Why I love my job

What I enjoy most about being an academic librarian is the variety. A typical day's work may involve teaching an undergraduate class or workshop, meeting a graduate research assistant for a one-on-one consultation, developing promotional materials, creating an interactive tutorial for the website, selecting resources for a new graduate program and investigating how the latest technologies can help to improve students' educational experience. Another very cool thing about working in academic libraries is the ability to shape one's own work and career path. The research and scholarly activities component of most academic librarian positions offers us the possibility to pursue just about anything that is of interest.

Why I chose a career in libraries

I first became interested in librarianship due to my desire for world domination. Information is the ultimate power and librarians, as the masters of information, are clearly poised to rule the planet with a shushing hand! Just kidding (about the shushing part, I've never shushed anyone). Seriously, though, I did become interested in a career in libraries because of my love of information. I have always enjoyed searching for, finding, organizing, sharing and making sense of information. A career as a librarian allows us not only to develop skills in all of these areas, but to apply these skills to making people's lives easier. Librarians I know do everything from working with intellectually challenged youth to providing information to CSIS spies! How many other professions provide access to so many cool opportunities?