Much to learn

There is an old saying, "those that can't do, teach". Well I have to admit I am not sure how this would apply to my Academic Libraries course that I teach for a library school here in Texas. The course is all about what I do. I try to illuminate the processes that I encounter in my job for my students. It is a fine line sometimes between letting them know what they are in for and scaring them away. I hope that when our Dean of Libraries speaks to them that she uses the same approach she did last time which was to talk about how rewarding her 20+ year career as an academic librarian has been. I think at times I frighten them with stories of academic librarians working long hours and experiencing professional disappointments. Academic librarianship is not for everyone.

I hope the one thing that comes through is that I can't see myself doing anything else. It sounds corny to call this job a calling but I think that within a month of starting graduate school I recognized that THIS was what I was supposed to be doing. How many of us started graduate school with a firm idea of what we were going to do once we graduated? If I had stuck to my original plan I would be working in a school library somewhere in Canada and I wouldn't have had the amazing opportunities I have experienced at MPOW.