Why I Became a Librarian
3 09 2009
In the flurry of activity that has been the past two weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to play just about every role in the library setting. This was one of the facts that alternately kept me from and drew me back to school librarianship. For the past two years, I’d been gearing up with all of my might to become an academic (read: university) librarian. I’d built a solid resume full of information-searching and technology-creation skills. I’d honed my ability to conduct a reference interview and lead bibliographic instruction. I’d even worked on my personal image by cutting off almost waist-length red hair into a more conservative, stylish bob.
So when I actually started to go through the interview process, I was stopped dead cold by one fact: I had no idea why I really wanted to be in the profession. That’s not to say that I didn’t have valid reasons – I loved finding information, instructing classes, creating websites, playing with Web 2.0 technologies, etc. But then came that oh-so-standard interview question . . . “Why do you want to be a librarian?”
I knew there was something deeper to my draw to this profession, but I found it very difficult to verbalize. I had always wanted to help people. I initially wanted to teach high school social studies but it didn’t work out because of a poor job market. I loved books. I loved technology. I loved information.
And then, the answer finally came to me one night when I was thinking really long and hard about the question after muddling through it during a phone interview with yet another far off university . . .
I loved my mom.
That was it. My mom. She was the reason.
You see, my mother and I have always been close. I couldn’t stand to be away from her and our household in college so I transferred to be closer. Then, just a year after that, my mother’s health started to turn. She simply didn’t feel right. She got weak when we went to the grocery store. She had aches and pains. She had a sudden racing, fluttering heartbeat. Something was wrong.
These initial signs started in fall of 2003. She finally went to see a doctor after she almost fainted in the hallway of the high school at which she taught special education. These spells weren’t easily diagnosed. A general practitioner sent her to see specialists – a cardiologist, a gynecologist, others I really can’t remember now. After stress tests, blood tests, scans, smears, and mammograms, she was finally closer to an answer. A mass. Small. In the left breast. Biopsy. Please come in. Yes, you have cancer. Stage II.
What felt like an eternity to find out came so quickly. We finally had an answer. I was in the surgeon’s office that day. Mom didn’t cry. I didn’t cry. They asked her if they could perform a mastectomy or a lumpectomy. She asked me which one she should choose. I said probably the mastectomy. It was an educated guess.
The next year was life-changing for me. I dropped down from usual overloaded college schedule to only twelve credit hours. I became my mother’s advocate. I went to doctor’s appointments as much as possible. I helped organize her insurance paperwork. But more than anything, I researched.
I discovered PubMed. I researched breast cancer to no end. I studied her chemotherapy drugs. I combed the internet for information about radiation treatments. I realized I was good at finding information when her radiologist asked if I was going to medical school.
Beyond just finding information, I had to learn how to evaluate it and apply it to decision-making. When my mother was initially diagnosed, she had the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial for a drug called Herceptin which blocked abnormal cell growth by binding to the gene which researchers believed was a root cause of breast cancer. There were four groups of patients included in the trial: a group receiving Herceptin and other experimental chemotherapy, a group receiving Herceptin and some of the currently prescribed chemotherapy regimen, a group receiving the full currently prescribed chemotherapy regimen, and a control group.
At that time, Herceptin was experimental. Now it’s been proven to be a very effective breast cancer drug. But for my mother, we chose the safest route: a full regimen of the currently prescribed chemotherapy drugs and radiation treatments.
After approximately a year of treatment, my mother’s cancer was in remission. It has remained in remission to this very day, 5 full years later. I don’t like talking about it much. I am actually a very private and superstitious person. But I feel that sharing this experience which so defined me as a person also defines me as a librarian. I had to find the right information at the right time for the right person. I’ve done the same thing at the reference or circulation desk every single day I’ve been in this profession. And I’d like to think I put as much effort into finding that information for a stranger as I did for my mother.
That’s why I became I librarian. I never gave this specific answer in an interview, but knowing the overarching reason behind my career choice helped me to better define why I wanted to do what I wanted to do. For my mom. And for others. Different but the same.
Images:
“Questions Answered” by Travelin’ Librarian via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons license.
Personal wedding day photo, Linda and Gerald McCush with Melissa Corey, May 23, 2009.
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Hi, my name is Melissa Corey! I am currently Library Media Specialist at Benton High School in St. Joseph, Missouri. I recently earned my Master's in Library Science and am currently an EdTech student.
