School Daze

[chargirlgenius]

People keep asking how school is going, and I usually say, "it's school, you know." There's an element of that, as it sure is nice to be on break for the next week and not worry about homework or studying. But really, it's going great. I'm figuring out the quirks of my instructors, and even when they piss me off, it's a good, active type of pissing

Comments

[dragonazure]

Not all librarian jobs are the same, but in the public library system you sometimes have to be part social worker.... :/

[shalmestere]

Not to mention babysitter :-/

At this point, I wouldn't recommend public librarianship to anyone just starting out, unless s/he were specifically interested in working in Youth Services--so many changes on so many fronts in the past few years have made it a very unstable career path.

[dragonazure]

It very much depends on the library system. Our local system is quite stable. They've managed to not over-extend themselves. I can't disagree with you with regard to the career over-all, though. As long as the library systems have a reasonable vision about how to stay relevant to the communities they serve, there will still be a need for them. Electronic media is causing a huge upheaval with regard to how collections are managed and maintained. The vendors and publishers seem to have a lot more power with the aether version of books than they ever did over dead-tree editions. Although one might be given to think that electronic media is "simpler" to handle, it really isn't because the technology is expensive, and non-standardized.

[shalmestere]

Libraries will continue to find ways to stay "relevant," but that doesn't mean that there will be jobs for librarians. Whether we're talking about systems that outsourced all their collection development and/or cataloging (e.g. San Jose, CA), or downsized the number of librarian positions (e.g. Orange County, FL), or decided that branch libraries could be managed by senior clerks (e.g. NYPL), the future prospects for public librarians don't look rosy.

[shalmestere]

I'm glad you're enjoying your coursework :-)

[howlgirl]

That is awesome! The desire to quit it all and homestead is strong, unfortunately it's not even remotely an option right now.

[brickhousewench]

So glad you're enjoying school!

[sorchekyrkby]

That's pretty much how it is for me as well...like "oh, THIS is what I'm supposed to do for the rest of my working life!" Glad you enjoyed the cat dissection; are there further dissection planned this semester?