Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple…but it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
Steve Jobs in Businessweek, 1998.
You make a living by what you get; However, you make a life by what you give.
Living the dream
Libraries are doing it. Citizens are doing it. Getting books to the people and living the dream, one book at a time.
Bol, a 63-year old who travels around Wisconsin with a trailer full of little libraries, says people are often reluctant to sell their books. “But when they share books they are sharing something of themselves.”
Innovation can really mean taking a concept as simple and time-tested as a vending machine or a birdhouse, and applying it in unique ways to human needs and wants. The result is something both magical and practical, efficient and convenient and delightful.
Everyone has been made for some particular work and the desire for that work has been placed in every heart.” ~ Rumi
Exploring careers & specializations
Over the last couple years I get creative or get logical with “what I want to be when I grow up.” Sometimes it’s a bulleted outline, other times there are colored pencils and diagrams involved. I’m very invested in creating a career for myself that incorporates as many of my natural talents and passions, and acquired skills and education, as possible. Still, I don’t see that I’ve narrowed down my interests that much since beginning my MLIS program. I take this as a good sign of choosing the right degree for myself. Some specializations are off my list for reasons of practicality (decimated state budgets, the likelihood that I would not be employed full-time, etc.) despite the fact that I would love to be employed in that role if we were in a different economy.
The fact is, I really think I could be happily employed in almost any number of MLIS tracks and love what I do. I recently created a database using SalesForce for the firm I work for, and loved it. I equally loved, but in a very different way, my YA Materials course, and creating a LibGuide on Route 66. Hanging out at Stanford’s Green Library actually (much to my embarrassment) brought tears to my eyes (oh, the presence of old books and manuscripts!) I regularly have to use librarian research skills in my day job as a researcher for a high tech market research firm. And knowledge management? I’m all about that. So, I’m not being cavalier when I say I love most of the applications of an MLIS degree.
Still, I’ll be graduating in May 2012, and I feel like I should have it All Figured Out by now. The good news is that so many applications of an MLIS degree still appeal to me, and I was able to select courses for this semester that are recommended for 3 different specializations. But a singular, clear direction is something I don’t quite have yet and I’m not sure if I should spend my last year in school as a jack of all trades. At the same time - isn’t that the challenge of the student, to explore many avenues?
Library and Info Science student with a touch of zen.
