Introduction Post: John Hill

Allow me to introduce myself: my name is John and I am the Esther Kenyon Fortenbaugh Intern in Reference and Instruction for spring 2013. I am a senior and I study philosophy. I have spent a lot of time in the library throughout my college career, both as a student and as an employee (I work in interlibrary loan and at the circulation desk). Before that I worked at a public library in Baltimore County. Accordingly, I've been familiar with libraries and librarianship for awhile, but as the Fortenbaugh Intern, I'll be acquainting myself more intimately with the profession.

My first two weeks have been busy and exciting. I have trained with several reference librarians during my shifts at the Reference Desk. Each of them has a different perspective on librarianship, and each of them plays a different role in Musselman Library, but all of them are devoted to making useful resources available to students and faculty and to teaching them how to use these resources. I am excited to practice strategies for answering people’s questions, but  I am admittedly nervous to staff the desk on my own. I am confident, though, that with a little bit more time and experience, I’ll be okay.

To my delight, Clint has supplied me with several reading assignments about the library profession. I have enjoyed learning about the profession, especially the sheer diversity of the field. It’s easy to rely on outdated stereotypes of librarians and their craft. In reality, though, librarians have always been involved in very different projects according to the needs of the institution they serve. I look forward to learning more about the wide array of specialties out there. For those curious readers, I would highly recommend taking a look at the blog In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

Looking ahead, in the near future, I shall be working on collection development, particularly with materials in the philosophy collection. I’ll be sure to let you all know how it goes!