Re: TARGET: Library Media Specialists--Where Do They Come From

[Charlotte Snyder <csnyder@MAIL.BCPL.LIB.MD.US>]

Dear LM-NET:
Where did I, as a school librarian (a term I prefer), come from? I have
been a voracious reader all my life and worked only in libraries, first as
a clerical and then as an MLS librarian. When I was extremely frustrated
in my job as a clerical, wanting to do much more, I decided that I needed
to get a college degree, something that I couldn't do when I was 18. After
I got that bachelor's degree, I found that there was nothing else I wanted
to do other than be a librarian. Fortuitously, my husband was transferred
to a city where there was a library school (Halifax, NS, Canada), and I
was accepted there. I worked at the university library and in the library
of the local Francophone school (as a cataloger), and, after graduation,
as a map cataloger at the New Brunswick Museum. Nine months after
graduation, my son was born. I always say that if I'd known he was waiting
for that event, I would have gone sooner! After he was born, I didn't work
for a few years and then picked up part time hours at the local public
library. When my son was in second grade, the school librarian quit.
Eighteen months later, I took the jump and became the school librarian.
It's nothing I ever wanted to do and I would not have done it if it hadn't
been my child's school. But there are rewards beyond the monetary (which
are tiny--I am only paid for twenty hours a week and work far more than
that, as we all do) which make it worthwhile. So there's where I came
from--a long and twisty path.

Charlotte Snyder, Librarian
The Waldorf School of Baltimore
and Baltimore County Public Library
csnyder@mail.bcpl.lib.md.us