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Why I want to be a librarian when I grow up
I started out taking psychology in my undergrad mostly because I wanted to figure people out and by people, I mostly mean myself. Unfortunately, as any psychology or medical student can likely atest to I mostly ended up believing I was suffering from a wide range of mental disorders. I think I have learned a lot more about myself during my masters degree in librianship than I ever did taking psychology.
Librianship was not my life long persuit, I’m afraid to admit. I did not spend my childhood organizing my bookshelf using the dewey decimal system that I self taught myself. My bookshelf remains in an order that resulted from a basic system that made sense to me when we last moved combined with randomly sticking new books or books that I had been reading where ever they might fit. I became a librarian because I was rejected from a different masters program and was going crazy working retail. My best friend was finishing her masters in librianship at McGill at the time and after telling me about what she was studying and since I had nothing better to do at the time, I decided to apply. She was the perfect librarian candidate. I do not know when she decided that was what she was going to do but when she told all of us we simply nodded our heads and said; “of course you are!” because it was a perfect fit: she was an English major who loved books, reading and history.
It was less of an obvious fit for me. Don’t get me wrong, I also love books but I am traditionally interested in people, teaching science and technology. Two years later, a move to Toronto, a place I never thought I would want to live (I was a biased BC girl, after all) I am graduating with my Masters of Information Studies and will be starting a 3 year contract position at Steacie Science and Engineering Library at York University and I cannot imagine doing anything else (or living anywhere else for that matter). Librarianship involves books and organization, sure but that is not what it is really about. It is about information, problem solving, sharing, people and really, whatever it is that you want it to be about. For me, that is science information, technology, and teaching but for you it might be something differnet. So, consider being a librarian. That’s what I want to be when I grow up.
