Trust me when I say that at the glorious old age of 839 I didn't think I'd be 3 (count 'em 3!!!) classes from graduating with a MLIS. [No, I didn't type 839 wrong...my birth certificate says I was born in 1169. That's why I was so darn good at history :D] Ah, but here I am...soooo close I can see the end in sight. So, how did I get here? Well, I didn't set out to be a librarian when I grew up, but hey-sometimes the Fates intervene, and we have to realize we're just along for the ride.
I can't think of a time when I didn't know how to read, or didn't have at least one book going. One of my favorite places growing up was the library; the librarian, Mrs. Jones was awesome. If I can be even half the librarian she was, I'll be doing well.
After I'd moved to Minnesota (I grew up in Oregon...pronounced 'Ory-gun', not 'Or-e-gone'), there came a time when I'd read all of what I liked to read at the library I frequented. In desperation, I had started at the beginning of the fiction section at "A", and was merrily reading my way through the alphabet. When I was in the "P's", one of my friends mentioned she was also having problems finding anything to read, but that her library was selling Page-a-Day Book Lover's calendars for $5; she bought us each one, and we thought we'd read every single book. Uh, no, not so much...we read some real doozies, that's for sure!
But, as I was trying to find these books at the library (this was before the system went online), the librarian asked if I wanted to be on the library board...which led to her asking if I wanted to be a part-time sub...which led to the assistant director taking an interest in my newfound library career and 'advising' me to 1) get my Minnesota Library Employee Voluntary Certification & 2) Go back to school and get my degree. That calendar was the spark that led me to being here today. Like I said, obviously the Universe had a different life plan for me than I did...but it's all good. It's working out...even though sometimes I still wonder what would've happened if I had finished my Accounting/International Finance Law degree when I was younger...
The library I am in is a smaller, rural branch library of the Pioneerland Library System, which is headquartered in Willmar. The head librarian lets me use the library to test drive different assignments for school, which is really cool.
Like I said in class, when it comes to Web/Library 2.0 tech stuff, I'm fairly fearless. It doesn't mean I use a whole bunch of it, mind you. But, the way I look at it, it doesn't hurt to try it and see what's good and what works for what I need. I don't advocate using technology for the sake of using technology-yep, I can make to-do lists online...but I can make them just as easily on paper as well. It's interesting to see what's out there-and then to see what it does.
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