Other presenters were Samir Goswami, Director, Government Professional Solutions, Lexis/Nexis, and an expert on human trafficking, and Kris Vajs, Chief Librarian at the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors Research Library.
Strong Roots, New Branches – how I grew to become a librarian
Thank you, Marie, for inviting me here today. I have come to this event almost every year and I have gained much from the speakers. Marie asked me to share the story of my career as a librarian. I hope that you will find it encouraging and find something from own experience to aid yours.
Building on the theme for today – I think of trees with
strong roots and new branches. So I will
use the analogy of the life of a tree as my framework.
While growing up I remember a poster in my sister’s bedroom. Bloom
where you’re planted. Posters were
the tweets of the 1960’s.
Trees grow everywhere: Forests, Groves & Orchards, Homes
& Neighborhoods, Tree boxes, Bonsai pots and in cracks in the sidewalk. They grow naturally, or planned by
landscapers, arborists, homeowners, farmers and bonsai masters. Some grow to be majestic oaks or redwoods
while others remain small. Some die as
seedlings while others live to be hundreds of years old.
Taking root
I often say that I fell into being a librarian. After college, with no real career plan, my
godmother steered me toward federal service.
She had made a career working in human resources and thought that would
be a good path for me as well.
This was back in the day – before personal computers and
smartphones – and I went to OPM a few blocks west of here to take the
Clerk/Typist exam. The first job was
with the FDIC and I started my library career by weighing, opening and sorting
the mail. I checked in serials using a
Kardex system. I shelved, I weeded, I
did loose-leaf filing and I filed cards in the card catalog. I replaced pocket
parts and even learned how to handle Shepard’s Citations volumes. Not use them – that wouldn’t come for another
15 years, but I figured out what to keep and what to toss.
I left that job to become a Personnel Clerk/Typist at the VA
Medical Center in Washington, DC. It
seemed to have more chance of advancement.
It was an interesting experience and I learned a lot about HR rules and
benefits. But one day, a friend from my FDIC
days, told me that they were looking for a cataloger. This was not a position that required an MLS.
I took that job and since then I have always worked in
libraries.
Growing and nurturing
But I needed library skills to go along with this job. I got OCLC training at FEDLINK and I took a
cataloging course with Dr. David Battey.
If any of you had the privilege of knowing him or taking a course from
him – you are lucky. He was a brilliant
man and one of the first librarians I ever met who wore his quirkiness with
pride!
Luck had much to do with my career – that and some talent to
learn. I took on the cataloging, and
other duties as assigned. I learned how
to take care of the library system that the FDIC had at the time. I took over running the back-ups. I dismantled and rebuilt system furniture.
I had a good boss and good directors for the library. After I had been on the job for a year or so
– and figured I knew everything – I got a new boss who helped to give me a new
attitude in my job. She helped me to see
the bigger picture of how my job fit in with the structure of the library and
the agency and why it was important. She
was a dedicated civil servant who took her responsibilities seriously. She was also fair-minded and encouraging to
others.
Then the Internet happened and life as we knew it changed
forever.
In this case I was again lucky. I learned about gopher sites and ftp and
html. I learned about the reality of
electronic resources. And that interest
prompted me to get my MLS.
Again, I was lucky – my agency helped pay for my
degree. I attended the University of
Maryland, College of Information Studies.
After I finished there were some staff shifts and I moved into a
librarian position.
Over the next few years I made the most that I could from professional
development, training classes and attending conferences and workshops. I took advantage of DC-SLA to network with
other librarians in the area. From the
start I would write up my notes from attending conferences and share them with
my colleagues.
Blossoming
It was during this time that Blogs and then Twitter came
into vogue. A colleague was testing a site
for supporting library services and asked me if I would consider starting a
blog. I did and used it to post my
write-ups on conference and workshop sessions.
I had some following – not a lot.
I talked to some speakers who were successful bloggers. One gave me the advice, if you don’t have anything special to say- don’t blog. I applied that same notion to my tweets. I mostly tweet from conference sessions I am
attending or to promote a new blog entry.
I also provided weekly updates on what I was doing. This helped me to mark my successes and achievements. I worked on projects in the library but also
volunteered for programs at my agency as a way to promote the library.
