really will.

With all of that being said, I wanted to desperately put my two cents in but at the time, didn’t think my life as a grad student then would prove to be that totally useful. Since the fall semester has started (and erm, is actually almost ending), I thought that now would be a good time to contribute.

My background:
I don’t think I’m a typical student in that I’m also involved with lots of extracurricular activities outside of my classwork, with some of it mostly relating to my job and some do not. I’m currently taking a full load of classes, work 20 hours a week at the graduate library reference desk, work part-time for a professor as her social media specialist (hours vary), am involved in several organizations, also sit on a committee, and am working on my archival practicum. I live about 15 miles away from school, which also throws upto 30 minutes each way of travel time.

Also, my weeks tend to fluctuate: Either I have all meetings and stuff inbetween work and classes or it is empty for me to do homework in. Sometimes there is a nice balance, but not always.

Tuesday, November 17
07:15 – 08:15 AM: Up, mainlining coffee and getting stuff together for the day. Leave the house at about 8:15ish to stop and get my daily Slurpee and drive down Woodward to Wayne State.
9:00 AM – 1:00 PM: Reference desk. What I can get done during this time period varies depending on how many questions are coming at me per hour. Today was an especially busy day with averages of about 10 questions per hour, nearly double of previous weeks averages for this time frame. I do face to face and telephone reference, most of it quick or ready-reference, with the occassional extended reference thrown in. Reference questions tend to be directional (aka quick), computer help, book search, or being asked for help on writing papers. I’m also typically logged in online via gTalk and Twitter and do homework when it’s really slow.
01:00 – 02:00 PM: Lunch break, read homework while I ate.
02:00 – 3:00 PM: Meeting with a professor about an upcoming large project that is due in December. I researching a local historical society and why (or why not) they are important not only to the community but to the archival profession. After that was done, we spent the rest of the time gossiping about music and MLIS accreditation.
03:00 – 04:30 PM: Virtual reference committee bi-weekly meeting. One of the senior librarians put together a staff meeting committee, with me being the only grad student, to research and explore alternatives to our existing VR software, Docutek. I was tasked with looking at IM alternatives, testing Trillian Astra and looking to the power of Twitter and GoogleWave to finding out what other people are using. I reported back and based upon my research, they will be testing out LibraryH3lp.
04:30 – 05:30 PM: Coffee with my friend Lauren. Lauren applied for an on-campus GSA position (graduate student assistant, a position I currently hold) and we were dissecting the interview before we headed to class.
05:30 – 8:15 PM: Intro to archives class, held every Tuesday. We had a speaker on Records Management come in and spoke for the entire class period.
09:15 – 12:00 AM: Went home and did several errands on my way home. Once I got home and out of my “oppressive clothes”₁, posted weekly discussion summary to Blackboard for my online class, discussed the VR meeting with my fiance and then settled on the couch for a few hours with dinner, House and The Big Bang Theory.

Wednesday, November 18
07:15 – 08:15 AM: Same as the day before: mainlining coffee, showering and getting dressed to head out. I get to leave a few minutes early, which is always a bonus.
09:00 AM – 03:30 PM: My long day for reference desk pimping. Spent most of my downtime trying to hack stuff together for lib schooled., which was failing. The relief librarians were nearly 30 minutes late (I was to leave at 3pm). Only planned on spending a few hours working on my website but ended up getting sucked into spending most of my time at the desk on it. I caught up on some email, prepped stuff for the student chapter Progressive Librarians’ Guild meeting scheduled for tonight.
03:30 – 05:45 PM: Planned on working on homework for the week but wanted to finish this entry. Continued to do prep work for the PLG meeting tonight. Did some quality web browsing. Caught up on more emails.
06:00 – 07:00 PM: Meeting with my advisor on course selection for next semester.
07:00 – 09:00 PM: PLG student monthly meeting. I’m the v-p and with the president having been MIA (deservedly so) due to her recent marriage, things have been a tad crazy.
09:00 PM – 12:00 AM: Head home, decompress from another 12+ hour day, get out of my oppressive clothes¹ and sleep. Only to start over all again tomorrow.

