Blog of Jami Bryan

As I opened my blog just now, I was confronted with the fact that I haven’t blogged since February.  I knew it had been awhile, but I didn’t want to realize it had been quite that long.

Why haven’t I been writing?  Well, I’ve been thinking.  And thinking about writing.  But I haven’t felt ready to commit anything to cyberspace.

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around what blogs mean for discourse.  I am seeing changes in the interactions with my LIBS101 students because of the course blog.  And strangely, I am seeing changes in my own mental discourse because of this blog.  I see things, and read things, and think about writing about these things.  But I am still caught up in the idea that what I write must be perfect.  It must represent a fully formed thought.  And not much is fully formed for me right now.

Perhaps I should treat this blog more like a conversation than a finished piece.  For those of you who know me in person, you know that I love conversations.  I am a talker.  And I think through things by talking.  But most of my writing, other than bad teenage attempts at poetry and late-night dear diary rants, have been quite formal.  I struggle for the perfect word, the perfect turn of a phrase, the perfect transitions.  Things I never, ever do in speaking.  I tend towards little self-censoring when I speak (again, those of you who know me in person know this - I have sputtered out some doozies in my time).  When talking, when conversing, I am happy to just let things flow.  Perhaps blogging requires reaching some happy medium - a little conversation and a little revision?

So, dear readers, bear with me as I work through all of this.  I am sure the answer is somewhere between a blog post every three months and daily streams of consciousness.  While I tend never to be a moderate, I’m searching for the middle.  Hope to see you there.

Of late, lots of librarian bloggers have been answering the question “Why am I a librarian?”. What is interesting to me about that question is how “present” your response must be. I read the question not as “why did you become a librarian” but as “why are you still a librarian?”.

I thought my response to this question might be worth posting here. Mostly because it helped me focus on my true goals and not on the frustrations that often encompass my day. And, on a lonely Saturday in the Library, it reminded me why I am sitting here in the first place.

So, “Why am I a librarian?”.

I am a librarian because I enjoy helping people. But I also like earning my living doing something that helps further knowledge, that supports education, openness and equality, and that isn’t solely about making rich people and corporations richer. I am a librarian in an academic library because I believe that access to higher education can change a person’s life for the better and because I enjoy being part of a collegial and inquisitive environment. I am a library manager because I want to inspire at least one person as I have been inspired and I want to create opportunities for growth and learning for my staff as opportunities have been created for me. I am also a library manager because a woman can and should excel in leadership positions traditionally dominated by men.

Any other librarians interested in answering? I’d love to hear your responses. Over at Tame the Web they have have created a survey asking folks why they are librarians. I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone else about why they are still professors or instructional technologists or students or (insert your occupation here).