Why did I choose to become a librarian?

It’s Thursday, and time for me to work at the Amon-Carter Library. Of course, that also means it’s time for a library post.

In this, the third and final installment of my library information series, I will talk about why I chose to become a librarian. A career in library science was not the first thing that came to my mind when Jen and I started talking about what I might do if I went back to school. We talked about history, art history, information technology, and many other things. It was mentioned as a possibility over a year ago, and when we were doing our career field research, it popped back into our minds. The more we thought about it, the more we realized that it would be just about a perfect fit for me.

One of the most important aspects of any career, to me, is making some sort of positive impact on those around me. This was much of the reason why I taught, but as it turned out, I felt that I could not be an effective positive impact for many reasons. However, being able to help people help themselves seems to fit perfectly with the career of librarian. You are providing people with the tools they need to improve themselves, and beyond that it’s up to them that they do with those tools. The knowledge that I can help other people is very inspiring to me, and something I very much look forward to.

As I have grown up, I have discovered that I have a need to always be learning something new. I love to learn and to apply that knowledge to my life to better myself. A librarian must be familiar with many different areas of knowledge in order to have the ability to help patrons with what they are looking for – whether the patron is just looking for the newest John Grisham book, or is a researcher gleaning new information from the archives and papers that libraries hold. This appeals to me – being able to continue the growth of my knowledge base, and use it on a regular basis in my career to help others. Also, I will have access to materials that I would never have been able to access before – rare books, manuscripts, and the unusual ephemera that libraries hold.

While Jen and I were discussing me being a librarian, we also thought about how it fits my skill sets I already have. My degree in history taught me critical thinking skills, critical reading skills, and made me a much better writer – all of these are important skills to being a librarian. My previous career as an educator gave me the skills I need to work with all types of people, young and old. Of course, the library is open to everyone, and so this is very important. Teaching also taught me excellent communication skills, as well as how to present information in a succinct and interesting manner. Not only will being al librarian use all these skills, it will also improve them, and add other, unforeseen skills to my skill set.

Another aspect of being a librarian that appeals to me is trying to fight censorship and making sure those who want information have access to it. This has been a recurring theme in the research I have done for this series, and one which excites me. It is the ethical expectation of the librarian to work against any entities efforts to censor material. It is not my duty, as a librarian, to limit people’s access to the information they seek, it is my duty to help them find that information. As a matter of fact, the ALA made a Bill of Rights about this very subject. You can check it out here.

Finally, on a more practical level, the job itself is great. By that I mean that the pay is good, you get to work in a great place, and even now the job market for librarians is great. Also, you can advance fairly quickly and end up making quite a tidy sum for a salary.

All of these things together convinced me that being a librarian is a great career for me.

- Jason Dean