1. Meaning I got into yoga pants and a tshirt.

Last week, to put it succinctly, was the week from hell.

I left for St. Louis to present at a conference on Wednesday, came home mid-afternoon Friday only to immediately head to the Fox Theatre with Justin to see Bob Dylan play Friday night. Saturday morning, after dropping Wednesday off at the dog boarders, we drove to Kalamazoo to see our friends Lauren and Eric get married. Sunday, after a pit stop at IKEA, we headed home where I was able to finally couch for the first time, it seemed, in weeks.

I only checked email twice on Monday. Twice! Clearly, I was tired and overworked.

Justin and I have been having a lot of conversations on what’s going to happen with me when on-campus classes are done for me in May (I’ll still be doing a few online classes for the summer session): I’ll be out of a job (the graduate program kicks students off of student assistantships after 36 credit hours and I hit 42 or 44 May 2010), Justin and I are getting married (to get health benefits – srsly), we’re moving somewhere but we’re not sure where. And then there is the honeymoon to contend with (UK? Italy? For how long?). In a short amount of time, a lot of stuff is going to be happening and I can’t plan for it because it is all dependent on whether or not I get a job offer and if so, where I’m going. And on top of that, if I don’t get a job offer, where do we move to? Justin has the luxury of telecommuting, and I know that if I can’t find a job in X time, he will support me, but I don’t want to have to do that.

It’s called having to pay $900/month in student loans, muthafucker. (“Down with your bourgeois education,” Justin says.)

So then it goes back to, “What do you want to do! What do you want to do with your life!” and of course, “world domination” doesn’t necessarily pay the bills.

In all seriousness though, I stacked my interests and my work experience in the last two years to make myself as marketable as possible. I’ll have 18 months of academic librarianship under my belt, along with having presented at a conference, certification in archival work coupled with practicum experience, digital librarianship, special projects I’ve worked on with professors plus my own incredibly varied background.

I’m awesome and I know that.

One thing I keep musing on is just how far and to what extent I want to make librarianship and archival work my life — because I know me well enough to know that I will rabble rouse and want to change the world (I’ve already started that on campus here with the creation of a new student group that I did with three other students this summer), and while there are many incredibly awesome librarians and archivists out there who do similar rabble rousing things, the profession as a whole can be and is to some extent, incredibly backward and staid. As a student, looking at the work being done typically sums up one thing — that everything has to be committed to death and with that comes the death of innovation and moving forward.

But as par usual, I’m digressing.

As it stands, in addition to my course work and 20 hours of ref desk pimpin’, I currently am doing the following:

• President, ASIS&T,Wayne State student chapter.
• Vice President and co-founder, Progressive Librarians’ Guild, Wayne State student chapter.
• Communications chair, Graduate Employees’ Organizing Committee, Wayne State.
• Member, virtual reference committee for new technologies, Wayne State Library system.
• Digital technologies librarian liaison, various roles/responsibilities ¹.

I can see my life going in a variety of directions, and I know that I’m flexible enough with my skillset that if I don’t like how one way goes, I can totally switch it to another. The problem, however, is that I’m not quite sure if I want to be a rabble rouser anymore — my own work and interests seem to get pushed to the side because when I take on something, I like to think I give it 110% of my focus – and I know it is because of this that makes me so good at what I do.

Writing, for example, has gone to the way side. Not just missing a few days or a few weeks but it’s been since MAY since I’ve posted anything to this or my LiveJournal account, which I even barely check anymore. My other domain, biblyotheke.net is to represent my “professional portfolio” and that’s not even been tweaked with since I installed Indexhibit on it a few weeks ago.

