life stuff

[flea]

I'm getting a lot of pressure from my boss to actually enroll in library school. (I've taken 2 classes, but only as audit, so they don't actually count as credits towards a degree). There are 2 local options, but only one - the one without a national reputation - really allows part-time enrollment. It's cheap, it's an okay education in a field I already know a fair amount about and that isn't very challenging (the two classes I've taken were at the nationally reputable school, and were pretty easy - I did all my homework at work, and it was practical stuff, not intellectually demanding work.) As a librarian I can make more money and still basically do what I do now, with less focus on stapler maintenance and more focus on choosing books.

But I'm resistant. Part of my resistance is practical. In theory, mr. flea will finish his degree next summer, and we may or may not move when he gets a job. Next summer is also the time to have a second child if we want to space them 3 years apart, which we do. (Next summer! That means I need to plan to get pregnant again at the end of this year! Yikes!) It's a logical time for me to leave my job and stay home with the children, and go back to school part-full time for my sanity, which would suffer if I were home full time with an infant and a 3 year old. (Although, at least the 3 year old can TALK to you.) But since I don't know where we'll be living then, I'm reluctant to start school here now, when I could wait until we are there (or here having bought a house, if we end up staying here).

Of course, if mr flea doesn't finish on time - and let's face it, he's a slow-movin' man - everything in my pretty plan is frelled.

Beyond the practical, though, there's a strong part of me that doesn't want to go get a library degree. I'm not sure if this is because I really don't want to be a librarian, or if I'm still dealing with the emotional hangover from my academic career. I'm not dying to be a librarian, but I like the work, and I'm naturally suited to it and good at it, and it makes decent money, and I've got to have a job for my own self-worth and financial security issues. (The trust fund keeps not turning up, and people, could you get on that please?) But I also just don't want to commit to anything, career-wise. After I graduated from college I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I said, "self, you've got to do something, and you're good at archaeology and school, so go to grad school!" That didn't end so well, and it took me forever to disentangle myself - I literally spent 5 years wanting to quit before I managed to. Am I in danger of doing the same thing again with librarianship? Will I only ever feel secure in jobs I can take or leave, like the current one?

Comments

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

the two classes I've taken were at the nationally reputable school, and were pretty easy - I did all my homework at work, and it was practical stuff, not intellectually demanding work.

Heh. Don't get me started. Okay, too late. I once sat as the grad student member on the committee that approved or disapproved new graduate level courses at my school. The Library School once sent in a proposal for a course on fine letterpress printing. They'd just had a fine old letterpress donated and wanted to use it, by gum. Everyone on the committee thought it was a gee whiz neat idea. Meanwhile, I'm reading the proposed syllabus and wondering what kind of school it is that gives graduate credit for a vo-tech course. (Yes, I was the sole dissenting vote.)

Sorry. Sciences student issues bubbling up. Better now.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I canna transfer my degree to you.

On the upside, lots and lots and lots of people get that degree part time (the vast majority of programs are designed to work that way, so what kind of a nationally-recognized program IS this??). Ont he downside, lots of areas are poor for local library programs -- Boston has only 1, and it is Simmons, which is hella expensive. On the upside, distance learning is the Next Big Thing of library education. On the downside, you didn't move all that way to wherever to have distance from people. On the upside, I am living proof that you don't have to stay a librarian if you don't want to. On the other upside, I could get back into the volunteering habit, take 4-5 courses of continuing professional ed, and get back into the profession if I wanted to.

I think you'd probably be happy as the reference librarian in a medium-sized branch -- enough hard questions to keep you stimulated, but enough stupid questions about how to look up the weather online that it wouldn't stress you out.

[gchick.livejournal.com]

I'm the last person on earth to say this, as you well know, but set aside the academic hangover as much as you can while you make the decision -- whatever else it does for you or doesn't, a library degree won't suck out your soul through your tear ducts or keep you around for untold years while you slowly come to the realization that you've fallen into some existential abyss. It's just not that kind of grad school.

Unfortunately, I don't have any answers for the more practical concerns.