Revolution 2.0

My name is Wade Stewart.  I am a GSLIS student in my final semester at Dominican.  It has been a short, but very difficult road.  What I mean by a “difficult” road is that I decide to take a year off from (semi) gainful employment to become a librarian.  I began in the Fall of 2008 taking the four core classes, LIS 701, 703, 704, and 770, followed by another four classes in the spring (Academic Libraries, Special Libraries, Internet Fund & Design, and Science Reference), one class in the summer (Gov’t Doc and Info with John Shuler!), and finally Library 2.0, a Practicum at Elmhurst College Library, and the Capstone course for my final semester this fall.

How I ended up pursuing librarianship has also been a long road – of failed attempts at jobs I wanted and taking terrible jobs to pay the bills.  I received my Undergrad in English Lit from the University of New Orleans.  I wanted to do something with my degree, however, I made the fatal mistake of not getting an internship.  Once I hit the job market, I did not have the experience desired for any sort of writing job.  The prospective employers all thought that I was a good writer, but unfortunately, no experience.  Perhaps they were just being polite?

This eventually pushed me into temp work, which eventually led me to accounting work.  In 2006, I moved to Chicago, and took a job as an accounting clerk at Jewish Council for Youth Services.  In all fairness, I was really proud of who I worked for, just not my particular job.  So in the summer of 2008, after struggling with the existential dilemma of “what do I want to do with my life?” I found Librarianship.

What is interesting though about my decision to become a librarian is that the path that got me into the program to start is not the path that I am currently following.  I entered the GSLIS program interested in Special Libraries and/or Archives, but once I began learning about that type of librarianship as well as learning reference from John Shuler, my world was completely turned upside down.  I really did not like special libraries.  Most of what I was learning was just leading me back to the corporate world that I wanted to escape.  Taking the Special Libraries course in the spring of 2009 was basically the final nail in the coffin.  But also, as I am leaning more and more towards reference services I also rediscovered my love for web design via Kate Marek’s LIS 753, Internet Fundamentals & Design class and that the two passions can indeed be combined in librarianship.  Which leads me to the present day, in my final semester at Dominican.  I am an intern at Elmhurst, essentially working my librarian dream job.

I’m taking this Lib 2.0 class, because I am fascinated, no, obsessed with technology and how it can be used as a tool in librarianship.  I think this class will go a long way in helping me follow that sort of path and most importantly of all, to fear nothing!

That is just a brief little introduction about me and why I am in the GSLIS program and this class.