The quandary I’m having is not only how I want to live my life, but how to live my life and make it meaningful. How do I balance a husband, a future family, a career and personal interests while giving myself Lisa-time? What type of jobs should I start looking for? Should I sell out? Consult? Write the “Great American Novel”? Do I want to work 60hrs a week and push family and personal life aside (like my mom)? And if my school involvement right now is any indicator, it can end up like that.

Because I find it incredibly difficult to say “No.”

1. I have not discussed with my freelance employers what I can and cannot post about my work for them, so for now, they remain anonymous.

I’m terribly behind on posting updates and finishing writing nearly a dozen articles that I have saved, but bear with me, the content is forthcoming. I promise

About a month ago, a posting came through my program general discussion list about GSA positions that were going to became available at the P/K Graduate library and the undergraduate library, respectively. GSA (graduate student assistant) positions are paid positions where ones tuition is also paid (almost literally until you graduate from the program) and offers bennies. Thus, you get hourly wage plus free tuition. Being the broke-ass student that I am, I applied for the position and was notified less then two days before the interview that I had said interview. Thankfully my schedule was clear enough for me to pull it off and I did some creative re-arranging with ThePugKids to get them settled while I was gone.

The interview was — interesting.

A week goes by and another email goes out to the general discussion list about library internship availability at the P/K Graduate library. Literally the same position, minus the paid tuition and bennies. I email the HR rep and ask her about applying for this position as I had not heard back from the selection committee yet and she says that’s fine that I can also apply for that position. A few days later, I write my cover letter, attach my resume and reference information and email it to the HR rep and ask her about the status of the GSA position. She returns my email that night (Sunday) within an hour and tells me that unfortunately the positions were filled and that my resume was forwarded to the selection committee for the library internship position.

Clearly, I am beyond disappointed. I was counting on getting the GSA to help me out financially — there were four spots and dammit, I should have gotten one of those! The extra FinAid money that I would have received would have helped me out tremendously in setting up my digs in Detroit and not stress about job worries so much. With the “economic crisis” coupled with the fact that I live in the most financially depressed state in the nation, the probabilities of transferring to $corporate_bookstore across state were looking pretty slim. While I’m sure they would take me on, losing bennies, hours and a pay cut would fucking suck — but I’d do it if it guaranteed me a job until I found another job, preferably one in a library.

The application for the library intern position was due Monday before Thanksgiving. I didn’t have any exceptions on getting the job, the weather has been sucky since we’ve received nearly 12″ of snow in the last week and the stress about trying to get across state for another interview, etc was driving me batshit. I clearly did not have high hopes of even being called in for another interview, the semester is closing in fast and well, I had to come up with another plan.

I was doing homework today when my phone rings and it’s a 313 area code, so I figured it was — someone I did not know. (I’m terribly witty at nearly midnight, can’t you tell?)

It happened to be one of the selection people from my first round of interviews a few weeks back. Turns out that there were only three GSA positions available, not four, and that I was to have been slotted in the fourth spot. They were highly pleased to see my resume for the library intern position and hey, since they already interviewed me and liked me, would I want the library intern position?

I think my “YES!!!!!!!!!” was heard for a six-block radius.

I chit-chat with the librarian coordinator for a bit and she tells me that I have to contact HR to get the paperwork pushed through. No sooner had I hung up the phone with the coordinator, another 313 call comes through, this one from the HR. Could I come onto campus tomorrow to fill in paperwork? The position pays 2x a month but apparently the deadline for new hires to get paid for the first pay period in January is tomorrow. Um, shit. I can make it on Monday when I am on campus for class, but, possibly not tomorrow. She says that’s fine, but that this means my first check won’t deposit until February 4, which I’m totally okay with.

So while we’re on the phone, the HR rep says, “Hey! Great news! They’ve upped your pay by $3 more an hour to be more competitive.” Jesus, I haven’t even been hired for more than an hour and I’ve already got a raise!

