I have started my new job at the Claude Pepper Library, which is part of the Claude Pepper Foundation at FSU and is also aligned with the FSU Libraries Special Collections Department (I think…the inter-relationships of these organizations defeats even the most determined flowchart…).
This is exciting for me because it is my first job that is actually pretty much in line with my career goals in information studies: working with special collections. Whether those are archives or museum collections or rare book repositories, I don’t really care at this point because they each have aspects I find interesting.
Disclaimer: I am *that* person, the one who went to library school because I love books. That is basically a joke in the profession these days, because anyone who works in the information studies field can tell you that books, as we have known them, have very little to do with our daily jobs. In fact it might be possible that the majority of people with MLIS degrees these days never even touch a book outside of the ones sitting on their bedside tables.
But yeah, I love books so I went to library school. It’s not because I was naïve about it, but rather, at the time, I had read several books (naturally) that suggested getting an MLIS degree as a good way to break into the rare book trade. Yes, that’s right, I originally started down this path because I wanted to become a rare book dealer. Well, no path in life is truly straight as an arrow, is it?
Which all means that one way or the other, my goal from the start was to get my grubby paws on special collections. Finally, I am!
