Why I Didn't Become a Librarian

Thank you to everyone who commented on my Tuesday post about Banned Books Week.  One of my regular readers, Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventure, wrote an interesting comment.  I invite you to read about her experience as a librarian intern.

That brought back some memories for me, not that I was ever a library intern.  But I was a librarian wanna be.

Did you know that, when I was a child, I wanted to be a bookmobile librarian?

Maybe it's just as well I didn't.  I don't think I would have had the patience for certain types of questions.

Make no mistake.  I'm in awe of librarians.

Which leads me to this memory.

By the time I was in my early 20's, I still had the "librarian" dream.  I had a B.A. in Anthropology, and was thinking of grad school.  Maybe.  This was in the mid 1970's.

Then my husband (we were relative newlyweds) and I both lost our jobs within three months of each other.  We were living off unemployment in a city with (then) high unemployment.  I had already been looking for work without much success.  My spouse suggested we go down to the local Air Force recruiter.

He was accepted.  I wasn't (mainly due to my vision, which, uncorrected, has me in what would be considered legally blind if it couldn't be corrected.)  

Off to basic training he went, and I moved in temporarily with family in a smallish town in Iowa. 

My uncle (who is still alive today, at the age of 96) was a college professor at the time.  He was interested in mentoring young adults, and he asked me about my career ambitions.  I told him I had always wanted to be a librarian.

"You should interview the local library director and get more information about that career field", my uncle suggested.

Gulp.  Big gulp (and I don't mean the drink sold in a certain convenience store chain).

You may not realize this, but if there was an introverted, shy scale of one to 10 (10 being most introverted and shy), I would rank a 15.  My uncle did have a point, though, and I finally admitted that to myself that it was a good idea.  

I thought hard, and came up with some questions.

I was already familiar with the town's library, as I tended to go there every day.  It was a beautiful Carnegie library but it could have been in a tent.  It had books.   Bliss.

I gathered every iota of courage I possessed, and called to make an appointment.  To my surprise, the library's director readily agreed to meet with me. (I found out later that my Uncle had put in a good word or two to him about me, and let him know I would be calling.) 

At the appointed hour, I drove to my execution arrived for the interview.

Perhaps to my disappointment, he didn't rise up in rage and slay me for daring to interview him.  No, this young man (and he wasn't that much older than me, I don't think) gave me some information on what I needed to do education wise, and encouraged me to proceed.

After basic training was over, my spouse flew to Iowa to get me and we drove to Texas, where his technical training would take place.  We lived on an airman's salary (which wasn't much) while I tried (unsuccessfully for much of the stay) to get a temporary job. So I studied for the GRE instead, and took it.

There was only one problem.  We had been assured that it was almost certain that spouse's first duty station would be at a base in Illinois, which happened to be not far from a university granting masters degrees in library science.

Well, anyone with military experience knows all about "being assured about something".

Spouse was sent to Kansas, instead.  Kansas not-near-a-place-giving-library-degrees  (this was way before the Internet made online degrees possible).

Oops.

Long story short, in Kansas, I got a job which lead to a 45 year career in a field I enjoyed (and still do, as a retired part timer working for my former employer).  I never did become a librarian, and actually, I don't regret it.

But sometimes I do wonder...what kind of librarian would I have made?