The scary part? I’ll be working 20/hrs a week and making the _same_ amount of money as I was making full time at $corporate_bookstore. I’ll still be holding on to the $corporate_bookstore job for 10-15 hours a week until I can find another part-time library position or what have you — but man, while the first few weeks of January are going to be rough, this is so going to be totally worth it!

To give you an idea of what my general week is like: I work 32 hours at my job, take nine credit hours of classes and my free time is filled with homework. I’m behind on some, not so behind in others but all of my assignments and etc. are up to date. One thing you learn in grad school, really learn, is how to prioritize your time. I made this choice, I know this, and the lack of social life I’m totally okay with that decision.

This entry is going to be fairly short, my eyes are watering from how tired I am, but I did want to update on what is going on. I still have to get into writing the “So, You Want To Be A Librarian?” series because it helps me refocus on what I’m doing now and what my plans are.

Today I met with my adviser for the first time and started working on my plan of work. The p.o.w. is what Wayne State uses to help guide students through their years while at lib school and helps with the student to make a better use of their time. It’s mandatory for all lib students to complete this by the time they have enrolled in nine credit hours (which I’m currently doing). Failure to do so means that their account is put on hold until the p.o.w is completed and turned in and it also means that until it is completed, the student cannot register for classes.

Wayne offers a general MLIS degree as well as several concentrations, certifications, of which I am doing two. Yes, two certifications: Archives and Information Systems. I choose archives for my love of research, history and general nosiness. Information Systems was chosen because of my technology background (a decade in real world tech experience, mostly high end) and it would be extremely foolish of me to not capitalize on that learned history. There is also a possibility of doing a thesis option, or I can simply do a directed study (create my own class), which I think that I would rather do than a full-on thesis option. My original thesis proposal at Central Mich was never completed due to time and energy and feeling a totally, “What the hell am I doing?” but it can be transferred (subject matter is the global village with social networking and pop culture) to Wayne, if I want, to get actually started on it and completed. Right now, I’m leaning towards more of the directed study approach over a full-on thesis, but, who knows what will happen. Instead of 36 credit hours needed to complete the degree, I’m up to 51 credit hours. My projected graduation date is Fall, 2010.

I also discovered that there is a little utilized graduate scholarship that essentially gives a full ride that I can apply for — and I could have applied for this year and had no idea about. I am going to be submitting for 2009/10 year because if I can get monies that I don’t have to pay back — yay for me!

As par usual, more concise updates will be provided later.

I couldn’t resist posting this image — I was originally going to use it for another post I’m working on but fuck it, this works just as well.

For anyone that has spoken to me lately, I’ve become a homework recluse. I work, eat, occasionally knit, occasionally dream about sex, even more rarely catch up on Tivo and but read voraciously. But the bulk of my time is spent with my nose in books doing homework or doing “something” related to what needs to be done for class. My work load has gotten so heavy that I’ve dropped my job hours from 40 to 32, freeing up that one extra day a week that I can actually breathe. I’ve also had to stop hanging out so much with friends and had to give up the Walk For MS that I was planning on in a couple of weeks. That was one of the hardest things I’ve had to come to make a decision on and while my partner in crime, Steph, totally knew this was going to happen far before I did, she graciously knew that my education comes first before anything else.

I know that for the next 2+ years, I’ll be married to the program. It is not just the work load but the accouterments, if you will, of everything else associated with becoming a librarian that surrounds it. It is the networking, conferencing, professional development and hopefully at some point, a pint or two of Guinness. It is also the research on other topics that will be happening that also coincide with all this work that is making it worthwhile.

I’ve never been so exhilarated, frightened or have wanted something so badly as much as I want this degree. There are so many possibilities and opportunities that have arisen since I’ve started this program that I’m absolutely spell bounded by it all. But I need to address something due to a remark that was made to me tonight because I’m highly sensitive on the topic of education and the paths one takes to prepare oneself for the future.

In conversation tonight with a friend of mine who is also a graduate student, I was lamenting about the amount of work that had to be completed, in general. Her response to me was, “No offense to your old program, but welcome to a real Masters program.”

