Relate and Debate

This past weekend I went to my home state of Virginia to visit my boyfriend and his family. During those three days I spent my time (besides relaxing and simultaneously stressing about my homework) talking to people about grad school and the program of Library Science. It made me laugh that even during this mini-break, I can't seem to get out of my library persona. Here are the multiple situations I found myself in, through the format of a list.

1. I was gifted a Kindle and had an internal debate about how I was giving up my stubborn stance for the protection and continuation of books in print. While the English major in me still loves a good book that I can write in and bend the pages, the New Librarian in me had some convincing points. When I was traveling from Syracuse to Virginia, and then back again, I found how convenient it would've been to have just brought my Kindle instead of lugging my thick 800 page Anna Karenina with me on the plane. Not just that, but I discovered today that my public library back at home (of which I am still a member) allows members to check out copies of e-books that can be transferred to my Kindle. They're free and when I'm done reading, I can just return it back to the library; that will take up less space and use less data. I'm slowly embracing this new technology and as my boyfriend told me "it's the advancement of the world, Erin. It's ok. We don't still watch tv in black and white either". Haha.

2. Over a few drinks I had a debate with my boyfriend's twin about the Dewey Decimal system and the Library of Congress Classification. He was convinced that his school used Dewey and that it the call number had letters. I aggressively responded and told him that there's no way the classification was Dewey (since Dewey only uses numerals) and that it was actually the Library of Congress Classification system. I literally gave the line "You should listen to me; I'm the librarian here!"

3. Throughout the weekend I tried my best to relate how librarians are useful in the world. I talked with a few law students and told them that librarians work just as hard as they do. I received a few nods. The hardest person I had to deal with was my own boyfriend. He didn't understand what I was studying in Library school. After pulling my massive binder out and letting him browse, I told him about the interview assignment that we had to do for IST 511. When I told him that a fellow classmate of mine had interviewed WWE's one and only librarian, he was shocked. I think that at that point I reached out to him. He is a huge MMA fan (so much that he could be an asset to the MMA/UFC library, if there was one) and when he heard from me that even professional wrestling companies needed a library, I think he understood that libraries and the need for an organization of information, as well as the need for a librarian, was necessary for "the advancement of the world", to quote him directly again. I think this agrees with Lankes point that librarians need to reach out to their members to find their interests and provide them with the information they want.

Libraries, you can't escape them.