Ever since I started looking into Librarianship I've been reading all kinds of blogs for these shiny, happy librarians. It would appear that every single one of them just [insert lilting voice here] LOVES their job--that's awesome, I want to [lilting voice again] LOVE my job too. So, today, being bored at work, I decided to search the net and see if there were any disgrundled librarians out there and found the following rant: (seriously, go read it, it's freaking HILARIOUS!)
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/mil/97473665.html
I shouldn't complain since it IS what I was looking for, but in reading this at least one thing about the whole 'applying to grad school process' finally made sense to me: the high value placed on volunteerism. I mean, it's quite obvious that the person in this post is either hard-core PMSing or just simply has no compassion for other people (regardless of what she says). I say this because of her combative attitude--she seems to have a fetish for calling the cops and referring to others as complete idiots. All I can say is that perhaps she should have spent some time in this kind of a library setting before wasting all her time/money on grad school. (I have hung around our downtown branch, and ya know, she's right, there are some freaks in the library... but, I've given good thought to whether I want to deal with this sort of nonsense before even going into it.)
And, perhaps, it is the case that all of these grad school admissions departments are trying to make sure that we do exactly that--spend time in the less glamorous areas within the profession--in order to make sure that we really, truly know, through our own personal experience, exactly what it is that we are getting ourselves into. One's education is one of the biggest choices we can make, and if one makes a poor choice it's a huge financial (and emotional) loss that they will be suffering for some time to come. In the past, I've seen the emphasis toward volunteerism as a hurdle instead of a crutch, but now I'm realizing that it's actually in my own best interest in the long run. So, I am going to head on down to our Denver Central Library today and see if I can't find some free work to give.
this is a very interesting post..
I have heard this train of thought from some librarians. "The public" just doesn't know how to behave itself apparently, and like all archenenemies, they are thought of in pretty crazy ways. That woman obviously needed to let off some maajooor steam; I hope it doesn't get that bad around here...or has it?
Yes, perhaps a vacation would do her some good?
I think sometimes people who work too closely (librarian-public) forget that they're there to help each other and actually work together. Not everyone can follow everyone else's unspoken rules.
You should check out this librarian blogger. I love reading it.
http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.com/
Michelle