Library Worklife

Volume 3, No. 12 • December 2006

Career Advancement

Once Bitten

How I Found the Career I Never Knew I Wanted, or A Tale of How Charm and Agreeability Led to Career Growth

By Christopher Shaffer

I probably graduated college at too early an age; I was 20 years old and very impressed with myself. While my friends were going through graduation ceremonies, I was vacationing in Venice, fresh from completing a study program Auburn University offered in Mannheim, Germany. Being youthful and innocent, I had chosen history as my major. The plethora of jobs awaiting a recent liberal arts graduate that had been promised me by several professors never materialized, and I quickly found myself back in school for teacher certification. Over the next ten years I taught history at both the high school and middle school level, and on two occasions I also taught English as a Second Language in Slovakia. Along the way I picked up a Master’s degree in Education and a Specialist degree in Educational Administration.

Perhaps I had tired of teaching, or maybe I had grown disillusioned. Then again, maybe I realized—after being bitten while breaking up a fight—that I would not survive another twenty years in public education. It was at this point that my mother suggested I consider going back to school to pursue a degree in library science. It was not a field I had ever considered, but of all my options at that moment, library school seemed to be the one that would be the least likely to lead to another flesh wound.

I enrolled in the University of Alabama’s MLIS program in the summer of 2004, and endeavored not only to forge friendships with students and faculty, but also to take advantage of as many learning opportunities as possible. A year in the cataloging department at the Gorgas Library had two major benefits: I learned about cataloging, and also learned that I never wanted to do it again! While at Alabama I also served as a graduate assistant for a professor. In January of 2005 I attended ALA’s Midwinter meeting and ended up joining a committee.

Upon graduation, I experienced something I had never before experienced in my life—multiple calls for interviews. History teachers in public education are a dime a dozen. Just getting an interview when I was teaching seemed like a victory in itself. As I prepared to graduate from Alabama, I found myself in the unexpected position of having to turn down interviews. I decided to interview for five positions, three public and two academic, and and finally accepted a position as a social sciences reference librarian at Troy University.

As at Alabama, I did my best to be involved in the library at Troy. A large part of this enthusiasm was probably a result of being new, which tends to lead to giving a response of “yes” to whatever request is being proffered. In my first year I presented a poster session at ALA’s summer meeting in New Orleans, supervised the shifting of the library’s general collection at Troy, served on a committee, and generally tried to be charming. Toward the end of my first year I was asked if I would serve on a search committee for the directorship of Troy’s campus in Dothan, Alabama. I agreed to do so, and when no one was selected for the job, I was asked to accept the position on an interim basis. I have been serving in that capacity for three months now, and have discovered that regardless of how this current situation is resolved, I enjoy library administration and hope there is a continued place for me in this area.

Ultimately (and possibly ironically) I have found something in librarianship that I never found in public education. I have found a place where my education is respected and where hard work is recognized and rewarded. And nobody bites me.

Christopher Shaffer graduated from the MLIS program at the University of Alabama in the summer of 2005. He is currently interim director of Troy University’s Dothan campus library.

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