OK, so it's been more than a week - sorry about that.
Library school is a unique experience in itself.
I started at San Jose State University in fall of 1996 (if I remember correctly). As I mentioned previously, I didn't really have a clear idea of what I wanted out of library school. The clearest idea I had was that I wanted to work with library systems, and maybe be a trainer on those systems.
Why? When I was at the community college library, they were just automating their system (yes, they were still using card catalogs), and in many ways it was fascinating to watch them go through the agony of that conversion.
Particularly with a reserve collection, where you are dealing with high-demand books, it's easy to implement all kinds of quirky rules: books that check out for two hours, four hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, fines based on number of hours or days late, maximum fines, etc. It can go on and on.
What becomes even more interesting is when you try to cram all of these quirky rules, built up over years, into an automated system. For some of the staff who had been dealing with this manual, hand-stamped system for years, converting all the rules and guidelines into a system was a totally foreign concept. It was a huge headache, generally regarded with fear and dread.
From my perspective, it was a really interesting challenge - I love this kind of stuff. I love the logic of it, the trial and error, the way a conversion of this sort makes you really have to think about what you do and why you do it. (Why DO we have 48 hour check-out periods? Do we really need them?) I admit, I like the self-examination that it forces you to go through.
So this was the spark that carried me into library school - the love of figuring out how to automate things, the logic of systems. Truly the makings of a tech geek.
I was lucky because there was a good library school nearby. Sure, it required commuting over the treacherous Highway 17, which would close due to mudslides whenever even a mild rain happened (and in fact, it prevented me from getting to at least one test during my schooling). But I thought it was a good school because it provided me the technical and systems focus that I was after. I learned HTML, I learned the basics of database administration. I learned online searching. Remember, this was late 1990s - the Internet hadn't been around for that long, yet San Jose State was doing its best to offer its library students cutting-edge stuff. (Hell, I'm able to code this page due to my schooling at SJSU.)
A few defining moments in library school stand out for me.
Like many library schools, you are required to take a few "core courses", including general overviews of libraries and librarianship. The instructor brought in a few speakers, one of which was Cindy Hill - who was with Sun for many years.
If you don't know Cindy or haven't met her, you're missing out on one of the most delightful, thoughtful and articulate proponents of information work alive today. To her great credit, she always made the time to come and speak to one of the core classes each quarter.
She would come to the class and talk about what it was like to work in a corporate library - the pace, the environment, the nature of the work, and the close partnership with the clients within the company. She conveyed the excitement of doing this kind of work - which was, at the time, still relatively unusual (at least in my perception). At the time that I heard her speak, knowledge management was just emerging as an area of interest within corporations - but Cindy and Sun were right on the cutting edge of that work.
So here I am, young, impressionable mind (well, OK, impressionable), already all jacked up on corporate work, starting on a new career, and here's Cindy talking about how freaking COOL it is to work in a corporate setting. And then at the end of her talk, she invites anyone in the class to come to the Sun campus for an informational interview!
So Cindy departs the room and we discuss her talk. I'm just about jittering out of my seat, I'm so excited, but many of my fellow students are horrified. Corporate library? How could you charge for information? How could you work in a setting where everyone didn't have access to the information?
Why would you want to work there?
That question is still unfathomable to me. How could you NOT want to work there?
I had to keep in mind that a lot of the people in the class came from (and would gladly return to) academic and public library settings. I will never forget one fellow classmate who stated explicitly: "I plan on getting my degree, getting a job, and just putting my time in until retirement." He was dead serious.
I suppose that's a sound career strategy, in some sense, but that was not the way I wanted my career to shape up.
How many people took Cindy up on her offer? My guess is very few. But I was one of them. Then, during my last semester (in fall 1999), I was fortunate to do a practicum with SunLibrary - and amazingly, a temporary position came up in January of 2000, right after I graduated. That position became permanent in September of 2000.
What did I take away from the library school experience? In April of this year, I was on a panel talking about the future of the information profession and what library students need to know and prepare for in their studies.
While I can't necessarily predict the future, what I've learned in my professional life to date is the importance of thinking about my skills rather than my role. I have a ton of skills from my previous jobs, and I've built many other valuable skills in my current role. I've got many years of experience as a trainer; I'm a Sigma greenbelt; I've done surveys and analyzed the results; I'm a good researcher; I can write; I can analyze; I can conduct competitive intelligence; I can lead teams and manage organizations. These are just a few of my skills. And I can apply them to many, many roles.
This concept excited me way back when I was graduating from San Jose State and we were at the peak of the Dot.com bubble - I saw so many opportunites where I could apply my skills, particularly in Silicon Valley.
This still excites me. Because I have a choice: I can think of myself as a librarian, filling a role, and look for certain jobs within that narrow role. As my fellow student expressed, I can put my time in and wait for retirement.
Or, I can think about my skills, and apply them creatively, and the world opens up to me.
