Don’t go back to Rockville

The decision to go back to school has been a decision made carefully. This time. I have gone back to school on a whim several times during my 20s, when it didn’t matter if I had just enough money to pay the rent, and it didn’t matter if I didn’t finish the course or if the course didn’t lead anywhere.

This time I spent a lot of time reading and asking questions and figuring out the budget and wondering if it might just be better to be quiet, get a full-time job and clock in.

During my research into all things librarian career in Australia, I came an article, written by a LIS student in Sydney. Librarian Careers Information: Resources for Prospective Librarians (Australia is a very helpful article, but sets a somewhat bleak forecast for the employment prospects of a LIS student.

“Library Assistant - I have consistently been told by people working in different types of libraries that there are often ~100 applicants for every Library Assistant role. I’ve also been told that it’s very difficult to gain a position without previous experience as a Shelver while at high school, a track record of previous paid/voluntary work in a library or plenty of face to face customer service experience. …” etc

I’m not sure whether to listen to the warnings within this article, especially the comments section, but at this stage I’m hopeful. You have to start out positively or there’s no point in starting at all. (Foolhardy? yeessssss)

After spending the last year working here & there, I have decided to go back to school and qualify as a librarian.

While my friends tell me that a qualification in shooshing people and stamping books seems unnecessary, I am looking forward to learning about data management, classification, making information accessible and helping customers find their way through what is becoming a tangled maze of technology and typing.

Once upon a time I thought I wanted to be a web designer, but I missed working with people. Now I want to help people find information and not argue with clients about whether their logo is big enough (It’s already too big!) or why their website looks different on different screens. I hope to be asked much more interesting questions during the working day. (Am I hoping too much?)

I’m keeping this blog as a journal for my own reference, and also hopefully, down the track, a way of contributing to some of the conversations I have read between librarians online.