Was the Dreaded N-word

I planned to write my Re:Generations post this morning. In fact, I'd been thinking about it off and on for a couple of weeks. So, it wasn't really surprising when I woke up with a great idea just waiting to flow out on the keyboard. I raced to my computer and started composing.

It was going really well. I had a solid first draft done when I decided to pause for a moment and have a peek at the more recent posts to see if there were any threads I could incorporate.

There it was, complete with pictures (great post, Christine!). Someone had already written about networking – just last week! What could I write about now? The death of the printed book? Nope (great post, Mark!).

It's not surprising that other people are thinking about the same issues as I am. We are in the same profession.

As I read some of the other recent posts, I was struck by the flexibility and creativity of the people posting here. It took me a little while, but really not that long, to realize I had come across another idea to write about – flexibility.

When you are in library school, I hope you have an aspiration, an idea, a dream about where you would like to work. But, don't become so attached to those that you can't be a bit flexible when it comes to finding a job. The theory you learn in school has many, many applications and this is where your creativity comes into play. If you can't secure an academic library job right out of school, look elsewhere. Special libraries and public libraries need people too. The skills you develop in those jobs will give you things to speak knowledgeably about at your academic library job interview. The differences between types of library jobs is not as great as you might have been led to believe.

I've heard some new graduates complain that they didn't learn a particular ILS in school or that they feel library school hasn't prepared them for working in a library. Newsflash – over the span of your career, you aren't going to spend that much time inside your ILS, even if you end up as a systems librarian. Things (ILSs, databases, where you deliver reference, resources you use, how you teach) change rapidly. Flexibility and creativity anchored in theory will take you much, much further than details.