(Not) Becoming a Librarian

I went to grad school for library science knowing that I never wanted to work in a library. Perhaps misguided, perhaps a stroke of genius, I have found it to be an incredibly useful background to have. I can find information, analyze it, organize it, synthesize it and repackage that synthesized information for a non-expert audience. I worked for years at The Henry Ford, developing all sorts of cool exhibits like for Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House. I also worked at Academy Studios developing content to explain all sorts of complicated topics like social psychology. And then somehow I fell into digital design and the skills transferred in a somewhat smooth way.

So I met with a friend today who just got into UT Austin’s information science program and is super jazzed about her future studies. It did make me a little jealous as I went to grad school directly from undergrad and I missed out on some of the magic of really being there to learn, not just to go to school. Here’s to the age-old debate between preservation and access (access 100%).