I have this long jumbled post in my mind, and I think it needs to be broken up into several topics, or It’ll just be confusing. So over the next few days I will share about where I am, what I think about where I am, and where I am going.
Where I am (and how I got here):
It’s hard to describe to people the changes I have gone through in the last 8 months. May of last year, I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Fine Art and cast a wide net to find a job that would pay the bills. I found a library assistant job at Love Library. I’ve worked in a library before- in fact, my very first job was as a page in a library- but I have not since. Really, I owe a great debt to Dean Haist at Arts Incorporated for hiring me- because without that job, stressful as it was, I would not have had the experience needed to get this one.
So what is my job? I am an assistant to the department chair. More generally, I am an assistant for the department- that means I answer the phone (most of the time) make copies when people need them, do basic administrative tasks, get and send the mail, set meetings, manage my boss’s calendar, and take and send meeting notes. There are some parts of my job I am not thrilled about, but it’s not bad, and I never dread going to work in the morning (besides the fact that I have to go outside and it’s friggin’ COLD). I get to do other things, too- I maintain the website, I design ads and postcards and brochures, I scan things, I’ve done a little encoding, I help put together grants, etc.
My plan was to take a year off, work full time, and save up to go to graduate school to get a Master’s in Fine Art, but about 2 months after I got this job that I decided that I really like working in a library. I started looking at library schools, and a conversation with a former coworker led me to talk with Becky Pasco. As anyone that has met Becky can attest, her enthusiasm is somewhat infectious. I could not help getting excited about getting a library degree. Plus, I found that I’m in the right place at the right time- there’s scholarship money available right now, so I will only have to pay $5000 – $6000 at most to get my Master’s in Library Science.
So here I am- working in a library and working on my master’s in library science. Tomorrow I will talk about my thoughts on all this.
Past Present and Future – Part 2: What I think about where I am