She is, in fact, referring to my humanities MA from CMU, of which I finally received the diploma for several weeks ago.

From her tone, you would have thought I would have sent in five cereal box tops and $5 dollars. And viola! Several weeks later, a freshly minted, laser printed degree was on my doorstep.

My educational background is not a straight line (and may I remind her, neither is hers). I did not graduate from high school, I in fact got my GED. I have never been ashamed of this fact (though for some reason, the fact that I am not ashamed constantly surprises people) nor do I regret my decision. It is what it is. I made some bad choices in high school, some other things did not work out and I obtained my GED one year from my “official” graduation date. I went to a local community college several years later, did well on a number of things and not so well on others and discovered technology. Left the CC and worked in the technology sector for almost a decade before applying to, and being accepted by, a number of colleges and universities up and down the east coast and in Michigan. Left my fiancée, a job that would have been made redundant at some point or another and moved back home to finish my B.A.

I was 30.

Completed my B.A. at Aquinas College, a fairly presitigious school I might add in the Midwest, in May of 2005. My overall GPA walking in? 1.7. My GPA on graduation? 3.3. Not too shabby for a high school drop out.

During my senior year, while looking at graduate schools, I was torn by all the programs and choices that were available. It was suggested to me via several faculty members that I look into a general M.A. in Humanities to help narrow down my focus. Central Michigan University offered such a program, I applied to and was accepted to begin several weeks after my graduation date from Aquinas.

Yes, weeks.

The program, in cohort design, is set up that each class is done over weekend periods. So for my first class, American Art History up to 1960, I went to class every Friday from 6pm to 10pm and every Saturday from 8am-5pm, alternating weekends for 4-8 weeks. When that class was finished, another one would begin. Was the work load intense? Yes. You try cramming in two weeks of lectures into a single weekend. Social life? Out the window.

Now, I joined the cohort in progress that summer and that was one of their last classes. When I started classes again in the fall, my mother found out she had cancer and a few other things were going on. I left the cohort and rejoined in the fall of 2006. I followed through for two years and finally completed the program in May 2008.

During this time, a lot of things happened in my personal life. I fell in love, I was working full time, my then boyfriend and I moved in together, we were quasi-talking about marriage. And I also started thinking about graduate school for something else, as was the then boyfriend. I had done a lot of serious thinking from May 2005 to fall of 2007 about what I wanted to do with my life and realised that I wanted to become a librarian.

Becoming a librarian had been simmering in my brain for years, this was not a one-off decision (such as I am prone to make). A lot of things fell into place during that time frame that made the decision more concrete and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, this is what I wanted to do with my life.

Going back to the CMU program, I had often joked that it did not feel “real.” The set up, as it is, is not conducive for someone who is interested in doing serious academic work. Have people gone on to pHd programs from my program? Yes. But for the most part, many of the people in my program already HAD Masters degrees in something else and most of them were teachers. All part of their enrichment process and professional development were the reasons why they were doing the program. But the work was real, the grades were real and the degree is also very real.

Over the several years that I worked towards this program, there has been a number of times that people, not just my friend, who have made commentary to the fact that this degree was less valid than a “real” Masters. The now exboyfriend was one of them and so were several others. I’m not sure what it was about the set-up that seemed to make them THINK that this degree is any less valid than any other Masters degree (especially coming from a highly accredited university), but nonetheless, the snobbery stings.

So you know what?
Fuck you people.

The simple fact that I have to defend my decision or my choices is insulting enough, but to insinuate that my first Masters is not “real” is beyond reproach. I graduated out of that program with a 3.6 GPA. Just because the program did not follow “traditional” guidelines, did not adhere to the “rules” of traditional programs does not make this degree any less valid. If I went to a shoddy, fly-by-night university or took a class in underwater basket weaving, THEN you would have room to complain. But seeing as I am the one who willingly gave up social life, money, and time to obtain this “worthless” is my decision and my choice. You may not agree with how I did or do things, but you know what, it is not your life or choice to make, it is totally mine. And simply by suggesting that what I did was not “real” is not only insulting to me but shows me how very little respect you have for me.

