About Me: What I Want and What I Know...so far...
Hi! My name is Sara White and this is my first class towards my degree in library and information science! I have a bachelor's and master's degree in music performance and I play the bassoon. I have worked in the Michigan State University main library for three years. I started as a student assistant in the Fine Arts Library. Next, I moved to circulation and then onto technical services. I recently started working in the Fine Arts Library as the librarian assistant.
Besides working and studying I enjoy karate, scrapbooking, reading and traveling. I am recently married, my husband's name is Neil, and we have an adorable chinchilla named Luci. My favorite composer is Dmitri Shostakovitch and my favorite museum is the Louvre in Paris.
When I was young, my grandparents lived across from the town's public library. I would walk across the street countless times to check out books and chat with the librarians. I did this throughout high school, and even had my first job as a page in the library! This started my interest in libraries and the people who worked in them.
With my background in music and passion for libraries, I would love to combine them and find a position as a music librarian. I would also enjoy being a subject librarian in the humanities or fine arts, not just music. It would be very humbling for me to be able to use my background in music to help patrons looking for information that would be closely related to this field. Obviously at this point, I feel that I would benefit and contribute the most to academic libraries.
Some assertions and assumptions I have so far about librarians is that there is a lot of computer work involving not only their research but helping others with finding information. I think the image of an angry, old librarian is very cliche and I know that this is NOT the case. From working in an academic library, I know that there is much more to libraries and librarians than checking out books and enforcing quietness in the library setting. Many of the librarians in the Michigan State Library are very busy researching, ordering materials, keeping materials current and attending several meetings within the library and with other associations.
Throughout this class I hope to obtain more information on the profession itself and more of the specifics that librarians do on a day to day basis. I also want to explore different options that library science offers. Who knows- maybe I will end up finding another area of the field that interests me more than academic librarianship. Right now I think I am on the right path for me, but I can’t wait to learn more!