OK, now I DEFINITELY want to be a librarian

Reading this book clinched it! This Book is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson made me really completely think that i would enjoy that job for another 30 years. Even with going back to school and being broke for a while and being 37 when i got finished with school i really think it would be worth it to do something i would find a lot of fulfillment in.

There are two main themes in the book: that librarians are defenders of knowledge, history and freedom and they are becoming even more relevant as the world goes digital. The digital section is a great anthropological study of the online librarian community. I've never played Second Life but i am curious now to see these online places Johnson describes.

She also describes the differences between librarians (finders) and archivists (keepers). I'm really in the middle myself. I love digging up stuff and researching things, even if i never particularly liked writing papers. And the preservation of artifacts fascinates me as well. I would really do college so much differently now than when i went the first time, keeping that anthropology degree but taking a bunch of Library and Info Science classes instead of some of that hard science i did for that medical school ambition i thought i had. Ah, well.

This book gets a 6 from me. I'm passing this library book on to B and I'll be getting an NYC public library card as a souvenir the next time i go to New York! according to Johnson, anyone can!