At the end of the day, when my resume is printed and it showcases that I have a B.A., M.A. and a M.L.I.S. degree, not a single, solitary employer is going to question me on the method of how I did my classes or what I did to obtain my degrees. All that is going to matter is that I have them and the outstanding GPAs to back them up. (And the networking, professional associations, president of something or another by the time I graduate.)

In short: Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
Thank you and have a good night.

Internets, I have a request! For one of the classes I’m taking, I’m required to purchase a webcam. I went searching on NewEgg and Amazon and found this one. It’s cheap, USB, has built in mic and a clip to attach to my laptop. As I have not purchased a webcam in years, should this one do the trick or do I need to look at something else? Somewhere around here, I have an old B&W webcam from my days in San Fran and D.C. Here is an example of me circa 1998, with Justin, in our old place in San Fran. I’m getting vaguely excited about seeing him in December, as it would have been 10 years since we last saw each other. I’m kinda excited about posting images of us from then and now, and in this new fangled thing called color! High res even! Technologies, it astounds me.

LIB6080 is an intro class, also a pre-req for future classes, on information technology. This class requires that by completion of the semester, I have taken AND passedthe IC³ exams (there are three in total). Failure to take the exams or failure to take and pass the exams automatically fails me for the course; as well as with my other two courses this semester, it is a pre-req for completion of the degree and not necessarily just for future classes in the program.

As I have mentioned before, several profs and students have discussed the disparity between the UMich and Wayne MLIS programs. To wit: UMich: tenure track, academia groomed, focus on technology development, methodologies and research. Wayne State: focus on day to day professional environment, marketable and flexible skill set level, job force ready. This is not to say that UMich does not provide their students with the same skill sets as Wayne, they do to some degree, but their focus seemingly is more on the grooming of future academics in the field of research and development over job force ready. I have spoken to those who have graduated from the program without intent of academic pursuits and did not have a problem getting positions (which also may have to do with UMich’s existing reputation as a stellar school) and those currently in the program who are not planning on a research or academic track.

If I seem a bit obsessive about the two schools, to some degree, I am. I had been eyeing UMich’s SI (as they call it) program for a number of years before I applied and was rejected for the fall of 2008. I know, on some level, why I was rejected but what didn’t help matters was that the SI department posted stats on the applications for the fall of 2007. They accepted 81% of their applicants into the program, so my ego is a bit bruised thinking that I must have REALLY fucked up.

The main thing that has me salivating for UMich is their Museum Studies Program, which BEFORE would only accept current graduate students from UMich who would concurrently work on their masters/phd program along with the cert program. My goal was to get into SI and do a tailored program via SI and the MSP and graduate in three or so years. But apparently they have changed the admissions process and now anyone with a graduate degree in the last five years can apply independently to Rackham for the MSP program. WOOT! I say, WOOT! Cos guess what I have? A newly minted Masters degree! And I wonder if I can do a tailored program via Wayne and UMich? How fuckin’ awesomely brilliant would that be?!?

Dammit, this entry was going to posit about technology and my ego and I went on another tangent. I suppose that will have to suffice for another day.

Quote of the night: “I organize, preserve, index and provide access for all of human knowledge — what do YOU do?”

When I began researching library schools a number of years ago, I couldn’t quite get over the concept of why someone would need a degree in googling and bookshelving. But the more research I did on the programs and the sheer amount of flexibility that library programs gave to future careers, I was ready to be seduced in getting my masters in googling and bookshelving. And I couldn’t help thinking, as time progressed and I started pre-class research and book reading, that perhaps I was a tad righteous in my thinking.

And I love to be proven wrong.

