{"id":30915,"date":"2013-07-24T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=30915"},"modified":"2013-07-24T09:50:51","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T13:50:51","slug":"why-i-became-a-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=30915","title":{"rendered":"Why I became a librarian"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Tiffany Newton, Head Editor, INALJ Missouri<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Why I became a librarian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"TiffanyNewton\"<\/a>My interest in libraries started when I was very young. Some of my first memories are about me reading books (or at least looking at the pictures) at my local library. I still remember my library card number. We didn’t have actual cards, just numbers to remember and tell the librarian when we were ready to check out the cards. Mine was 3-16-C. I remember my mom trying to read Dr. Seuss books to me, but she kept getting tongue-tied and I would giggle at her. I remember the first book I read on my own was The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss.<\/p>\n

In Elementary, I remember reading the Boxcar Children books<\/strong> when everyone else was still reading picture books. I have always loved reading. I kept a book with me everywhere I went (sometimes two or three) and would read it if I had just a few spare moments. I read in the car, on the bus, during class, on weekends, after school, and yes, I have stayed up all night finishing more than one book.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> All these books I generally got from the library.<\/p>\n

The middle school librarian was my neighbor, so after school (and sometimes before) I’d go into the library and help her shelve books. Between classes, or if I had free time during class, I’d go to the library and help her. I even learned how to use her check out station and began helping her check out books to other classes that came in while I was in the library.<\/p>\n

In high school, I worked in the school library for two years. I mostly shelved books, but occasionally I would run errands, or help the librarian choose new books to order.<\/p>\n

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I wanted to keep attending school.<\/strong> So, I went to a community college and got an Associate degree in general studies. While doing that, I worked at the public library.<\/p>\n

I was really touched by the library director there. Everyone loved her, and she was an awesome boss. I knew I wanted to be like her. I also knew that I loved my job. It was my first paid job, and I was doing what I’d been doing for years in my school libraries as a volunteer. I couldn’t believe I was actually being paid. My favorite part was shelving books. I had a chance to look at each book as I shelved it, and the books around it. Soon, I knew a lot about the collection and about the books. When someone asked for a book, I was easily able to help him or her find it. I loved talking to all the strange and unique people that came into the library. It really was my dream job.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, in case it is not obvious to you (because it sure wasn’t obvious to me at the time), I was destined for librarianship. Sure, I had always loved libraries and reading, but what I really wanted to be was an artist, an art teacher, or something relating to crafts. You see, when I wasn’t reading, I was drawing, painting, and doing crafts.<\/p>\n

I knew professional artists didn’t make much money, and no one besides family members had ever bought any of my art. After I got my Associates, I still knew I wanted to keep going to school<\/strong>, but I didn’t know what. I majored in education for a semester, and then decided I didn’t want to do that. Then I majored in information technology because I’ve also always loved computers. None of those really seemed to fit and I was getting frustrated.<\/p>\n

When I talked to my academic adviser, she asked what I did in my spare time, what my hobbies were, etc. When I mentioned that I loved reading and learning, she recommended that I talk to the campus librarian. I talked to her and thought I’d try librarianship. I decided that I wanted to be a library director of a public library. I think it just took a few years of me not working in libraries to figure out how much I missed them. Since that university didn’t have an undergraduate degree for library studies, I decided to get my bachelor in Organizational Leadership. While I finished that degree, I looked for a school to get my MLS.<\/p>\n

I applied, and got in. While there, once again, I worked in a library. I’m finishing my MLS now. Looking back, it does seem obvious that I should be a librarian, but I didn’t even think about that possibility until just a few short years ago.\u00a0\u00a0 So here I am, with an MLS, just as I never imagined.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What’s your story? When did you first know you were going to be a librarian?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Tiffany Newton, Head Editor, INALJ Missouri Why I became a librarian My interest in libraries started when I was very young. Some of my first memories are about me reading books (or at least looking at the pictures) at my local library. I still remember my library card number. We didn’t have actual cards,…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[233,3592,3640,4542,3950,4575,3837,4903],"class_list":["post-30915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-articles-2","tag-blog","tag-inalj-missouri","tag-mls","tag-public-library","tag-school-library","tag-tiffany-newton","tag-why-i-became-a-librarian"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-82D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}