Re: Where do we come from?

[Alice Yucht <AliceInfo@AOL.COM>]

It's been so fascinating to read all these "divergent" paths, that I must add
the following addendum to mine:

I was 10 years old, and my father(a HS Bio teacher)had finally convinced the
head librarian at our local branch of the Brooklyn (NY) Public Library that I
could be allowed to borrow books from the adult section (Of course, the fact
that the librarian was one of my father's former students certainly helped.)
as long as I volunteered 4 hours a week to help keep the children's section
neat.   I'm not sure who was happier with the deal: the librarian who got a
willing and capable shelver, or the kid who finally had access to all those
THICK books, which "lasted longer".
In any case, I spent lots of time talking to the children's librarian, who
told me that this was a profession, and you actually got paid to read books
and tell stories.   (Reality hit years later)
I volunteered for 4 more years, until I was "old enough" to be paid for the
work.   At 15 I was given the opportunity to take a Storytelling course with
Spenser Shaw (the Official Storyteller of Brooklyn), so that I could help do
programs for the library.  That clinched it, especially since I was also
working in the school library.  In fact, I went to Library School on a
partial scholarship from the NYC school librarian's association.

My husband (whom I met on my second day of Library School) came to the
profession via a totally different route.  He graduated from college with a
liberal arts degree, but no vocational guidance.  After 3 months working for
a government agency, he was bored out of his skull.  Riding home from work,
he saw a poster on the bus about working for the public library.  He applied
the next day.  They hired him, then asked which library school he was
enrolling in. . . . Library School?  He didn't even know such existed.
But the next semester found him at Pratt Institute's Library School, and 2
semesters later, I sat down next to him in Reference Sources of the
Humanities.
Both of our kids are readers, but neither has EVER wanted to be a librarian.

Alice H. Yucht
Heritage MS Library (as of 9/97)
Livingston, NJ
AliceInfo@aol.com