Aaron the Librarian

So here I am, late at night (okay so 11:30pm Central isn’t *really* late), industriously packing away preparing for my upcoming move to central PA for my new job. While packing the “office” what do I find? A file with all the rejection letters I received when I was first searching for a librry job (in the Summer and Fall of 1994). “How many are there?” the Enquiring Mind in me asks…
Turns out I was not selected for twenty-seven ( 27 !!! ) prospective academic positions straight out of (or just prior to graduating from) Library School. Sure, my grades weren’t stellar… but I made a 3.2 GPA there, which isn’t shabby compared to my udergraduate and high school (lack of) efforts.

I applied to zero special libraries (so no rejections there) and three public libraries (the PLs were all in NYC) and accepted an offer from Brooklyn PL (because BPL employed security guards and Queensboro didn’t and my resume listed that I had been an attitude adjustment specialist — which is a short-lived type of work, pardon the pun).

Anyway, I guess my point of sharing all this is mostly to encourage the folks who are doubting the “Librarian Shortage” to broaden their library horizon and look in places that really do have shortages. Every ALA meeting/conference I see the “major metro” public libraries with entry level openings. These libraries are great places to get your library career-feet wet — they have a large staff, good support, good training, excellent upward mobility (if that’s what you want) and living in a big city for a few years is good for a change of pace. If you don;t like teh big city you can always move after a year or two and have good experience to support a lateral or other career move.

fwiw, I moved out of NYC 11 months after starting at BPL and glad for the experience which gave me good mobility. If you’ve been searching for “that one specific position” and haven’t found it (or haven’t been selected for it, or them), please do yourself a favor and broaden your search parameters — who knows, you may end up somewhere enjoyable anyway.