CPD23 Thing 20 - Exploring Communal Career Routes and Motivations...

Library Routes

I’ve already done the roots / routes musing under Thing 10 I think, but I’ve gotten around to linking it into the Library Routes blog.

So I decided I’d have a bit of a dip into other entries  on the blog. I’ve looked at some people I already know, some in the same sector to me, and some who just had really fascinating looking job titles. 

What I get from this sample is that some people came into the profession by accident, some by intent, and some because it was natural, it was already in the family.   Some people on this last route had made a conscious decision early on, others had done a lot of other things first and then drifted back.

I really like that last natural / in the family one because that sums up me too. Although it wasn’t conscious for a long time that it was a career options precisely because I spent so much time there in my local libraries.  I had an uncle who was a Chief Librarian so why it took so long to twig it was a career option I have no idea, but it did. Anyway, I’m kind of amused and pleased that there’s more of us around through that route than I thought.

The other thing I take from the blog posts I’ve read on this is something Phil Bradley said “Being a librarian is not a job, it's a passion and a vocation”.  We really do encourage each other in what we do and cheer each other up. And that’s incredibly important.

Library Day In A Life Project

It is also suggested we have a bit of a scout through blog post’s on this so I’d better come clean and admit that after years of not remembering it in time this year I decided – ho hum – to do it for a week.  That was a bad idea.  Because I managed the first couple of days fine and then didn’t find time and then there seemed little point posting a random 2 days somehow.  So next time whether I do a day, two, or more then Most Important Thing to remember is to write and post it day at a time by editing the page as blog or just tweet as I go and not get disheartened and give up if it all goes pear-shaped under the schedule / to do list / asaps around it.  I prefer blog posts for this kind of thing admittedly.

Anyway, I’ve had a look at the blog and mostly what’s occurring to me is I really wish folk would just link to the actual blog post and not their blog home page for this.  I’ve gone straight to very few Librarydayinthelife posts. 

However one that I did was a gem, not because it’s my area or topic but it was just a really good sense of the slightly barmy frantic pace of life. I can entirely sympathise with waking up at 5am thinking about abstruse things to do with what you’re working on and wondering if someone else would think you were slightly deranged.  And then piling through a day of various other things and ending up back at what you were considering at 5am again  many hours later. It made me smile (in recognition)! And yes if I’d been paying sufficient attention I’d have linked to it but many other blog gazes later I can’t remember what it was called…

However. Coughs.  After reading a few still thinking come next round in January I shall have another attempt at this.