Last nights class, Intro to Library Profession (or baby class 101 as I like to refer to it) dispelled many of mine, and apparently others, myths on the profession. Readings over the summer helped expand my knowledge technology and libraianship, primarily that it was librarians that helped fund and start the first computer databases as a way of organizing and easily accessing knowledge. Yet, at the same time, there is the myth that as electronic cataloging of material grows the fate of the decline of physical libraries keeps growing larger. Not true said the prof, as who else could manage, collate, collect, organize, and index all that electronic information but a librarian. Thus the job market is expanding at an astounding rate as more and more companies and individuals look for someone or something to help keep all of this information in control. The number of people who apply and go to lib school grows as the job market grows and as the job market grows so does the skill sets that lib school provides and teaches.

My prof went on to list what librarians do and what the skill sets are required and as she went through the list, she then demanded us to tell her exactly what company would not love to hire someone who had these specific skills. No one could provide an answer because what it boiled down to was that ANY company would love to hire someone who can provide this incredibly long and flexible skill base. And it is not just in public, academic or even in a traditional library setting — companies are expnading to start their own catalogs, archives, special collections to name a few and who better to organize, index, and provide access to this information other than someone with an MLIS degree? In short: a librarian.

But the image problem comes in, namely, that while librarians were the first on the ball back in the dark ages with working with computers and electronic databases for organizing information, the profession has turned its collective backs to the onslaught of new media (which is slowly being changed as new technologies, classes, workshops and the like are provided to keep skill set fresh). The other problem is the image of the librarian — because when you say you are a librarians, the first thing that comes to mind is a Miss Kerfuffle, 60 years old with her hair in a bun, glasses perched on her noses, constantly telling you to shush in the library. And all Miss Kerfuffle wants to do is read her trashy romance and keep her books in line on the shelves.

My prof talked about a study that was done some time ago (I forget exactly how long) in which a non-biased poll was taken on how Americans viewed themselves. 90% registered themselves as extroverts while 10% registered themselves as introverts. When the same poll was applied to librarians, the opposite was true — 10% were extroverts and 90% were introverts. Again, the problem of PR and marketing is holding true — librarians are constantly getting a bad rap on who and what they do. What is needed, my prof said, was balance. It may be fine and dandy that you love to read and are into doing whatever but this job is a service job and we are here to provide a service to the public. You need, she intoned, to realise that you are providing a public service regardless of the capacity.

The other image issue is the new fangled titling of librarians — information analysts, information architects, information managers and corporate information officers. But what it boiled down to was that at heart, they were librarians underneath the fancy titles. She told us a story of a friend of hers who was at the forefront of information architecture during the dot com boom rage. Her friend made a killing in the area and she joked that if his client base knew he was really a librarian, his pay rate would decrease alarmingly. Because clearly, being an information architect is MUCH sexier than saying one is a librarian.

Another interesting note is that she discussed about Michigan having two library schools when some states did not have even one. She talked about the differences between Wayne and UMich, expanding on why she was ecstatic that we choose Wayne over UMich. She discussed how she often guest lectures at UMich and told us an antidote about a professor at UMich who mentioned to her in passing that when that prof needs employees or students for projects, she comes up to Wayne to recruit, not necessarily within her own school. My prof said that was interesting and asked why that was so to be told that UMich doesn’t necessarily teach the necessary skills for day to day work, rather, the students are more involved in research and development and are being groomed for professor tracks in academia. Having gone over UMich’s website with a fine tooth comb, I can see why this would be true. Apparently, UMich doesn’t teach cataloging anymore, one of the foundational courses that almost every lib school teaches, and of which something you can’t learn on the job. Hence why the UMich prof recruits via Wayne.

Interestingly enough, I’ve heard this time and time again from students AND professors about the friendly rivalry between Wayne and UMich. Some of my classmates have joked that they are going to a high paying technical skills college in order to get jobs. Me? I don’t quite see it way but the disparity between the two colleges does give me more food for thought as I battle on whether or not I should apply to UMich or not.

But that is a story for another time.