Iris, having answered the question herself, wants to know why I’m a librarian. She also asked Rikhei, who answered.

I think Iris is right to divide it up into “why I became a librarian” and “why I am still happily a librarian.” I thought there might be an earlier bit, too: “why it even occured to me that working in a library would be cool.”

I have been fond of libraries for about as long as I can remember. I have always had very positive associations with libraries as fun places to explore. It is very easy for me to remember going to the library with my parents as a child, and it’s a habit I have kept up and now share with my own children. I have written a little about this, recently in the post Staying of of the way and about about two years ago in Four more for the road. So working in a librry seemed like a reasonable thing to do in a way that, say, being a fireman or a forest ranger never did.

The first job I ever went out and found for myself was at the Evanston Public Library, shelving books in the children’s section when I was a college student. After working in bookstores, I ended up working in the ILL department of the University of Delaware Library. I wasn’t really interested in being a librarian when I took the job; it just seemed like a reasonable place to work.

After I’d been there for a few years, I started to think that making a career of working in the library would be a good idea. I’d started to get interested in preservation and rare books librarianship, so I went to the University of Texas at Austin with the idea of becoming a Special Collections librarian. It was also a good excuse to move back to the west.

So that’s why even considered working in libraries, and that’s why I decided to get the master’s degree. Why is this career a good fit for me? I like helping people–college students, mostly–succeed with their resesarch. I like building tools that help them, too. I like the fact that it is a job that provides valuable servivce to people while keeping me outside the rat race. I like librarians. I like the feel of instant access to lots of interesting articles and data. And I like the books. I like reading them, I like seeing them every day and being surrounded by them.

Looks like I should tag some people. I’d lke to see what Walt and Tim have to say about why they are library-types, and I’d like to read what Julian would say about why he wants to be a librarian (after he finishes the degree). Julian has the added handicap of needing to give his answer in 140 characters or less.

Update 2008-02-08: Walt has responded, and Julian brought his in at 140 characters exactly. Thank you, gentlemen.