Hope for the Future. Or, How to Give a Librarian the Warm Fuzzies.

Just when I am finally broken enough to blog something like this, another student provides a refreshing moment of wisdom and interest in being the best researcher they can possibly be. (Much like "being all you can be" for the army. Except an army of one isn't very intimidating, whereas a researcher or scholar of one can inculcate thousands before they're stopped.)


I got my little librarian hands on two upper-level English classes yesterday, and we worked with thesauri and subject guides in various databases, learned all about how our crappy link resolver (soon to be replaced with Gold Rush - yay!) works, and delved into some of our more advanced, subject-specific databases. We discussed inter-library loan, and the coolness that abounds in librarians, who I framed as professional nerds, ready, willing and able to come to desperate students' aid in times of crisis.


I may have also mentioned in passing that we occasionally wear capes, attract the hottest men, and garner huge salaries. I think the students knew I was kidding. Maybe.


Anyway, both classes were kind enough to remain engaged and actually thought they learned something new and *gasp* useful during the sessions. One young lady, who sat in the front row, and was very sprightly and active in the discussion all class long, came up to me after class to let me know that though she was studying to be a teacher, she *really* wanted to be a librarian. She asked me if I liked my job (it was a great day, I gushed a bit about how excellent academic librarianship is), and asked if she could come back over the course of the semester to ask me questions.


Laugh, if you will, but this may be the closest I get to celebrity as a librarian. I basked in it, and it gave me the warm fuzzies for the rest of the day.


A very large thank you to all of my students who do, indeed, pay the hell attention, who don't laugh too hard when I tell them that the reference desk closes at 10pm because I have a date, and who make even the slightest effort to appear interested in library instruction. I love you all. In a non-creepy, non-stalkery, non-rule-breaking, non-sexual harassment sort of way, of course.

Comments

griffey said…
I missed the day they handed out capes, and I always regretted that.

I needs me a cape.
warmaiden said…
I would have no qualms about wearing a cape to work if i can find a nice warm one...would purple velvet be too much, do you think?
Anonymous said…
And they love you back! In a non-stalkery way of course. ;-)
Hi, Colleen. I see more people use twitter than I first thought, so I might log in more often.

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