Wow, so today is the day I graduate. Being that my whole library educational experience was virtual (except for my internship and a trip to the ALA conference in June) it all feels somewhat unreal or surreal. Since I’m not driving up to Tallahassee for graduation, there really isn’t going to be any fanfare. Maybe I’ll buy a celebratory bottle of wine when hubby and I go grocery shopping, but that’s about it. I am a little apprehensive about the job situation. When I graduated from social work school, I had a job within a month of graduating, so I’m crossing my fingers that this job hunting experience will be similar. I haven’t heard back from the library I interviewed at last week, but I just sent out a bunch more resumes the other day, so maybe something will come of them. I’ve see a lot of librarian bloggers who graduated six months or more ago and still don’t have a library job. While I don’t know their situation (geographically inflexible, inflexible about the type of library they’ll work in, etc.), it does make me a little nervous. I’m just going to keep on plugging away and, in my now copious free time, I plan to learn as much as I can about being a librarian in the digital age. I want to learn more PHP, XML, MySQL, Unix, web design, and how these technologies are used in libraries. I can comment on new technologies and Linux until the cows come home, but I really want to understand how they work and how to use them to make library technology more user-friendly and cost effective. So library school may be over for me, but I’m going to continue learning all I can about how to be a great 21st century librarian.
If anyone has any suggestions of books I should read or great websites I should look at in this quest for knowledge, please let me know.
