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November 11, 2004
Words
At some point I will be able to stop working as a technical writer and go back to school.
Why? It's hard for me to answer the question, because ending up back at school seems so naturally right that I've never thought critically about it. Perhaps school fits my natural laziness. It's something I've been able to do well in the past. It hasn't been hard work yet. Of course, I've only done Bachelor's degrees (and one Maîtrise here in France). I've only partially rediscovered what others painstakingly researched long ago. They walked, then took leaky boats which they had to repair themselves during the voyage. I took commercial airlines, ate reheated meals on trays, and watched the in-flight films.
I've been working for 8 years at this point, perhaps getting even dumber and slower than I already was. Was my thinking always this dull? I cannot tell for sure. It probably was. Unlike a real writer, I don't have a need to write. (I do have a need to read. I also have a need to eat with no corresponding need to farm, hunt, gather, whatever.) Maybe I don't have a need to tell stories. I have however developed my ability to withstand drugery. My ability to withstand drugery is still quite weak compared to that of other people, but you should see how bad I used to be.
Where would I go to school? That depends on what I'd do there. Nathalie and I have been talking about vacation. This led me to ask the question, "What is your dream vacation?" She didn't answer. I realized then that a central divertissement in my dream vacation is a large, research library. The place is quiet. You feel a sentiment that you'd never run out of new books, the sated pleasure of wallowing in a mountain of precious volumes like a dragon in his lair. This research library, maybe during school vacation, I imagine near good places to bike, run, eat, and also near a functional hotel or appartment, somewhere that doesn't butt in on enjoyment of life with chores like raking leaves, clipping hedges, painting, and changing the oil.
How do you end up spending more time around a research library in real life? Well, you could do research. You could work there. Maybe you could work as a librarian, doing research yourself or helping other people to do research.
Googling distractedly, I find a couple of top-rated library science schools in the US. One is SILS at UNC. Another is GSLIS at the University of Illinois. One of the top rated schools here is near Lyon, ENSSIB.
The application for SILS requires of the applicant a, "Brief essay expressing why the applicant is interested in information or library science as a career (500 words maximum)." Hmm. I take that to mean they don't want people who've come to wallow in books, and only realize secondarily they must somehow earn their keep.
The first definition of "career" at Google doesn't mention money:
the particular occupation for which you are trained
(source www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn)
It's probably a good thing they don't mention money, since the pay is no doubt lousy. Google leads me to $34,901 average starting salary in 2000. That sounds like school teacher range. Furthermore the university towns where they keep the research libraries are typically expensive places to live. I think of my brother in Ann Arbor, for example. Hmm.
On the other hand, I started out for much less than that in Paris, and 8 years later have managed to get myself into a situation where the bills are so high $35K immediately conjures sensations of starvation and cold. Dismal starting salaries alone therefore shouldn't stop me.
I pause to imagine a world without "ravenous carnivore" salespeople around like the ones we're apparently trying to hire to hawk our (hard and soft)wares at work. In my innocent imagination, a library, like a church, is a place where people are fairly reserved, lost in their thoughts and investigations of other peoples' thoughts. Money might be an object of study, but not a direct consideration. It's not just a dragon's lair. It's an ivory tower.
Anyway, pursuing a career is simply doing that for which you are trained as an occupation. I guess that's better than what I've been doing, which is a lot of stuff for which I've not been trained. So why am I interested in information or library science as a career? More specifically, why am I interested in library science as a career?
Hmm. At this point, I realize that I don't really know what a librarian does. Guess I need to learn about that.
Posted by Mark at November 11, 2004 03:38 PM