Every time I tell people I’m getting my masters in Library and Information Science, my dad yells at me.
“You’re not a librarian! You’re a digital archivist.”
My dad thinks librarians are lame. No offense to librarians out there but he’s kinda right. But that didn’t stop me from getting sexy librarian glasses as soon as I enrolled in the program.
My new glasses
When people picture a librarian, they either picture a little of biddy with horn-rimmed glasses, a musty cardigan and a grimace…. or something out of a porno. (For the record, I’m totally feeding off of the sexy librarian role-play idea and I’m starting my own series of librarian-themed romance novels. Take that E.L. James). An archivist on the other hand, as my dad has told me several times, sounds like a wizard. I will be, with any luck, the master of manuscripts and the sole person standing between a historian and his/her precious artifact.
On a more basic level, an archivist is a history major with OCD.
I’m lucky I discovered archiving as a career. I graduated with a BA in English and History. In other words, I decided that reading 4 books a week wasn’t enough,and that I needed to read 8 books a week. Hence why the library became my home. You can pick out an English or History major a mile away because they’re the ones with hunched backs, bloodshot eyes, carrying 12 books that they THINK they’ll finish by the weekend but the truth is they’ll be crying in a corner Sunday night wishing they majored in Biology instead.
<;3 Jay and Grant
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And to all those bio majors out there, yes I understand your major is hard and your coursework grueling, but after a while I wished I had spent 10 hours in a lab instead of begrudgingly trying to avoid my roommates and missing a marathon of Ghost Hunters so I could read.
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Anyway… with apparently two useless majors (as countless friends, relatives and professors have told me) I felt stuck. I always got the question, “Are you going to be a professor?” and after a few scare tactics courtesy of the English Department I decided to run screaming in the other direction. So with no options in sight, I turned to any questioning mind’s favorite source. Google.
Yes it’s true, I decided on my path in life after typing in “what to do with and English and History major” into the search box. Technology is awesome right?
So here I am, 21 years old (and taking full advantage of the fact that I can provide myself with an endless supply of wine) and I’m ready to embark on the supposed final stretch of my education. In reality, I will probably go on to get a second masters in Victorian Studies because I’m that much of a dork, but I’ll ignore that fact. For now I’m just celebrating not having to take the GRE’s, finally finding a place to live near school that doesn’t smell like sewage and leaving behind a few people who are really getting on my nerves (drama drama drama).
The goal now is to obtain as many internships as possible (with pay, but who can be so lucky it seems) and make crazy good connections. Oh, and of course make myself a regular at the local Irish pub.
I'm Not a Librarian 