Beth Tribe wants to know how I came to be a librarian. Short enough story, I reckon.

The scene is Eugene, OR, fall of 2001. My future wife is in law school and I’m working yet another food service management position (read: managing a vegan sandwich shop). Food service had been my “career path” since finishing my undergrad studies in 1997. I knew it wasn’t the long-term plan, but then again, I didn’t really have a plan. “Waiting for the right opportunity to present itself,” I’d convinced myself. With the prospect of a marriage proposal in the horizon, I was feeling some self-imposed pressure to step my game up. She was studying to be a lawyer, after all.

I was spending a fair amount of time at the Eugene Public Library, browsing through their CD collection and using their express public PCs. One day, I was watching with interest as the reference librarian scurried around helping people, almost running, first here and then there to find things for people and answer questions. It occurred to me that I’d probably be quite natural in a similar role. Researching and delivering information, while not having to write meaningless papers. Sounds better than the academic life I fled from upon receiving my Art History degree.

Anyway, I put the notion out of mind until an evening shortly thereafter when, as if in a moment of clarity, I solidified the plan to head to library school.  And then I went. That’s pretty much the tall and short of it. By the time I’d graduated in May of 2003, I’d already had this blog for two months. I spent two months unemployed after graduation, due in no small part to being geographically constrained by my wife’s job.  But the job came. And I’m still part of the same organization, albeit in my fourth position.

I’m usual good for some meme tagging, but I haven’t really followed who has and hasn’t done this one and, well, I’m a little short on spare time these days.