Oh hello. It appears I last updated my library blog in 2010, shortly after getting my first full-time job. I'd like to tell you I've been away from the game because I'm slaying illiteracy like a boss and focused on becoming a programming extraordinaire who can't be bothered to share my program ideas anymore, but I don't think it is true. My colleagues would tell you it is true as I've worked very hard at my programs over the years and share a great deal with the library consortium's teen librarians group, but if I'm being honest with you reader, there's been a disconnect. It's something I've felt for years and had a very hard time putting into words. It is not that I stopped caring about my job or became a terrible slacker. Over the past four years I've gotten to know some of the best teenagers in the world and I do whatever I can for them. There's just been a disconnect between who I am and what I do for a living, which is a shame because they used to be a unified front of kick-ass librarian.
After talking with a new librarian friend I put my finger on the various components that make up the disconnect which I will get to as I start blogging again, but the number one theme has been that once I settled into my job I reached my goal. Library school, internships, paraprofessional work and student run organizations leadership roles were all cogs to get me here and once here, I had nothing greater than what I already had to strive for. There is a bit of a glass ceiling with teen librarianship and as someone that finds intrinsic motivation from training for the next thing I find it unsettling. Or boring. Ok... mostly boring. I filled my free time falling further and further down the roller derby rabbit hole and haven't looked back to the idealistic days of grad school when my entire being was defined by the word librarian. Until now.
First order of business was to resurrect this blog from the dead like a filthy zombie, hence all the pictures from my Zombie Prom program. Pictured above are a zombie teen* and myself in a prom dress I ripped up and splattered with fake blood hand prints, because dedication to the job for me usually involves costumes, but I digress. When I started this blog in grad school, I did so for multiple reasons. The first and foremost was that I was so damn excitable about becoming a librarian I just couldn't keep it in. I wanted to chronicle this excitement and potentially get others on board so we could just yell out to the heavens, "HECK YEAH LIBRARIES!!!" like a bunch of heathen nerds. Now I'm like, "libraries. woo." and that is problematic for me because I want to be a nerdy heathen again. I additionally began this blog because the amount of blogs I saw in 2007-2010 specific to library programming were lacking and I wanted to take the things I found on indie craft blogs and share it with librarians to give them ideas. I guess I wanted to vicariously run library programs through these potentially inspired librarians...maybe...? I'm not sure. Twenty-two was ages ago and who really knows what I was thinking then.
At some point I gave up the thought of library blogging and decided to whip up my own indie craft blog instead, only to find that blog became some sort of hybrid mindful meditation blog mixed with fashion blogging. ::shrug:: Much as I would like to place my focus there, I found myself wanting to contribute to the librarian community more and more. I attempted to find room for it on that blog, but as someone with a Master's in organizing information it really didn't make any logical sense. So. I'm back bitches.
*Zombie teen and zombie teen's mom are totes cool with my posting this image, in case anyone wants to get uppity about sharing the image and likeness of the minors you work with. kthnxby
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