Where has the day gone? Well I know where it went. Homework! But good homework. I’ve been learning quite a lot about professional associations, which has prompted me to explore career paths at the same time and how to get there. I’m very interested in academic librarianship and while exploring the Association of College and Research Libraries site I found they have a Rare Books and Manuscripts section and I’ve been having fun letting my imagination go wild. Wouldn’t it be the coolest if I could be a special collections librarian at Harvard’s Houghton library and be the one in charge of taking care of Emerson’s papers? Forget my dust and mold allergy, that’s what Claritin is for!
Drexel offers two classes that would be of benefit in such a pursuit. They will be offered in the winter and spring quarters but not online which worries me that I won’t be able to take them at all. I couldn’t take them this year even if I wanted to though since they are upper level classes and require me to have completed my core classes. If next year they aren’t offered online I will have to send an inquiry; maybe there would be some way I can do some equivalent work here.
I have a report due on my association researches this time next week. In the mean time, this upcoming week’s class discussion is on grant writing. I’ve never written a grant, but working at a nonprofit I have learned a bit about grant writing. And since I am the techie there, I am also the one who writes the reports to get the client information needed for the grants out of the database. It will be interesting to delve into the topic from a different perspective.
Anyway, Emerson will be with you tomorrow.
I think it would be the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library for me…
Stefanie, I envy you, your perseverance in going after what you want to do. You are an inspiration to me. I would eat eight bags of horse manure [let's keep these bags fairly small, mind you...] to be a Librarian, and yet, I am too wickedly lazy to do anything actually academically sensible about the attainment of such a desire.
I wish you every success.
You are doing things the admirable [horse-manure-less] way!
– Cip
Now that sounds like an awesome job, doesn’t it?! The class sounds like it’s teaching you a lot of cool things, which must be great.
It does sound like an awesome job! Hope you are able to manage the Rare Books class next year–you could share your new-found knowledge with us.
I want to go to school with you! Your glee is catching!!
I agree with Heather. Your glee *is* catching!
I hope you can do the courses you want via email – they sound fascinating.
How are you finding the work load? I’m asking because I’m planning to start a course in archives administration next April, while working full-time in my current job as an archives assistant. And I’m a little worried that I’ll never have time to sleep!
I hope you’ll be able to take the classes you want to, somehow. I enjoyed my Rare Books classes (except for the one about bindings; all the discussions of animal skins and how they were prepared made me feel ill!) I think I should have been more like you and thought about what path I wanted to take, ie: academic possibilities, rather than just taking the basics and by default working in a public library. Though it’s interesting, every now and again I get an urge to go back to school and get a subject masters so I could work in a university, just to be back in that atmosphere. But then I recall that my current job isn’t really so bad!
Sounds fascinating. Hope you get to take the class.
Sylvia, that would be okay too. I wouldn’t have to move as far and perhaps I’d get to travel the world working on their various projects
Ah Cip, you’re so nice! You don’t need to eat any manure to be a librarian. Just give up Big Macs and use the money you save to pay for tuition
Dorothy, it wouldn’t even have to be Emerson and it would be a cool job. I am indeed learning all kinds of things from class.
Thanks Jenclair! One of the classes is history of the book, that wold be fascinating I would think with lots and lots worth sharing.
Heather, you are welcome to join me!
Victoria, the workload with just one class is not too bad though my reading time has been drastically cut as well as my other free time. But it is so far well worth it. I work as an archivist sound interesting too and I was tempted to look further into it until I found out about the special collections stuff. I’m sure you will handle you class with no troubles.
Melanie, thanks. There is nothing wrong with working in a public library. I thought about it for awhile, but I have always had an attraction for academia. It’s never too late to go back to school for that subject masters!
Thanks LK!
I once spent an afternoon in the special collections room of the tiny Athenaum in Providence, RI and I was as enamored of the books (old travel journals by Isabella Bird among others) as I was with the librarian’s job…it looked so wonderful to be around those books.
I’m currently casting around for a new direction in life…and this really sounds like a fantastically interesting one…imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, no?
I have tons of claitin and zyrtec, can I come with you too?
Good luck writing the report.
Ah Verbivore, that’s music to my ears
Maggie, come on in the water’s fine! There’s plenty of room in the pool
Iliana, I’d love to have you!