CPD23 Thing 20

Routt's Library Roots & Routes
(How could I resist? For the record the first one is pronounced row-t and the last is roo-t, just like the second)

I blogged some about my education and career in Thing 10 but didn't explain much about how I came to libraries. My roots go back a generation -- my mother was a librarian. She was first an art librarian and then a library director at an Architecture school. She came to library work after we moved to Australia -- she did secretarial work and started working at Parahan College in the Art Library and doing her library degree at RMIT. Later she was hired for a department library at RMIT in the Architecture school which also included building, interior design and landscape architecture.

Both my parents worked so I spent a certain amount of time at both their work places. At my mother's work, occasionally I made myself useful -- I recall tipping in pages of plates in art books (so student's wouldn't rip them out), doing some checking in (with cards), date stamping check out cards and shelving at Parahan. At RMIT I was older and I recall helping to inventory the collection more than once (I was able to stand on the cabinets and get to the top shelves more easily). I think I even got paid on occasion.

When I was thinking about careers I was so NOT going to be a librarian. In high school I wanted to be a criminologist. I went to a liberal arts college with a Great Books program and decided that criminology wasn't quite for me but history would be fascinating to study. So I did a MA in history -- and concentrated on crime (women in Victorian Britain, particularly those that murder their husbands).

While doing my MA I worked out that academia, and particularly history, could be pretty unpleasant for someone who prefers to avoid conflict. I enjoyed doing research a great deal, I was okay at writing but rather scared of the idea of teaching. Therefore going on to do a Ph.D. did not seem like a good idea. A friend from college was doing an archival program at Drexel and told me about her experience.

It seemed like a good option for me too as it would use my love of history and research. I took as many archives courses as I possibly could in library school, but it soon became clear that archival work might not be easy to obtain. From the core courses I found that I rather enjoyed the minutiae of cataloging -- much more so than that of reference work. So I ended up taking many cataloging related courses as well. In library school I was sure I'd go to work in an academic library -- after all that is where my mother had been and my husband was doing his Ph.D. so it would seem fitting to be at an academic library if I couldn't find archival work.

My first professional position, however, was in cataloging although it was working for an outsourcing company (it was not-for-profit, with mostly clients in public libraries or schools). Then we moved to Omaha, where, after a period of unemployment and then a stint as temp worker (where I eventually was an executive secretary on long term assignment), I was surprised and pleased to be able to obtain employment in archives for a few years. I loved working with the hands on material (I am allergic to dust, so health wise this was not the best career for me), doing historical research again -- and I loved attempting to bring order out of chaos. I did not love other aspects of the work  -- contract work, low pay with few benefits and a hostile work environment.

Although the public library was a huge change in many ways the permanent position with better pay and benefits helped ease the transition, but more importantly the other staff were welcoming and the work environment pleasant. My way here was not straight -- there were detours and stopovers but I am pleased to be in working as the technical services manager in a medium-sized public library.