A Short(ish) Introduction

I never intended to start a blog. I've heard that they are going out of fashion. But a few weeks ago, whilst talking to a librarian friend of mine she pointed out that I am in a fairly unique position that might be of interest to others. I shall explain.

I finished university in 2006 and found myself not really knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I moved back home and whilst job hunting came across an ad for an Information Assistant at the University across the road from where I lived. While at the time I had no intention of pursuing a career in libraries (my mother is a librarian and I swore I would never do what my parents did), the hours and pay were both good and I thought that it would at least give me some vauable work experience while I decided what I really wanted to do with my life. I was very fortunate that my job ended up being pretty great. The library was wonderful (university library - old school, silent, leather chairs - the works!) and the people I worked with were really nice. Slowly I began to get more and more involved in what was going on, learning about e-resources and the like and eventually I just got sucked in. Now I can't imagine doing anything else.

I worked in the university library for two years and managed to get accepted onto a Masters course at the Unversity of Wales. I didn't have the money to go back to school full time so I decided to do it by distance learning. Anyway, life was trundling along nicely, my job was going well (but not really going anywhere as there was no chance for promotion. People have to die in University libraries before you can move up the ladder) and I was plodding on with my course. Being distance learning the degree can take up to 5 years to complete and that had been on my mind a lot. I didn't want to wait until I was well over 30 to be able to start my career. Like a lot of women I want a family and kids and this was all looking a bit problematic. Luckily fate threw me a life line.

An old teacher of mine got in touch to say that there was a job going at my old Sixth Form for the position of College Librarian. The old librarian had retired in the summer and although they had got a replacement she had left after only two months (rumours run rampant but I won't go into that here). I thought to myself - what the hell. I'm not qualified but I know that I can do this job and really what did I have to lose? I could take this leap and make a huge step forward in my career. It would be such a great chance. So I applied thinking that I probably wouldn't get an interview but that it was at least worth a try.

Well, to cut a long story short, I did get an interview and I got the job. Some days I can still hardly believe it. So here I am. Since November 2008 I've been the head of a Sixth Form College Library, at the age of 25. It's kinda scary. I get so much wrong a lot of the time but I also get a lot right. That is essentially what this blog is about. It's about me, learning the ropes and trying to find my way and hoping that others might be interested.