While it is important to blossom and reach out on the job,
it is also important to have hobbies and interests outside of work. Face it, sometimes work can be a drag. I find comfort in music. For many years I sang with a choral group and
for the past 14 years I have played trombone with a community band – DC’sDifferent Drummers. I also enjoy helping
my husband work in the yard. There are many
ways to re-create oneself.
Storms and drought
Sometimes we face difficulties on the job: down-sizing,
budget cuts, or difficult colleagues.
And personal life presents challenges: illness, finances, care for
children, parents, partner or spouse. These are times when we need to learn to
be resilient and be strong.
A challenge in one job led me to take a look at my health –
and that took me on a journey of its own and a successful weight loss.
Calling to mind the analogy of a tree – you have to bend
during the storm in order to survive. If
you become rigid – you can break or topple.
And having had two trees come down at my home – you want to avoid that!
We all make mistakes.
Yes, it is embarrassing. What is important is to learn from our
mistakes. I have had some setbacks, just
like many others – but I have tried to be optimistic, improve myself and move
ahead.
The reason that we laugh at clowns is because they do the
things that we do – they trip and fall – but they do it in the spotlight of the
center ring. And then they laugh at
themselves.
Transplanting
Transplanting trees is a tricky endeavor. You have to pick the right time so the tree
can survive the move. As librarians we
have to be ready to learn new skills so we are ready for our next move.
I have worked in Technical Services, Electronic Resources,
Reference and Acquisitions. I have
trained contractors in using library systems.
I have built databases and webpages.
I have trained agency staff on library services and Internet
searching. I realized that I have had
some experience in most areas of librarianship.
Most of my library career was with banking agencies. I started out with the FDIC. Then I went to the Comptroller of the
Currency and then to the Federal Reserve Board Research Library.
From there I worked a couple of contract positions – one at
the National Agricultural Library and another in the private sector for a
company called LMI that does consulting work with the Department of Defense and
some other agencies.
The breadth of this experience, the way I marketed it and no
small amount of luck or providence landed me in my current position with the USArmy Corps of Engineers. It is perhaps
the coolest job title I could have ever imagined – Command Librarian.
Branching out &
Bearing fruit
Now I am in a position where I need to branch out and learn
from my colleagues as well as support them.
It is my role to provide guidance to the USACE Library Program. We have 21 district libraries, 3 research
libraries and two other library sites.
Fortunately I am not their supervisor, but I have visited each site and
try to find ways to help them.
Looking ahead, I am reaching out to other groups and
divisions at my agency to see how the library can provide better support. I will also reach out to those districts that
no longer have libraries and learn what help they need.
And it is my turn to mentor and help others. One day I got a phone call from a training
officer in our Sacramento District. She
had an employee who was a clerk and was interested in going to library
school. Over the next several months we
traded emails and chatted as she embarked on her training and transition to
becoming a librarian.
I have also been active with DC/SLA and the EmploymentPortal. Some of us on that team have met
with library students and reviewed resumes.
Pruning
We should regularly look at our careers and what we are
doing and cut away the dead wood. This
can be as simple as reviewing our resumes and removing irrelevant skills and
training. It can also mean letting go of
some of the negatives in our lives, letting go of bad will and grudges. Sometimes this is easy – sometimes it
requires counseling. Don’t be afraid of
it.
Old trees and by-products
What can be said about old trees? They give shade & comfort. They beautify the landscape. Their branches provide nests for birds and
homes for squirrels. Their roots help to
give stability to the land. Their wood
can be used to make homes, doors, desks, tables and chairs.
They can be milled into pulp to make paper for printing of
books, currency and much else. What we
do as librarians and information professionals helps our agencies accomplish
good for the people of America.
I think of the librarians I have known throughout my
career. Teachers in library school who
were demanding and challenged me. Another
librarian earned a Master of Divinity and retired early, but applied her skills
to helping at a theological library. She
went on to lead others on pilgrimages in Benedictine spirituality. People like Sharon Lenius who, though
retired, still support other government and military librarians.
We don’t have to end up on the wood pile.
I leave you with something a manager said to me on my first
day in a job waiting tables. The worst
thing that we can do to you is to fire you.
You’ve looked for a job before and you can do it again. The phrasing struck me as odd – but I took it
to mean – if you’re not happy with what you are doing then look for someplace
where you can be happy.
